Mark Stevens

Author

  • Born: August 14, 1951

Contribution: Mark Stevens is an art critic and biographer whose collaboration with Annalyn Swan, De Kooning: An American Master (2004) won the biography Pulitzer Prize in 2005.

Background

With roots in Montana, art critic Mark Stevens graduated from Princeton University in 1973 and went on to earn a master’s in history from King’s College, Cambridge. He worked for a short time at the Economist magazine in London before returning to the United States and embarking in earnest on a career in journalism.

Career

Stevens has been an art critic for a number of prominent New York–based media outlets, including Newsweek, where he worked for ten years beginning in 1977, and then the New Republic and Vanity Fair, where he was a contributing editor. From 1996 to 2007, he was the art critic for New York magazine, and has also contributed articles to the New York Times, the New Yorker, and many other publications. In 1985, he published a novel, Summer in the City. While writing for New York, he and his wife and fellow art critic Annalyn Swan began research for a biography of the prominent American abstract expressionist Willem de Kooning (1904–97).

De Kooning was a successful and complex twentieth-century artist who struggled to prominence in the New York art world in the years after World War II. He created giant works that featured bold brush strokes, although he was also known to frequently switch styles. According to some, de Kooning was an artist who constantly reinvented himself. He was also criticized for his relationships with women; the number of women with whom he reportedly had liaisons, coupled with the fact that the women he painted were commonly depicted with large eyes and twisted features, led many critics to label de Kooning a misogynist—a characterization Stevens has called an oversimplification.

Stevens and Swan spent ten years exploring the complexity of this figure in great detail. The two examined previously unseen letters and documents and reviewed a large number of interviews with the Dutch-born artist. Their first-of-a-kind biography of de Kooning also cast light on his early life, from his arrival in New York in 1926 and his impoverished family life to his mural work during the Great Depression; his relationships with fellow bohemian artists during the 1930s and 1940s; his emergence as a critically acclaimed artist; and his continued success before he succumbed to what was believed to have been Alzheimer’s disease in the 1980s.

De Kooning: An American Master was hailed in light of its careful examination of de Kooning’s life. The book cast a more complete light on the artist than had previously been seen. For their accomplishments, Stevens and Swan received the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2005. The book also earned a National Book Critics Circle Award, the 2005 Los Angeles Times Book Award for Biography, and the 2005 Ambassador Book Award from the English-Speaking Union. Three years later, Stevens and Swan received a grant to research a biography of English artist Francis Bacon, another complex twentieth-century artist, who rose to prominence in Britain as de Kooning made his reputation in the United States.

In 2004, Stevens wrote a piece celebrating the return of the New York Museum of Modern Art to Manhattan (the museum had been temporarily moved to Queens while it underwent a major redesign). He also penned a review of displays of Gilbert Stuart (who painted a hundred portraits of George Washington), an article on Metropolitan Museum of Art Director Philippe de Montebello, and a retrospective of the works of American artist Edward Hopper. With hundreds of articles to his name, Stevens has gained a reputation as a leading US art writer. In 2007, Stevens left his job at New York to focus on writing books and plays. In 2016, a research assistant working with Stevens and Swan on gathering information about Bacon discovered diaries belonging to an acquaintance of the artist that provided a greater perspective on his earlier life.

Impact

Willem de Kooning was a revolutionary artist, helping to lead the twentieth-century American movement in abstract expressionism. Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan’s seminal work, De Kooning: An American Master, is therefore significant for its careful and comprehensive examination of this important figure in modern art history.

Personal Life

Stevens and Swan live in New York City. They have two daughters.

Bibliography

Alberge, Dalya. "Francis Bacon Biography Researcher Finds Friend's Unpublished Diaries." The Guardian, 25 Jan. 2016, www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jan/25/francis-bacon-biography-researcher-finds-friends-unpublished-diaries. Accessed 30 Jan. 2020.

Cohen, David. Rev. of De Kooning: An American Master, by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan. New York Sun 15 Dec. 2004: n.pag. Print. 13 July 2013.

Hansen, Liane. “De Kooning: An American Master.” NPR. NPR, 19 Dec. 2004. Web. 12 July 2013.

“Mark Stevens.” University of Montana. University of Montana, 2011. Web. 12 July 2013.

"Mark Stevens & Annalyn Swan." Stevens & Swan, www.stevensandswan.com/the-authors. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.

Maslin, Janet. “Deconstructing De Kooning: Unflinching Biography Covers New Ground on ‘An American Master.’” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 21 Nov. 2004: n.pag. Print.

Panero, James. “Dutch Boy Paints; De Kooning: An American Master, by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan.” National Review 28 Feb. 2005: n.pag. Print.

Saltz, Jerry. “Why de Kooning Matters.” New York. New York Media, 21 Aug. 2011. Web. 12 July 2013.

“The 2005 Pulitzer Prize Winners: Biography or Autobiography.” The Pulitzer Prizes. Pulitzer Prizes, 2005. Web. 14 July 2013.