The Eclectic Passions of Frank Stack
FAYETTE, Mo. – Columbia artist Frank Stack will be the featured artist
in a new exhibition, “The Eclectic Passions of Frank Stack,” opening
Aug. 26 at The Ashby-Hodge Gallery of American Art at Central Methodist
College.
Thirty-five paintings by Stack, including watercolors and oil-on-canvas
pieces, will be on display in the gallery from Aug. 26 through Oct. 4.
The exhibition will also include other works of art from the gallery’s
permanent collection. A reception for the artist will be held from 1:30
p.m. to 4:30 p.m., Aug. 31, in the gallery.
Stack, well known nationally as an artist, was born in 1937 in Houston,
Texas. He received his bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the
University of Texas, Austin. He later moved to Chicago to study painting
and printmaking at The Art Institute. He received his master’s degree in
fine arts from the University of Wyoming and served as an art instructor
with the University of Missouri-Columbia from 1963 to 1969, and returned
later to continue his position as an art teacher.
He started his extended works in comics with the “Collected New
Adventures of Jesus,” published in 1968-69 by Rip-Off Press in San
Francisco, which became his primary publisher of comics until 1988.
“Jesus Meets the Academic Community,” Feelgood Funnies and Amazon Comics
were all published in the period of 1972-74.
After working as an artist in Paris in 1970-71, he returned to the
University of Missouri where he was a faculty member until becoming
professor emeritus in 2000. He served as chair of the university’s
Department of Art from 1981 to 1983. His “Etching and Lithographs” was
published in 1977, the year that Lakeside Studio began publishing 29 of
his limited edition prints. During that time, several galleries started
handling his work, including Associated American Arts in New York and
the Harco Gallery in Columbia. His work can now be seen on a regular
basis at The legacy Gallery.
Since his retirement, Stack has traveled extensively in France, painting
and making prints. His weekly painting group, which he started in 1967,
still meets regularly, and does another group of painters he’s
associated with, the Missouri River Valley Painters, which paints out of
doors as much as possible. Included in the retrospective of Stack’s
works in The Ashby-Hodge Gallery exhibition are paintings representing
mid-Missouri, Europe, still-life pieces and a self-portrait. They
represent Stack’s work from 1967 to 2003.
