Overview
Born in Philadelphia, Stankiewicz spent his formative years in Detroit against the backdrop of America’s booming midcentury automotive business. Living in a predominantly German and Polish immigrant community, he attended a technical high school and studied mechanical drafting, volumetric geometry, engineering, art, and music. He began painting and sculpting during his service in the Navy from 1941-47, and later trained under Hans Hofmann in New York from 1948-49. Stankiewicz composed his first sculptures out of metal scraps, and experimented heavily with various found materials. From 1950-51, he attended the schools of Fernand Léger and Ossip Zadkine in Paris, financed under the GI Bill. Upon his return to New York, Stankiewicz joined the artists’ cooperative Hansa Gallery, organized by Hofmann’s former students. There, he established his work througout the 1950s, garnering acclaim for his witty ‘junk’ assemblages. He moved to the Stable Gallery in 1959, and in 1962, he moved out of the city to Huntington, Massachusetts. He continued sculpting and exhibiting internationally up until his death in 1983.
Solo Exhibitions
1952 - Hansa Gallery, New York, also 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957
1958 - Allan Frumkin Gallery, Chicago
1959- Stable Gallery, New York, also 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1965
1960- Galerie Neufville, Paris
1961 - Pace Gallery, Boston
1964 - Galerie Daniel Cordier, Paris
1965- Tampa Art Institute
1969 - "Richard Stankiewicz: Welded Sculptures," Watters Gallery, Darlinghurst, Australia, and National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
1971- Mead Art Museum, Amherst College
1972 - Zabriskie Gallery, New York, also 1973, 1975, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2007, 2009
1975 - Dag Hammerskjold Plaza, New York
1979- Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
1979–80- "The Sculpture of Richard Stankiewicz, 1953-1979," University Art Gallery, State University of New York at Albany; Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts; Herbert Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts
1980- "Exposition internationale des arts plastiques," Musée d'art moderne de Belgrade, Yugoslovia
Laumier International Sculpture Park, St. Louis
1985- The Mayor Gallery, London
1986- Galerie Eric Franck, Geneva
1994- "Richard Stankiewicz: Sculpture in Steel," Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury, Vermont
2003–04- "Miracle in the Scrap Heap: The Sculpture of Richard Stankiewicz," Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts; AXA Gallery, New York; The Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas; Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland
2012-13- "Stankiewicz: Sculpture and Drawings," Washburn Gallery, New York
Museums and Public Collections
Akron Art Museum
Albright-Knox Art Gallery
The Brooklyn Museum
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University
The Cleveland Museum of Art
The Columbus Museum of Art
Dayton Art Institute
Denver Art Museum
Detroit Institute of Arts
The Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College
Housatonic Museum of Art
Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
The Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum
Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst
Middlebury College Museum of Art
Milwaukee Art Museum
Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum
Musee national d'art modern, Centre national d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou, Paris
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
National Gallery of Australia
The Newark Museum
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Portland Art Museum
Seattle Art Museum
Smith College Museum of Art
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
Storm King Art Center
Tampa Art Institute
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Walker Art Center
Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina
Whitney Museum of American Art
Wilmington Arts Commission
Yale University Art Gallery