Richard Stankiewicz

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.