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35 mm color photograph
Dimensions: 8 x 10
Gift of Victor Koshkin-Youritzin, 2006

The Artwork

In this photograph from the summer of 2000, Victor Koshkin-Youritzin captures a moment in which artist Harold Stevenson seems both relaxed and posed in his home in Long Island, New York. Through the photographer's composition of the artist's home, the image seems majestic. The visual warmth of the artist's flesh tones provide an essence of liveliness as it contrasts with the white formal qualities of his surroundings.

Oklahoma-born artist Harold Stevenson rose to fame in 1962 when his painting Eye of Lightning Billy was included alongside the work of such artists as James Rosenquist, Robert Rauschenberg, and Robert Indiana in an exhibition titled The New Realist. The following year, the Galerie Iris Clert in Paris exhibited his thirty-nine foot wide oil painting The New Adam. Stevenson was a friend of Andy Warhol and was the subject of his 1964 film titled "Harold." From 1967 to 1968, the artist painted The Great Society which is composed of 100 portraits of residents of Idabel, Oklahoma. Throughout his career, Stevenson has painted figuratively in a realistic style. Stevenson has since returned to Idabel, Oklahoma, where he now resides.

The Artist

Victor Koshkin-Youritzin is currently the David Ross Boyd Professor of Art at the University of Oklahoma. He was educated at Williams College, Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, and New York University's Institute of Fine Arts. Youritzin was a Ford Foundation Fellow at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and taught at Vanderbilt and Tulane universities before joining the University of Oklahoma faculty in 1972. Youritzin is the author of Photographs by Charles Henri Ford (2006), Pavel Tchelitchew (2002), Five Contemporary Russian Artists (1992), Oklahoma Treasures (1986), and other exhibition catalogues. He is also the co-author of American Watercolors from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Abrams, 1991). His scholarly and critical articles have appeared in such publications as ARTnews, ARTS, Art Journal, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, and The Sunday Los Angeles Times. Youritzin has lectured at museums and universities across the U.S. including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Students League of New York, and New York Studio School as well as in England, France, and the Caribbean.

Youritzin has curated or co-curated over 25 art exhibitions, including for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and has served on many museum committees and boards. As an artist and prize-winning photographer, Youritzin has exhibited paintings in the juried 27th Annual Louisiana State Art Exhibition for Professional Artists, museums, and other venues. His photographs have appeared in the Italian ELLE Magazine (January 2005) and in books in English, Spanish, and Japanese. His photography has been acquired by numerous museums and public institutions, including: The State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg; the Bibliothèque Nationale de France; Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in France, The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Andy Warhol Museum, The Museum of New Mexico, and The National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.

Youritzin has received many accolades for his work and scholarship. He received the Oklahoma Governor's Arts and Education Award in 1992, and an Honorable Citation from the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 1993. In 1997, the University of Oklahoma awarded him its highest teaching honor, a David Ross Boyd Professorship, and in 2002 he received the Irene and Julian J. Rothbaum Presidential Professor of Excellence in the Arts Award.