Otto Stark | |
|---|---|
 Stark, pictured second from the left, in "The Art Jury" by Wayman Elbridge Adams (Painting in the collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art) | |
| Born | Otto Stark January 29, 1859 Indianapolis, Indiana, United States |
| Died | April 14, 1926 (aged 67) Indianapolis, Indiana, United States |
| Education | Art Academy of Cincinnati Art Students League of New York Académie Julien, Paris |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | American Impressionism |
Otto Stark (January 29, 1859 – April 14, 1926) was an American Impressionist painter, muralist, commercial artist, printmaker, and illustrator from Indianapolis, Indiana, who is best known as one of the five Hoosier Group artists. Stark's work clearly showed the influence of Impressionism, and he often featured children in his work. To provide a sufficient income for his family, Stark worked full time as supervisor of art at Emmerich Manual High School in Indianapolis from 1899 to his retirement in 1919, and as part-time art instructor on the faculty of the John Herron Art Institute from 1905 to 1919.[1] Stark frequently exhibited his paintings at international, national, regional, and local exhibitions, including the Paris Salon of 1886 and 1887; the Five Hoosier Painters exhibition (1894) in Chicago, Illinois; the Trans-Mississippi Exposition (1898) in Omaha, Nebraska; the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904) in Saint Louis, Missouri; and international expositions (1910) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Santiago, Chile. He also supervised the Indiana exhibition at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition (1915) in San Francisco, California. Stark remained an active artist and member of the Indianapolis arts community until his death in 1926.
Stark began his career in the mid-1870s as a lithographer in Cincinnati, Ohio, and attended evening classes at the Cincinnati Art Academy. Beginning in 1888, after completing his formal art training in New York City at the Art Students League of New York, where he studied with William Merritt Chase, among others, and at the Académie Julian in Paris, France, Stark worked as a lithographer, commercial artist, and illustrator in New York City and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He returned to the Midwest after the death of his French wife, Marie, in 1891, and worked as a lithographer in Cincinnati until 189, when he established his home and studio in Indianapolis. Stark raised his four children in Indianapolis and continued his career there as a painter and art educator for the remainder of his life.
- ^ The Herron Art Institute later became the Indianapolis Museum of Art, with art instruction continuing to the present-day at the Herron School of Art and Design at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis.