Joseph Stella

Joseph Stella was born in Italy and moved to New York City when he was nineteen to study medicine. After two years, he abandoned this course of study and pursued his artistic interests at the New York School of Art, learning from the leading American painters William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri. Stella spent long periods of time in Europe throughout his life and was largely responsible for bringing Futurism to the United States. He was also a leading figure in the Precisionist movement and his dynamic images of industrial America, such as the Brooklyn Bridge, are his most recognized. Stella's style and subject matter changed frequently during his career, suggesting a deliberate eclecticism stemming from his openness to new ideas and experiences. By 1919, he began to paint images of flowers, plants, birds, and sunshine, fashioning an earthly paradise that looked back to his youth in Italy and reclaimed the serenity and spirituality that was not present in his depictions of industrial subjects. Joy of Living is from a series of paintings inspired by a five month stay in Barbados in 1938. He was hugely impressed with what he called "the magic island," and he later commented that his creativity was renewed by the new tropical environment: "My drowsing energy, tortured by the cold of northern countries, was reawakened as if by magic, set aglow by the radiance of gold and purple light. All the ardor of youth surged through me, with the overflowing, stinging, demanding desire for new conquests in the virgin lands of art." In Joy of Living, a statuesque Barbadian woman stands in profile with her arms extended at the elbow. In her hands is a potted plant with brightly colored tropical flowers. Her stature, pose, and straight, serious gaze give the image a ceremonial atmosphere. She is silhouetted against a lush landscape with green grass, a bright blue river, and rolling hills in the background. Running the length of the canvas at the right is a twisting, leafy form, reminiscent of Stella's earlier, more abstract painting. Stella's work can be found in major museum collections such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and many more. The Barbados paintings remain primarily in private collections.