Artist Graham Nickson, who led the New York Studio School (NYSS) in Manhattan for greater than half of its historical past as a passionate advocate for drawing and multi-faceted arts schooling, died on January 28 in his house in New York City at the age of 79. The information of his demise was introduced by the college.
A galvanizing arts educator and achieved painter recognized for his lush, vivid palette, Nickson can be remembered for his fervent perception within the self-discipline of drawing, which he described as “the most crucial pathway to understanding in art.” During his over 30-year tenure at the Studio School as a school member and dean, he based the celebrated Drawing Marathon — a two-week all-day intensive that has develop into a vital part of the college’s curriculum. Since it started in 1988, this system has expanded to embody portray excursions to Governors Island, museum and artist studio journeys, and contributors outdoors of the full-time pupil physique together with artists, historians, collectors, educators, journalists, and writers.
In 2004, Nickson established the Studio School’s Master of Fine Arts program, which has delivered 154 Master’s levels because the first graduating class. Upon Nickson’s retirement final summer season, he took on the honorary title of Dean Emeritus.
“ Graham was here every day, as our dean and as an extremely dedicated teacher,” Kaitlin McDonough, performing head of the Studio School and Nickson’s colleague, advised Hyperallergic.
“ His presence permeated the building and all of the programs,” McDonough continued, citing his “ generosity of spirit” that continued till his retirement.
Born in August 1946 in Knowle Green, Lancashire, Nickson grew up in a household of artists in northwest England. He pursued a proper arts schooling at the Camberwell College of Arts (previously Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts) and the Royal College of Art, the place he acquired his Master’s diploma. After two years in Rome, he moved to New York City in 1976 and joined the Studio School’s school eight years later.
It was throughout his first 12 months as a school member that he ushered within the signature “Marathons,” which harkened again to the Studio School’s early days, when its first cohort of students held rigorous drawing sessions in a Soho loft. The program additionally drew from Nickson’s personal steadfast perception in drawing, which carried all through his educating profession and private artwork observe.
“ No Marathon that he taught — and he would teach them at least three times a year — was ever exactly like one that came before it,” McDonough stated.
“He would present a very wide range of strategies and art historical references and ways of getting into the painting, formally and conceptually, that even very experienced artists would enroll and come back, sometimes 10 times, to refresh their studio practices,” McDonough stated.
In addition to his impactful work at the Studio School, the place he taught generations of scholars and uplifted the lives and work of numerous artists, Nickson was a devoted visible artist whose work and drawings had been spotlighted in solo exhibitions at quite a few galleries and museums within the United States and overseas. His work, distinctive for his or her saturated colours and thoughtfully rendered figurative scenes, usually depicted beach-goers on densely populated coastlines and close-up portraits of topics in faraway thought.
Today, his works are held in public collections together with the Dallas Museum of Art in Texas, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
“Graham Nickson will always be an integral part of my life both as a friend and as an art dealer, from his early shows at Hirschl & Adler Modern to his commitment to our gallery on Rivington Street,” veteran New York City artwork vendor Betty Cuningham advised Hyperallergic. Her namesake gallery, which vacated its longtime Lower East Side tackle final spring and now operates on-line, has represented Nickson since 2015.
In the gallery’s final public exhibition The Last Picture Show, she stated Nickson’s 2024 acrylic portray “Et in Arcadia” was featured prominently within the “front and center.”
“Graham will continue to be front and center in the minds of all those whose lives he has touched through his work — including mine,” Cuningham stated.