Mark Stevens (art critic)

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Mark Stevens
Born (1951-08-14) August 14, 1951 (age 72)
New York City
Occupation Art critic, author
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Princeton University (BA), King's College, Cambridge (MA)
GenreBiography
Notable works de Kooning: An American Master
Notable awards Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography
Spouse Annalyn Swan
Website
www.stevensandswan.com

Mark Stevens (born August 14, 1951) is an American writer who was co-awarded the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography with Annalyn Swan for De Kooning: An American Master. His book with Swan also received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography in 2004 and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 2005. During his writing career, Stevens was an art critic for Newsweek , The New Republic and New York between the 1970s to 2000s. Other publications by Stevens include a 1981 work on Richard Diebenkorn's art and a 1984 book called Summer of the City.

Contents

Early life and education

On August 14, 1951, Stevens was born in New York City. For his post-secondary education, Stevens received a Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University in 1973 and a Master of Arts from King's College in 1975. [1]

Career

Stevens began his writing career as a freelancer in 1975 before becoming an art critic for Newsweek in 1977. [1] He remained at Newsweek until August 1988 while expanding his writings with The New Republic and Vanity Fair . [2] At The New Republic, Stevens started critiquing art in 1986 before continuing his art critic career with New York in 1996. [3] Stevens remained with the magazine until his resignation in 2007. [4]

Outside of art, Stevens published a work about Richard Diebenkorn's artworks in 1981. In 1984, he released his first book Summer of the City in 1984 while writing for Newsweek. [5] [6] In 1989, Stevens and his wife Annalyn Swan signed with Bantam Books for a future biography about Willem de Kooning. [7] After spending ten years on the writing process, de Kooning: An American Master was released in 2004 by Alfred A. Knopf . [8] [9]

In 2008, Stevens and Swan reached a deal with Knopf for a future Francis Bacon biography. [10] The resulting work, Francis Bacon: Revelations, was published in 2021 with HarperCollins (UK) and Knopf (US). [11] [12]

Awards and honors

In 2004, Stevens and Swan won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography with De Kooning: An American Master. [13] The following year, Stevens and his wife won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography with their De Kooning book. [14] [15] Their book also received the Ambassador Book Award in the Biography & Autobiography category that year. [16] During 2007, Stevens was a fellow at the New York Public Library. [17]

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References

  1. 1 2 May, Hal; Trosky, Susan M., eds. (1988). "Stevens, Mark 1951—". Contemporary Authors. Vol. 122. Detroit: Gale Research Company. p. 431. ISBN   0810319225 . Retrieved February 17, 2020.
  2. ↑ "A Hite Report, A Newsweek Newcomer". New York. Vol. 22, no. 6. February 6, 1989. p. 12. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
  3. ↑ "Critic, author talks of fame, political art on campus". Missoulian. April 8, 2011. Retrieved September 28, 2019.
  4. ↑ "Critic Jerry Saltz Heads to New York mag". New York Observer. March 30, 2007. Retrieved September 28, 2019.
  5. ↑ Hall, Sharon, ed. (1985). "Mark Stevens 19?-". Contemporary Literary Criticism Yearbook 1984. Vol. 34. Detroit: Gale Research Company. p. 111. ISBN   0810344084. ISSN   0091-3421 . Retrieved October 1, 2019.
  6. ↑ Burns, Ann; Waite, Deborah (March 15, 1984). "First Novelists" . Library Journal. 109 (5): 554 . Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  7. ↑ "Media Notes From All Over". New York. Vol. 22, no. 50. December 18, 1989. p. 10. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
  8. ↑ Bonetti, David (October 23, 2005). "de Kooning biographers discuss their prize-winning project". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. F11.
  9. ↑ Fischer, Jack (December 12, 2004). "A master gets his due". Wisconsin State Journal. p. G3.
  10. ↑ Eyman, Scott (October 12, 2008). "In the pipeline...". The Marshall News Messenger. p. 6B.
  11. ↑ "FRANCIS BACON | Kirkus Reviews". Kirkus. November 24, 2020. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  12. ↑ Rachel, Cooke (January 17, 2021). "Francis Bacon: Revelations by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan review – a captivating triumph". The Guardian: Observer book of the week. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  13. ↑ "The National Book Critics Circle Award". National Book Critics Circle. 2004. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
  14. ↑ "Pulitzer winner sketches". The New York Times. April 5, 2005. Retrieved September 28, 2019.
  15. ↑ Martelle, Scott (April 23, 2005). "Times Literary Prizes Awarded". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 28, 2022.
  16. ↑ "2005 Ambassador Book Awards". The English-Speaking Union of the United States. Archived from the original on August 20, 2008. Retrieved September 16, 2022.
  17. ↑ "Fellows and Their Topics for the Year 2007-2008". New York Public Library. Retrieved October 22, 2023.
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