BURIED TOGETHER
Partner Timothy Willoughby de Eresby,
Lloyd Findley Tugwell II
Queer Places:
302 NE Ave A, Idabel, OK 74745
Denison Cemetery
Idabel, McCurtain County, Oklahoma, USA
Harold Moncreau Stevenson Jr. (March 11, 1929 – October 21, 2018) was an American painter known for his paintings of the male nude.[1] He was a friend, a mentor, and an associate of
Andy Warhol, and appeared in the Warhol film, Heat (credited as "Harold Childe").[2]
Mitchell Algus, Harold’s gallery representative since 1992, recalls asking Stevenson if he was teased for being gay while a schoolboy. Harold replied, “Honey, I owned that school.” Stevenson’s longtime partner was
Lloyd Findley Tugwell
II, a Choctaw art teacher who died in 2005 after a fall down the stairs at their Hamptons home.
They are buried together in the Stevenson family plot in Idabel.
Stevenson was born in Idabel, Oklahoma in 1929[3] and attended the University of Oklahoma before moving to New York City in 1949.[3] He moved to Paris in 1952 and exhibited at European galleries for the next 20 years.
Stevenson's most well-known works were painted in the 1960s, including his most famous works, Eye of Lightning Billy and The New Adam. Eye of Lightning Billy was exhibited at the Sidney Janis Gallery in 1962 as part of the "New Realists" exhibit, which included works by Warhol (including his 200 Campbell’s Soup Cans), Claes Oldenburg, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Moskowitz,
Robert Indiana, George Segal, Jim Dine, Peter Agostini, James Rosenquist, Wayne Thiebaud and Tom Wesselmann. The Eye of Lightning Billy was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in 2008.[2]
In 1963, Stevenson's massive mural, The New Adam, was displayed at the Iris Clert Gallery in Paris. The mural is an 8-foot by 39-foot reclining nude man. The model was young actor
Sal Mineo, and the painting was dedicated to Stevenson's lover at the time, Lord
Timothy Willoughby de Eresby, the heir to the Earl of Ancaster. The work was considered for inclusion in the 1963 seminal Pop Art exhibition "Six Painters and the Object" at the Guggenheim, but was considered too large, and that it would distract from the rest of the works. In 2005, the painting was acquired by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.[2]
In 1963, Stevenson created a 40-foot tall painting of the Spanish bullfighter El Cordobes, which was hung from the Eiffel Tower with the permission of the French government. The resulting traffic jam caused the government to require that the painting be taken down.[2]
In 1968, in Paris, Stevenson exhibited "The Great Society", a collection of portraits of individuals from his hometown. The collection is now owned by the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma.[2]
Having lived in New York, Paris, Key West and the Hamptons, Stevenson returned to his hometown of Idabel. He frequently contributed to NIGHT magazine.[2]
Stevenson died on October 21, 2018 in Idabel, Oklahoma at the age of 89.[4]
The New Adam (1962)
Painting by Harold Stevenson Jr.; Model, actor Sal Mineo
HAROLD STEVENSON (1929-2018)
Two works.
Reclining Figure, oil stick on canvas mounted to board. 235x580 mm; 9 1/4x23 inches. Signed, dated and inscribed "O.C." in oil stick, lower recto. 1996 * Portrait of a Young Man, oil stick on cream wove paper with prepared marblized gouache. 760x550 mm; 30x22 inches. Signed, dated and inscribed "OC" in blue oil stick, lower recto. 1996.
Provenance: Both gifted by the artist to the sitter, 1996; acquired from the above by the current owner, private collection, New York.
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