Margaret Stites (Antonios, Antonacis, Embona, Rhodes
San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts Catalog
Accession no: 2005.12.1 Type of work: Drawing
Artist/creator: Margaret Adele Stites
Variant forms of names: Margaret Stites
Born: November 8, 1910 Died: October 2, 2003
Artist biography: Margaret Adele Stites was born in San Angelo, TX in 1910. Stites’ interest in art was evident from ayoung age and after graduating high school in 1928, the promising artist went on to complete herstudies at the University of Texas in Austin. While attending the university, Stites was accepted tostudy under teacher and mentor Charles Umlauf, whose influence is evident in her subsequent work. After receiving her Bachelor of Art in 1944, Stites moved back to her hometown of San Angelo, where she launched a new art program at San Angelo College, later named Angelo State University. Stites taught life-drawing and basic design classes at San Angelo College, eventually promoted to the Head of the Art department. In 1952, the artist left San Angelo to continue her education, studying sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago and then at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, receiving her Master of Fine Art in sculpture and ceramics in 1954. Following another 2-year tenure at San Angelo College, Stites took a teaching position at Ohio State University, where she stayed until 1958, leaving to study in the Mediterranean and Europe after receiving the Louis K. Tiffany Grant in sculpture Stites returned from her sojourn abroad deeply moved by the works she saw in places such as the Sistine Chapel and the Louvre. The artist’s inspiration for her colors, lines, and shapes are derived from both her experiences away and her childhood memories of her uncle’s ranch in Texas. From 1968-1969, Stites taught at Huston Tillotson College in Austin, TX while working on additional graduate work in painting at the University of Texas. Coming full circle, Stites returned to San Angelo to take care of her aging parents. After their deaths, she stayed, living in her childhood home and continuing to produce artwork. Stites’ first exhibition of her extensive body of work was not until September of 2003 at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts. The 92-year-old artist passed away one month later on October 2, 2003.
Title of work: Antonios Antonacis, Embona, Rhodes
Date of item: n.d.
Signed: No
Other Markings/Identifiers: Name of the person sitting for the portrait is written in pencil along the right edge of the paper, vertically.
Dimensions: 19 ¾” x 13 ¾” (50.165 x 34.925 cm)
Description: Three quarter view male portrait. The man has a full mustache and is wearing a straw hat with the brim sloping downward and a collarless shirt buttoned at the neck. It is drawn in a loose, gestural style.
Material: graphite on paper
Medium: Drawing
Country of origin: U.S.
Condition: Good condition – slightly soiled. From Condition Report dated August 12, 2005
Conservation future: Needs framing.
Provenance: Museum purchase from Claude Stites, executor of the estate of Margaret Stites. Found in the artist’s home at the time of her death.
Purchase
Source: Claude Stites
Fund(s) used: SAMFA Collector’s Society
Value: unknown
History of object: One of a group of sketches done by Margaret Stites when she visited the Greek Islands during a two year travel-study grant to Europe in 1956-58. The drawings were found in her home after her death by her nephew Claude Stites. The museum purchased this drawing from Claude Stites on August 2, 2005. It was accepted into the collection by the SAMFA Board on October 20, 2005.
Exhibitions: September 1976, Angelo West Branch Library, San Angelo, Texas
Cataloger name: Karen Zimmerly
Date: May 21, 2007
Sources used: Museum file
Newspaper article: San Angelo Standard, Friday, September 3, 1976