Fairfield University Art Museum Announces Major Gift

Fairfield University Art Museum Announces Major Gift of Artwork by Artist Stephen Pace

The Fairfield University Art Museum announces major gift of over 130 paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints and sketchbooks from Stephen and Palmina Pace Foundation

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (February 12, 2021)—The Fairfield University Art Museum is pleased to announce the largest gift of artwork, by value, in the museum’s 10-year history. The Stephen and Palmina Pace Foundation has gifted over 132 works by Stephen Pace (American, 1918-2010) to the museum, with outstanding examples from across the artist’s oeuvre.
Stephen Pace was born in Missouri in 1918 to a farming family. Pace began his formal training at the age of 17 studying drawing and watercolor with WPA artist and illustrator Robert Lahr. He continued to hone his skills while serving abroad during World War II, painting views of local European landscapes. Pace’s early works are represented in this gift by a very early and accomplished watercolor of a farm scene from his childhood in Missouri. After WWII, Pace studied art on the GI Bill at the Instituto Allende in San Miguel Allende, Mexico before making his way to New York City. This period is represented by a lovely oil painting of the Mexican desert landscape looking towards San Miguel Allende.

In 1947, Pace moved to New York City where he continued his art studies on the GI Bill at the Art Students League and developed important friendships with members of the New York School of Abstract Expressionist. Still lifes, nudes and early abstractions are among the works from this period which are included in the gift. Pace used the last of his GI bill funds to study with the renowned abstract expressionist artist and teacher Hans Hofmann in New York and then in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Hofmann had an immediately visible influence on Pace’s work in the 1950s, particularly in Pace’s use of color planes to describe volume. During the 1950s Stephen was singled out by Hofmann as one of the finest painters to emerge from the second generation of abstract expressionists. During his long career, Pace made important contributions to the tradition of Abstract Expressionism. This period is represented by several important paintings, as well as numerous watercolors, prints and drawings.

In 1960, Pace returned to painting more figural subjects in a style characterized by simplified forms and imaginative colors, and this remained the focus of his artistic practice for the remainder of his career. Returning to his rural roots, Pace’s work begins to depict subjects ranging from gardening and nudes to horses and lobstermen. The gift to Fairfield includes all of these subjects, and is particularly strong in paintings of horses – one of Pace’s favorite subjects.

The donated works collectively demonstrate Pace’s process in moving from studies to finished works. There are many studies included in the gift, for oil and watercolor paintings, in pencil, ink, and watercolor. These will be well used in teaching across disciplines, but will be especially useful for Studio Art and Art History classes as a bonus to their experiences of learning from original works of art in the museum. An exhibition of Pace’s work for the museum is in the planning stages.
While this gift has recently been delivered to the campus, three of the gifted works are included in the current exhibition in the museum’s Bellarmine Hall Galleries, “The Birds of the Northeast: Gulls to Great Auks.” These work include an ink drawing of a Great Blue Heron, and a watercolor and lithograph of Herring Gulls.