Stieglitz \'steg-lits\, Alfred (b. Jan. 1, 1864, Hoboken, N.J., U.S.—d.
July 13, 1946, New York, N.Y.) U.S. photographer and exhibitor of mod¬ em art. He was taken to Europe by his wealthy family to further his edu¬ cation in 1881. In 1883 he aban¬ doned engineering studies in Berlin for a photographic career. Returning to the U.S. in 1890, he made the first successful photographs in snow, in rain, and at night. In 1902 he founded the Photo-Secession group to establish photography as an art. His own best photographs are per¬ haps two series (1917-27), one of portraits of his wife, Georgia O'Keeffe, and the other of cloud shapes corresponding to emotional experiences. His photographs were the first to be exhibited in major U.S. museums. He also was the first to exhibit, at his “291” gallery in New York City, works of modem Euro¬ pean and U.S. painters, five years before the Armory Show.
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Alfred Stieglitz at his gallery "291" in
1934; behind him is a painting by his wife, Georgia O'Keeffe.
IMOGEN CUNNINGHAM
Stiernhielm Vshem-.yelnA, Georg orig. Joran Olofsson or Georgius Olai or Goran Lilia (b. Aug. 7, 1598, Vika, Swed.—d. April 22, 1672, Stockholm) Swedish poet and scholar, often called “the father of Swedish poetry.” Beginning about 1640 he was poet in atten¬ dance at the court of Queen Christina. His most important work is the allegorical, didactic epic Hercules (1658), a sermon on virtue and honour and a fine example of late-Renaissance Classicism; it greatly influenced the development of Swedish poetry. His poems were collected in Swed¬ ish Muses (1668).
Stigand Vsti-gond\ (d. Feb. 22, 1072) Archbishop of Canterbury (1052- 70). He mediated the peace between Edward the Confessor and Earl Godwine (1052) and was made archbishop of Canterbury when the Nor¬ man archbishop fled. He was not accepted until 1058, and then only by the antipope Benedict X, after whose deposition Stigand was excommu¬ nicated by Pope Nicholas II. Stigand’s continuance in office was one of the reasons for papal support of the Norman Conquest (see William I) in
Stigler, George J(oseph) (b. Jan. 17, 1911, Renton, Wash., U.S.—d. Dec. 1, 1991, Chicago, Ill.) U.S. economist. He received his Ph.D. from
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Stiglitz ► stimulant I 1823
the University of Chicago. He taught at various institutions and in 1977 founded the Center for the Study of the Economy and the State at the University of Chicago. Stigler studied the economics of information, elaborating on the traditional understanding of how efficient markets oper¬ ate. He also studied public regulation, concluding that it is usually det¬ rimental to consumer interests. He won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1982.
Stiglitz, Joseph E. (b. Feb. 9, 1943, Gary, Ind., U.S.) U.S. economist. He received a Ph.D. (1967) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technol¬ ogy and taught at several universities, including Yale, Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia. From 1997 to 2000 he was the World Bank’s chief econo¬ mist but often disagreed with the organization’s policies. Stiglitz helped found modern development economics, and he changed how economists think about the way markets work. His studies on asymmetric informa¬ tion in the marketplace showed that the poorly informed can obtain infor¬ mation from the better informed through a screening process, for example, when insurance companies determine the risk factors of their clients. He shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences with George A. Aker- lof and A. Michael Spence.
stigmata \stig-'ma-t9\ In Christian mysticism, bodily marks, scars, or pains suffered in places corresponding to those of the crucified Jesus —on the hands and feet, near the heart, and sometimes on the head (from the crown of thorns) or shoulders and back (from carrying the cross and being whipped). They are often presumed to accompany religious ecstasy and are taken as signs of holiness. The first to experience stigmata was St. Francis of Assisi (1224). Of the more than 330 persons identified with stig¬ mata since the 14th century, more than 60 were canonized or beatified by the Roman Cathouc church (see canonization).
Stijl Vstll, 'stal\, De Dutch The Style Group of Dutch artists founded in 1917, including Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian. The group advo¬ cated a utopian style: “the universal harmony of life.” Its ideal of purity and order in life and society as well as art reflects the Calvinist back¬ ground of its members. Through its journal, De Stijl (1917-31), it influ¬ enced painting, the decorative arts (including furniture design), typog¬ raphy, and especially architecture, where its aesthetic found expression at the Bauhaus and in the Interna¬ tional Style.
Stikine \sti-'ken\ River River, northwestern British Columbia,
Canada, and southeastern Alaska,
U.S. The river rises in the Stikine Ranges of British Columbia and flows in a wide arc west and south¬ west before emptying into the Pacific Ocean after a course of 335 mi (540 km). It served as a major access route during the Klondike gold rush of 1896. Navigable for 168 mi (270 km), it is a chief route to the Cassiar Mountains mining region.
Still, Clyfford (b. Nov. 30, 1904, Grandin, N.D., U.S.—d. June 23, 1980, Baltimore, Md.) U.S. painter. He studied at Spokane University and Washington State College. After experimenting with several styles, he became involved in Abstract Expressionism and was a pioneer of very large, monochromatic painting. His work is often characterized within the “colour-field” subset of Abstract Expressionism. He used thickly applied, opaque paint (impasto) in expressively modulated, jagged forms to por¬ tray raw, aggressive power.
Still, William Grant (b. May 11, 1895, Woodville, Miss., U.S.—d. Dec. 3, 1978, Los Angeles, Calif.) U.S. composer. He initially intended to be a doctor but instead studied music at Oberlin College, learning clarinet, oboe, and violin. He studied composition with George Chadwick (1854-1931) and Edgard Varese. In the 1920s he worked as an arranger for the dance-band leader Paul Whiteman and for the blues composer W.C. Handy. Still’s early style was avant-garde {From the Black Belt, 1926), but from c. 1930 he sought to develop a distinctive African American art music in five symphonies (including his Afro-American Symphony, 1931), ballets, operas, and choral and solo vocal works.
still-life painting Depiction of inanimate objects for the sake of their qualities of form, colour, texture, composition, and sometimes allegori¬ cal or symbolical significance. Still lifes were painted in ancient Greece and Rome. In the Middle Ages they occur in the borders of illuminated manuscripts. The modern still life emerged as an independent genre in the Renaissance. Netherlandish still lifes often depicted skulls, candles, and hourglasses as allegories of mortality, or flowers and fruits to symbolize nature’s cycle. Several factors contributed to the rise of still life in the 16th—17th century: an interest in realistic representation, the rise of a wealthy middle class that wanted artworks to decorate its homes, and increased demand for paintings of secular subjects other than portraits in the wake of the Reformation. Dutch and Flemish painters were the mas¬ ters of still life in the 17th century. From the 18th century until the rise of nonobjective painting after World War II, France was the centre of still-life painting.
Stillman, James (b. June 9, 1850, Brownsville, Texas, U.S.—d. March 15, 1918, New York, N.Y.) U.S. financier and banker. He began his career in a New York mercantile house. He became president of the National City Bank (see Citigroup) in 1891, shortly after the Rockefeller family obtained a controlling interest in the bank. Under his leadership the bank prospered during the panic of 1893, more than doubling its deposits and becoming the leading U.S. bank. In 1897 it was the only bank capable of financing the reorganization of the Union Pacific Railroad. At his death he left a huge personal fortune.