American, 1933-2014

Robert Stark (1933 - 2014) was a luminist, painting principally in oil on canvas and panel. Luminism takes its name from light and refers to the subtle coloristic effects that sunlight, ever changing in intensity, produces on land, sea and in the sky. He saw the New England coast as a place where people have lived long and worked hard and feel part of the land and sea. He attended Nantucket schools and after graduating from Nantucket High School, served in the Navy during the Korean War. His work is represented in numerous private and corporate collections in the US, Canada, Ireland, Great Britain, Germany, France, China and the Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, N.Y. His now iconic red catboat paintings have been avidly collected by Nantucket  island visitors from around the world.  Stark took great pride in his family’s place in the centuries-old New England tradition of making the land and sea one’s own.  With his refined style and unique voice, Stark translated the land and sea he inhabited into unforgettable works of art.