TOM BOUTIS

BOUTIS--Tom. Artist dies at 96. An abstract expressionist and lyrical colorist, Boutis created paintings with "an amazing joyousness," evoking "an atmosphere of summer reverie, an inward, mysterious and poetic story told in color," according to an Arts Magazine review. Born in New York to parents from Kastoria, Greece, the Cooper Union graduate debuted in a solo show at the Zabriskie Gallery in 1955. In the 1950s, with fellow artists in the E 10th Street co-op movement, he established the Area Gallery. He later helped open the Landmark Gallery on SoHo's Broome St. Many of his works on display at these galleries were featured in the New York Times. A member of the National Academy, he continued to show his paintings, drawings and monotypes in the U.S. and abroad. He received numerous awards, including recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts, two consecutive Fulbright grants, and a Rockefeller grant in Bellagio, Italy. Prior to his art career, he was drafted into the army in 1943. Tom Boutis died October 29, 2018. He leaves behind his wife Betty, his son Athanasios, and six grandchildren.