Rolling Hills, San Luis Obispo
Artist
Standish Backus Jr.
(1910 - 1989)
Date1930s
MediumWatercolor on paper
Dimensions15 x 21 1/2 in. (38.1 x 54.6 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineGift of the Hilbert Collection
Object number2022.119
DescriptionStan Backus was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1910. In 1933, after graduating Princeton University with a degree in architecture, he decided not to become an architect and instead became a painter. A self-taught artist, he went to Santa Barbara in 1935 and became an active member of the local art community. During World War II, he served as the official naval combat artist on Admiral Nimitz’s staff and was aboard the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945 for the formal Japanese surrender.Stan Backus died in Santa Barbara in 1989. A very private and individualistic painter, he never attended art school, and late in his life, during the course of an interview for an oral history at the Santa Barbara Museum, he could not name one artist who influenced his work.
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