Dorothy Stewart

Dorothy Newkirk Stewart was an American printer, printmaker and artist. She was born April 8, 1891 in Philadelphia to Dr. William Shaw and Delia Allman Stewart. Her parents sent her and her sister Margretta to private school in Philadelphia.

Art Training

Stewart started making art in 1925. Stewart studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, her focus being on pantomime, stage design, & fresco painting. It is known that her first visit to Europe (through documentation of by her passport history at the border crossing) was in 1921 went she went to Italy, Greece. Eventually Stewart made her way to France where she became a student of American School of Fine Arts.

Stewart became well known for her drawing, painting, block prints and linoleum prints. Dorothy signed her prints with the initials, D.N.S.

Printing Press

Dorothy Stewart and her sister Margretta Dietrich settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico in the mid-1920s. She acquired a type and printing press from a defunct Spanish language newspaper in Espanola in 1948, and this is when Dorothy started producing vibrant multicolored illustrated books. Stewart was one of the first women to run a private printing press in the Southwest. (Smith, 94)

In 1936 she was considered one of the members of the WPA Artist Collectivein New Mexico; she painted a mural for entrance of Albuquerque's Little Theatre depicting clash between Christians and Moors portrayed in New Mexican folk plays.

Of the two sisters Dorothy was the social glue, she built a studio east of El Zaguán that doubled as Galeria Mexico, where the artist hosted concerts, lectures, shadow puppets plays, and exhibitions representing her wide range of interest. (Smith, 96). El Zaguán still retains an artist residency program with exhibits at El Zaguán under the Historic Santa Fe Foundation.

Death

In the winter of 1955, with a grave medical condition, Stewart was accompanied by her dear friend Maria Chabot to Oaxaca, Mexico where Dorothy was quoted as saying, “If I have to be sick, I would rather be sick here where I hear the street sounds of Mexico.” As Dorothy's condition worsened, Chabot moved her to the American British Cowdry Hospital in Mexico City, where Stewart died of a brain hemorrhage on December 24, 1955.

Publications

Hornacinas, Niches and Corners of Mexico City publisher: Editorial Cultura Mexico City, Mexico 1933.Book featuring the sculpture figures of saints on buildings and various architecture charcoal sketches of buildings.

Pamphlet Adobe Notes, Laughing Horse Press, 1930, Printed by Spud Johnson. Manual focuses on traditional Southwest Building techniques, featuring Dorothy's linoleum block illustrations

Under Stewart's Company : Pictograph Press

1949, Hamlet Prince of Denmark

1950, San Cristobal Petroglyphs

1952, Handbook of Indian Dances. Features paintings by Pueblo Indians, Hall of Ethnology in Association with Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe

1953, A Midsummer Night's Dream

References

• Mullin, Molly H. Culture In The Marketplace: Gender, Art. Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2001. Print.
• Smith, Pamela S. Passions In Print: Private Press Artistry in New Mexico 1834–Present. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 2006. Print.
• Artists of the American West. A biographical dictionary. Volume II. By Doris Ostrander Dawdy. Chicago: Sage Books/Swallow Press, 1981. (ArtsAmW 2)
• Dictionary of Women Artists. An international dictionary of women artists born before 1900. By Chris Petteys. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1985. (DcWomA)
• Who Was Who in American Art. 400 years of artists in America. Second edition. Three volumes. Edited by Peter Hastings Falk. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1999. (WhAmArt 2)
• Index to Women of the World from Ancient to Modern Times. Biographies and portraits. By Norma Olin Ireland. Westwood, MA: F.W. Faxon Co., 1970. (InWom)
• Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 3: September, 1952-August, 1955. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1956. (BioIn 3)
• An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West. By Phil Kovinick and Marian Yoshiki-Kovinick. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1998. (EncWomA)