52 Facts About Otto Stark

Otto Stark was an American Impressionist painter, muralist, commercial artist, printmaker, and illustrator from Indianapolis, Indiana, who is best known as one of the five Hoosier Group artists.

Otto Stark frequently exhibited his paintings at international, national, regional, and local exhibitions, including the Paris Salon of 1886 and 1887; the Five Hoosier Painters exhibition in Chicago, Illinois; the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha, Nebraska; the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis, Missouri; and international expositions in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Santiago, Chile.

Otto Stark supervised the Indiana exhibition at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco, California.

Otto Stark remained an active artist and member of the Indianapolis arts community until his death in 1926.

Otto Stark began his career in the mid-1870s as a lithographer in Cincinnati, Ohio, and attended evening classes at the Cincinnati Art Academy.

Otto Stark returned to the Midwest after the death of his French wife, Marie, in 1891, and worked as a lithographer in Cincinnati until 189, when he established his home and studio in Indianapolis.

Otto Stark raised his four children in Indianapolis and continued his career there as a painter and art educator for the remainder of his life.

Otto Stark was born on January 29,1859, in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Gustavus Godfrey, a cabinetmaker, and Leone Joas Stark.

Otto Stark received an early education at private schools in Indianapolis before beginning an apprenticeship to a Cincinnati, Ohio, lithographer at the age of sixteen.

In 1877, while living with an aunt and uncle in Cincinnati, Otto Stark began art school during the evenings at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, a department of the University of Cincinnati.

Otto Stark moved to New York City in 1879 to continue his art studies at the Art Students League of New York, and supported himself as a lithographer.

Otto Stark studied at the Art Students League under William Merritt Chase, James Carroll Beckwith, and Thomas Dewing, among others.

In 1885, at the age of twenty-six, Otto Stark enrolled at Academie Julien in Paris, France, where he studied under Gustave Boulanger and Jules-Joseph Lefebvre for three years.

Otto Stark returned to the United States in 1887 to begin his career as a commercial artist in New York City.

Otto Stark married Marie Nitscheim on December 15,1886, while he was an art student in France.

Marie Otto Stark died in New York City on November 11,1891, leaving Otto Stark a widower with four children to raise on his own.

In late 1891 Otto Stark moved his four children to Indianapolis, Indiana, so that his sister, Augusta, and his widowed father could help raise them.

Otto Stark initially worked in Cincinnati, Ohio, but returned to live in Indianapolis in 1893.

In 1905 Otto Stark leased a home in Southport, a community south of Indianapolis, for himself and his children, but purchased a home on North Delaware Street in Indianapolis in 1910.

Otto Stark, who lived at the Delaware Street home for the remainder of his life, built a separate art studio on a lot at the rear of the residence.

Otto Stark became a member of the Roberts Park Methodist Episcopal Church in Indianapolis in 1904.

Margaret Stark received basic instruction in painting from her grandfather, Otto, during her childhood in Indiana.

Otto Stark later became a noted painter and art educator in New York City, and lived in Europe.

Otto Stark began his career in the mid-1870s as a lithographer in Cincinnati, Ohio, and, after completing his art studies in France in 1888, worked as a lithographer, commercial artist, and illustrator in New York City and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Otto Stark returned to the Midwest after the death of his French wife in 1891, and established his home and art studio in Indianapolis in 1893.

Otto Stark was supervisor of art instruction at Emmerich Manual High School in Indianapolis from 1899 to 1919, and worked part-time on the faculty of the John Herron Art Institute from 1905 to 1919.

Otto Stark retired from teaching in 1919 to work as a full-time painter.

Otto Stark was an active member of the Indianapolis arts community and frequently displayed his art at numerous exhibitions.

Otto Stark began work as a lithographer in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the mid-1870s.

Otto Stark found work in New York City as a commercial artist, but supplemented his income with additional work as an illustrator for magazines such as Scribner's Monthly and Harper's Weekly.

Otto Stark returned to Indianapolis in late 1893 to establish an art studio and begin his career as an Indianapolis art instructor and continued to paint.

In 1899 Otto Stark was named supervisor of art at Emmerich Manual High School in Indianapolis.

Otto Stark taught a summer course at the John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis in 1902.

Otto Stark resigned both of his teaching positions in 1919 to become a full-time painter.

Otto Stark was an active member of the Indianapolis art community.

Otto Stark was elected as an honorary member of the Art Association of Indianapolis in 1898.

Otto Stark was a former president of the Indiana Artists Club and the Portfolio Club.

Otto Stark, who became a member of the Society of Western Artists in 1897, served as the group's treasurer from 1906 to 1913.

Otto Stark was active on six of its exhibition committees.

Otto Stark initially established an art studio in Indianapolis in 1893 to teach art classes, but continued to paint while working as an art instructor.

Otto Stark worked in oil, watercolor, and pastel, and drew on his everyday life experiences as a parent of small children.

Otto Stark was one of the artists included in the Five Hoosier Painters exhibition that the Central Art Association sponsored in Chicago, Illinois, in December 1894.

Otto Stark's artwork was included in several international, national, regional, and local art exhibitions, including his painting The Committee at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904 in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Otto Stark exhibited at annual shows of the Society of Western Artists.

In 1914, along with Forsyth, Steele, and eleven other artists, Otto Stark painted murals for Indianapolis City Hospital.

Otto Stark was among the artists who painted a Liberty bond mural around 1917 that was hung in Indianapolis's Monument Circle.

Otto Stark retired from teaching at Manual High School and the John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis in 1919 to become a full-time painter.

Otto Stark suffered a stroke in April 1926, and died in Indianapolis on April 14,1926, at the age of sixty-seven.

Otto Stark frequently exhibited his art during his nearly fifty-year painting career, which reached its peak in the 1890s.

Otto Stark submitted more than 750 entries in more than fifty exhibitions, including work exhibited at major exhibitions, such as the Paris Salon of 1886 and 1887, the Trans-Mississippi Exposition at Omaha, Nebraska, in 1898, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904, international expositions in Argentina and Chile 1910, and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915 in San Francisco.

Otto Stark's work was exhibited the National Academy of Design in New York City, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, at annual exhibitions of the American Watercolor Society and the Society of Western Artists, and at local exhibitions in his hometown of Indianapolis.

Otto Stark's work is included in private collections, as well as several art museums in Indiana.