25 Facts About Stella Snead

Stella Snead was a surrealist painter, photographer, and collage artist born in London, England.

Stella Snead immigrated to the United States in 1939 to escape World War II.

In 1936, Snead enrolled at the Ozenfant Academy of Fine Arts in London, founded by Amedee Ozenfant.

Stella Snead moved to the United States in 1939, where she became part of a circle of surrealist artists who had emigrated.

In 1946, Stella Snead relocated to Taos, New Mexico, where she lived in an adobe structure and observed Native American ceremonies and dances.

Stella Snead's paintings reflect her fascination with natural phenomena such as tornadoes, geysers, and volcanoes, often depicting animals and humans engaged in ritualistic movements within anthropomorphic landscapes.

Recognition for Stella Snead's work resurfaced in 2005 when her paintings were included in Surrealism USA, a major exhibition at the National Academy Museum in New York, with subsequent showings at the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and other galleries.

Stella Snead published eight books of photography, including Shiva's Pigeons: An Experience of India, Beach Patterns: The World of Sea and Sand, and Animals in Four Worlds: Sculptures from India.

Stella Snead spent her later years traveling between New York City, London, Taos, and India.

Stella Snead's parents decided that she would be raised as a lifelong vegetarian and remain unvaccinated to avoid "contaminating" her blood.

Stella Snead attended several small village schools in England before enrolling at St Christopher School in Letchworth, a progressive theosophical institution.

Stella Snead later took a secretarial course but struggled to maintain a steady job due to depressive tendencies that made it difficult to adhere to a daily work schedule.

Out of work due to mental illness, Stella Snead's mother supported her until Stella Snead, in her early twenties, became captivated by the idea of painting.

Stella Snead initially developed an interest in painting after a trip to Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

When Ozenfant moved to New York to establish the Ozenfant School of Fine Arts, Stella Snead followed in 1939 and continued studying under him until 1941.

The outbreak of World War II prompted Stella Snead's move from London to the United States.

Stella Snead arrived in New York in 1939 but soon embarked on a journey across the country, frequently hitching rides on mail trucks.

Stella Snead eventually settled for several years in Taos, New Mexico.

Stella Snead claimed to have completed her first Surrealist painting in 1941, intending to impress Max Ernst, a leading figure of the movement, who was expected to attend her solo exhibition.

In 1944, Stella Snead traveled to Mexico to visit the newly erupted Paricutin volcano, though by the time of her visit, it had become dormant.

Stella Snead's final painting, completed in 1995, was a "surrealized" postcard titled Signals from the Grotto.

Stella Snead considered it her most successful work since 1987.

Stella Snead lived in India from 1960 until 1971, having moved there after her mother died of a blood clot.

Stella Snead's photography was published in collections such as Ruins in Jungles, Animals in Four Worlds: Sculptures from India, and Shiva's Pigeons: An Experience of India.

Stella Snead learned to print her own photographs and began working in the darkroom independently.