Donald Stoltenberg

The artist in his studio

Donald Hugo "Don" Stoltenberg (October 15, 1927 – March 26, 2016) was an American painter and author.

Education and early career

Stoltenberg attended public grade school in Chicago, and High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in Visual Design Art from the Institute of Design of the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1953. Upon graduation, he took a position as graphic designer working under famed illustrator and industrial designer Raymond Loewy. Following a relocation to Boston in 1954, he worked as a graphic designer at Container Corporation of America. In 1960, he set up an art studio on Commercial Wharf, a former fishing pier on the Boston waterfront where he became a full-time painter. This location would inspire his lifelong love for and dedication to marine art, with a focus on both sailing and steam powered coastal and ocean vessels, most notably, the classic ocean liners of the 20th century. For the next decade he would focus on honing his craft, painting a variety of subjects, nautical and otherwise, in an abstract expressionist style.

Painter, Printmaker, Teacher, Author

In 1962, Stoltenberg was named Visiting Critic for the famed Rhode Island School of Design. From 1957-1974, he taught collography at the noted DeCordova Museum School in Lincoln, Massachusetts, specializing in oil painting, watercolor and printmaking technique. He simultaneously taught printmaking at the Castle Hill Center in Truro, Massachusetts and the Falmouth Artists Guild on Cape Cod. He also taught printmaking and drawing at the Cape Cod Conservatory of Music and Art. In 1975 he authored two educational texts, Collagraph Printmaking and The Artist and the Built Environment, both published by Davis Publications of Worcester, Massachusetts. During this period he also tutored art students privately at a custom-built studio attached to his 1860 Cape Cod summer home. He moved to this location permanently in 1967.

Exhibitions

Stoltenberg's work has been included in major exhibitions of contemporary art throughout the United States most notably at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, the Boston Athenaeum, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA, the Brockton Art Museum, the Rose Gallery at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, the Art Complex at Duxbury, Massachusetts, the Silvermine Guild of Artists, The Print Club of Philadelphia, the Pratt Graphics Center, The Essex Peabody Museum of Salem, Massachusetts, the Copley Society of Boston, the Fogg Museum at Harvard University, the Worcester Museum, the Associated American Artists of New York and the Schaefer Gallery at Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Connecticut. Stoltenberg has also enjoyed solo exhibitions at the DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts, various galleries in Boston, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Baltimore, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Boston University.

Awards and honors

Stoltenberg has been awarded many significant honors for his unique style of contemporary painting including the Grand Prize from the Boston Arts Festivals; the First Purchase Prize of the Portland (Maine) Museum; the Provincetown Arts Festival, the Worcester Art Museum Printmaking Prize, the Boston Printmakers Awards, the New England Watercolor Society First Prize. Other awards have included the American Watercolor Society Lena Newcastle and Mario Cooper Awards; the Boston National Historical Park Purchase Award among others.

His works are included among the permanent collections of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, the Boston Public Library, the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Portland (Maine) Museum of Art, the DeCordova Museum, the Art Complex at Duxbury, the Episcopal Theological School of Harvard University, the MIT Sloan School of Management, the First National Bank of Boston, the State Street Bank of Boston, the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Co., the Massachusetts Port Authority, the Cabot Corporation, ISM, the Frye Art Museum of Seattle, the College Board Collection of Prints by American Artists, the Readers Digest, P&O Cruise line; NCL Cruise Line, Cunard Line as well as numerous private collections. Stoltenberg's art has graced the covers and pages of numerous books on ocean liners and has served as the basis for the 2004 corporate holiday card for the Cunard Line, celebrating the 2004 tandem sailing of their QE2 ocean liner with Cunard's newest ocean liner, Queen Mary 2, from New York to Southampton in April 2004.

Personal life

Stoltenberg was partnered for more than 60 years to Kenneth (Laxson) Swallow who produced art glass regionally on Cape Cod.

References

• Stoltenberg, Donald H. Collagraph Printmaking, Davis Publications, Inc., 1975. ISBN 0-87192-067-0
• Stoltenberg, Donald H. The Artist and the Built Environment, Davis Publications, Inc., 1980. ISBN 0-87192-118-9