Stanley Boxer

Born in New York City, Boxer was natural draftsman but began formal art training after leaving the Navy at the end of World War II, when his brother persuaded him to take classes at the Art Students League.  He was immediately drawn to painting and stayed with it for nearly five decades.  A prolific and tireless worker, Boxer was in the studio seven days a week, preferred the term "practitioner" to "artist" and routinely rotated his attention among several media, including painting, drawing, sculpture and printmaking.  At one point he caught the eye of critic Clement Greenberg, and was lumped in with the "colorfield" painters whom Greenberg championed.  Boxer himself was adamant in rejecting this stylistic label, however over the years he remained loyal to the materially dense abstract mode on which his reputation rested.