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1st appeared
19
January 2001
Paul Stempen –
Illustrator and Painter (1957-2000)
Paul Stempen, a UCSF medical illustrator of extraordinary skill and a successful and prolific painter, died December 31 of a sudden heart attack in his Potrero Hill home just days before opening of a solo show of his works at the Campbell-Thiebaud San Francisco Gallery.
He was 43. Stempen was the first artist
profiled in Daybreak when its "Art Notes" section started in May 1998.
Stempen had been painting
for many years, usually in oils on wood panels. Many of his paintings
embody his love of old, beat-up cars and trucks -- not to refurbish
or even drive, just to portray -- and his delight in San Francisco
cityscapes and Bay Area views. "I do a lot of nocturnes
because much of the year it’s dark when I leave UCSF, " he
said. "And I usually work en plein air, outdoors with natural
light (a practice begun by the French Impressionists), not from photographs.
I need the direct presence and feel of the light so sometimes on weekends
I drive out in the country to find different landscapes."
Much-used vehicles parked
on San Francisco’s steep streets are often the focus or feature
of a Stempen painting, where they become imbued with character and
history. There is mystery, too, in his densely painted nocturnal cityscapes,
drawing the viewer into imaging the journeys of those now-sleeping
jalopies and the lives behind the lamplit housefronts. "A lot of the skills
I learned at UCSF helped in my painting," Stempen said. He grew
up in Philadelphia and after taking his BA in art at Rutgers, he came
west for a Master's from the former UCSF Graduate Program in Medical
and Biological Illustration.
As a freelancer he was soon
enlisted by Frank Hinman, UCSF professor of urology, to prepare the
illustrations for Hinman’s Atlas of Urologic Surgery. In
four years, Stempen made 1700 illustrations. "That’s really
where I learned to draw," he said. "Much of my work involved
observing all the surgeries done here. I didn’t understand it at
first, had to go back often to the operating room and watch the procedures,
study the literature, talk with the surgeons. It didn’t happen
overnight -- it took years before I really understood in a three-dimensional
sense what goes on in urology." Stempen became Senior Medical
Illustrator in the department, working at UCSF for more than 12 years.
He continued to collaborate with Hinman and the other members of the
urology department faculty, as well as the clinical faculty and residents,
providing illustrations for their journal articles and books, posters
for urology meetings, creating the department’s website, and
designing and illustrating its quarterly newsletter. There is astonishing beauty
in Stempen’s illustrations, revelations of the miraculous human
body in exquisite detail, drawn with the perfect accuracy and precision
that enabled surgeons to work from them. Not surprising that Stempen
won many awards over the years from the Association of Medical Illustrators.
In 2000 he was given the William P. Didusch Award of the American
Urological Association "in recognition of outstanding contributions
to urologic art." As a painter, Stempen began
to exhibit in the mid-1980s, first in New York and then in various
Bay Area galleries. His work appeared regularly in the annual UCSF
Art Show. When his principal San Francisco gallery closed, Stempen
contacted Paul Thiebaud, son of the famous California painter Wayne
Thiebaud, and a partner in the important Campbell-Thiebaud Gallery
in San Francisco’s North Beach. "At first, Thiebaud
didn’t give me much encouragement," Stempen told Daybreak
in 1998, "He said they were booked through the Millennium and
they already had too many artists. But he agreed to look at my work. "So I went over and
when he saw my work he said, ‘OK, we’ll give you a show.’
I was just knocked out because it’s my favorite gallery. I was
in a two-person show there in March of 1998 and when it ended they
had sold 35 paintings out of 40. They also showed my work in their
Laguna Beach gallery in 1999. So I don’t think they regret taking
me in." The show of Stempen's paintings
opened January 9, 2001 on two floors of the Campbell-Thiebaud San
Francisco gallery. The exhibition runs through
February 10, 2001. UCSF faculty and staff members are urged to see and
enjoy the paintings of Paul Stempen at this lovely gallery, located
at 645 Chestnut Street between Columbus and Mason. Phone 441-8680 for
hours. Links: Campbell-Thiebaud
Gallery -- Paul Stempen Source:
Nina Beckwith, Daybreak Arts Columnist |
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