Stephen De Staebler was an American sculptor, printmaker, and educator, he was best recognized for his work in clay and bronze. Totemic and fragmented in form, De Staebler's figurative sculptures call forth the many contingencies of the human condition, such as resiliency and fragility, growth and decay, earthly boundedness and the possibility for spiritual transcendence. An important figure in the California Clay Movement, he is credited with "sustaining the figurative tradition in post-World War II decades when the relevance and even possibility of embracing the human figure seemed problematic at best."
Stephen De Staebler
Seated Figure with Yellow Flame, porcelain, stoneware and clay sculpture by Stephen De Staebler, 1985, Smithsonian American Art Museum
'Angel III', monotype on paper by Stephen De Staebler, 1995
Brooklyn Museum Art School
The Brooklyn Museum Art School was a non-degree-granting professional school that opened at the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York in the summer of 1941. The Brooklyn Museum Art School provided instruction for amateur artists as well until January 1985, when it was transferred to the Pratt Institute’s Continuing Education Division.
Brooklyn Museum
Francis Cunningham teaching at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, ca. 1979