Artist Stephanie Rose is recognized for creating portraits of intense power and introspection that explore the psychological presence of her sitters. In a review for Art in America, critic Gerald McCarthy observes that “each subject stares out at the viewer in a way that conveys the moment of encountering a weighty persona with the freshness and ephemerality of a glance.” In this large, striking portrait of American poet John Ashbery, Rose has initiated a psychological dialogue between the viewer and the viewed.

One of America’s most influential poets, John Ashbery was born in Rochester, New York, in 1927. He received his education at Harvard, New York University, and Columbia University, and has won nearly every major American award for his poetry, including the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. In addition, Ashbery was the first English-language poet to win the Grand Prix de Biennales Internationales de Poésie (Brussels). His abstract expressionist literary works are characterized by a free-flowing, often disjunctive linguistic play that is frequently infused with humor.

Stephanie Rose, a resident of Hudson, New York, and New York City, is well known and active in the world of contemporary art. Rose graduated from Skidmore College and has received several awards for her work, including the US Consulate General, Istanbul, Turkey, Invitational Travel Grant, the New School for Social Research Faculty Development Fund Grant, and the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation Grant. She has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions; has held teaching positions at Parsons School of Design, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and Pratt Institute; and has received coverage in many art journals, including ARTFORUM.

The portrait of John Ashbery joins three other works by Stephanie Rose in the collections of the Albany Institute. Rose’s portrait enhances the Institute’s mission to collect contemporary works from noted artists of the Upper Hudson Valley.