American artist and painter, Nelson Shanks, who's best known for his artistic portraits of the world's most prominent figures from presidents to a pope and royalties, has passed away in his home in Andalusiam on Friday, August 28. He was 77.
Shanks' representative, Bill Wedo, from the Studio Incamminati Art School, has confirmed the artists's death, whose body was found by his wife, Leona. Shanks died due to complications from cancer.
Among Shanks's renowned paintings included Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, Princess Diana and Pope John Paul II. He had also painted a group portrait of the first four women who served in the United States Supreme Court.
D. Dodge Thompson, the chief of exhibitions of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C, described the deceased painter as somebody very talented in creating modern and traditional portraits.
Earlier this year, his Clinton portrait made waves after he said in a statement to the Philadelphia Daily News that he had put a little allusion of the government associate and television personality, Monica Lewinsky, in his Clinton artwork.
Adding to this, he said that a shadow seen alongside Clinton is an actual reference of Lewinsky's legendary blue dress and a "symbolic nod" shadow to Clinton's affair cast for his presidency.
At that time, while he was working with Clinton's portrait, Shanks had openly talked about his viewpoint in portraying people on his artworks.
He said, "I try to push portraits as fas as I can beyond the academic, traditional, straightforward boardroom style. I try to bring the art out,"
Originally, Shanks was born in Rochester, New York, until he reached 10-years old and moved to Wilmington, Del. Later on, Shanks moved to Kansas, New York, Florence and Italy, to study and pursue art.
Besides teaching in various art institutes, Shanks was also able to launch the Studio Incamminati, School for Contemporary Realist Art situated in Center City Philadelphia, where he taught figure-painting and other contemporary realist techniques.
"Studio Incamminati's purpose is to produce great competence and the great painters of the next generation.", he said.
During the same year that Shanks launched the Studio Incamminati, he released a statement to the Associated Press, saying that he has been avoiding abstract art due to its of standards and meanings.
He said, "There's a lot of nonsense and charlatanism out there, the vast percentage of it. I think history will prove it's of no interest,"
Nelson Shanks is survived by his daughters, Renee Hofferman, Annalisa Shanks and Jennifer Shanks, and his wife Leona. The reports added that a memorial service for Shanks will be planned in the upcoming days.
