Raymond and Stam Mintz:DISTINGUISHED US-born painter Raymond Mintz and his wife Stam Mintz, who had lived in Buncar Cottage, Dooks, Co Kerry, since 1969, have died one month apart, following a car crash in which they were the only victims.
Raymond was born in Clifton, New Jersey, in 1925, of German descent. Stam was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1932 and was of Greek descent.
After the second World War, Raymond was a sapper in the US army. He was posted to Dresden searching for mines and unexploded bombs.
Following this, he spent four years studying art in the US and Paris. He first showed his work in New York in 1950 and seven of his paintings were displayed in a presentation of new talent at the Museum of Modern Art in 1951.
During the 1950s, he was represented by Paul Rosenberg, one of the most respected dealers of the time.
When Raymond moved from New Jersey to Puy-de-Dôme, France, in 1955, the subject matter of his work changed, developing from predominantly figurative paintings to landscapes featuring orchards, vegetable gardens, fields and vineyards.
After their marriage in 1961, Raymond and Stam moved to Greece for a couple of years.
Raymond was greatly influenced by icon painting. He used a layered technique, according to the icon tradition, and achieved a rich and colourful luminosity by glazing the paint when it had formed a sufficiently dry surface on which to work. On returning to live in New Jersey, Raymond continued exhibiting at the Paul Rosenberg Gallery, where Picasso and Braque were part of the stable of artists. Later, when Rosenberg died, Raymond moved to the Rhen Gallery, where he was an associate of Edward Hopper and Reginald Marsh.
When the couple arrived in Ireland in 1969, they brought with them their American Jeep, which had a double gearbox.
Raymond used to drive up the mountainsides to find his subject matter. He would spend many hours working at a time, and his Jeep was often put to good use helping farmers to pull out tractors that had got stuck in awkward places.
He loved autumn, just as the colours were changing on the mountainsides, and this gave a distinctiveness to his landscapes.
Eventually Raymond became more and more a recluse, and worked exclusively in his studio by night. There followed a series of paintings described by artist Patrick Pye as "a unique series of satirical works on the ways of men. Perhaps under the influence of the Viennese school at the end of the empire, he developed a very personal technique of layered discovery which suited the omissions and revelations of his ironical imagination. In his subject matter, the 'genre' scenes of human manners belong to the night, while the landscapes (always uninhabited) belong to day, to a beautiful and fastidious daylight with no humans to disturb."
Stam, unlike Raymond, was a very sociable person, and a dedicated member of the Killorglin choir; she played and taught bridge and English, and walked regularly with a group of friends.
She also bred Chihuahuas, some of which were up to champion standard. In her youth, Stam was a powerful swimmer, and she took up surfboarding when it became popular on Dooks beach.
Stam looked after all the practical aspects of Raymond's artistic needs. They complemented each other and were a very united couple.
Raymond Mintz: born March 17th, 1925; died March 19th, 2008
Stam Mintz: born September 4th, 1932; died February 20th, 2008