Guy Maccoy

Guy Crittington Maccoy (October 7, 1904 Valaposa, Valley Falls, Kansas - March 18, 1981 Los Angeles) was an American painter, printmaker, and teacher. Guy Crittington McKay was born in 1904 to Clifford McKay and Clara Angeline Young who was the granddaughter of Brigham Young. Clifford McKay later changes the family name to McCoy. Later on Guy changes name to Maccoy.[1]

Guy Maccoy

Biography

In 1924 Upon leaving high school Guy attends day and night courses at the Kansas City Art Institute. During this time Guy meets Geno Pettit whom later becomes his wife. Guy is taught by and meets fellow artists Thomas Hart Benton, Randall Davey, Monty Lewis, Vaclav Vytlacil, Alexander Kostellow, Anthony Angarola, Ernest Lawson, Boardman Robinson to name a few. Many become lifelong friends and colleagues. During the summers Guy travels to Colorado Springs to attend the Broadmoor Art Academy.

In 1929 Guy wins a Tiffany Art Foundation scholarship in New York and both he and Geno and recent Guggenheim Fellowship winner Anthony Angarola head to "The City".

In 1930 Guy wins Art Students League scholarship and begins work within the league. Studies alongside Jackson Pollock, Rico Lebrun, Boardman Robinson, Thomas Hart Benton, Jan Matulka, Vaclav Vytlacil, and Arthur Young. During summer months Guy travels back to Colorado Springs to teach at Broadmoor with Monty Lewis. Many artist are asking if only there was a means to reproduce their original works faithfully to offer additional revenue options from painting singular originals.

In 1933 Guy leaves the Art Student League to begin work within the Work Project Administration (WPA) under Dr. Herbert H. Spenden and directed by Ben Knotts. Guy is credited with murals in Central American Arts and Girls Industrial High School (see photo). The following year Mayor La Guardia institutes a large poster project which Guy is deeply involved. Guy has been developing ideas for a printing process utilizing a silk screen and experimenting with various components and mediums to produce the desired results.

In 1938 Guy has the first one-man show of the newly named process he is credited for developing "Serigraphs" at the Contemporary Art Gallery. On exhibit are "Woman Holding Cat" and "Still Life".

In 1940 Guy graduates from Columbia University with his Bachelor of Arts in teaching. Guy and Geno move to Vermont where Guy has taken work with the Poligraphic Lithographic Company as a color separator and dot-etcher on the zinc lithographic plates. During this time Guy continues to refine the serigraphic process.

In 1941 Guy is involved with "The Workshop" which becomes the National Serigraph Society. Guy and Geno are directly involved up to 1947.

In 1945 Guy and Geno leave Vermont for Los Angeles, California. Other Artists and Serigraphers follow the Maccoy's to California.

In 1947 Guy continues his industrial work with Bolter Lithography, During this time Herb Jepson asks Guy to teach at his newly formed Jepson Art Institute in Los Angeles. Guy is teaching alongside Geno Pettit, Rico Lebrun, William Moore, Francis de Erdely, Bill Brice and Howard Warshaw.

In 1948 Guy forms the Western Serigraph Society and becomes its first President.

In 1949 Otis Art Institute of Los Angeles's director Millard Sheets convinces Guy to come to Otis and teach. Guy remains for the next eleven years and retires at age sixty five.

During the next year Guy teaches Art at several other locations such as UCLA as well as the Palos Verdes Art Center in the Rancho Palos Verdes area of Los Angeles. Many students from Jepson, Otis and UCLA follow Guy, one of these students is Yvonne Linnemeyer.

In 1965 Guy is asked to join and assist the newly formed Los Angeles Print Society (L.A.P.S.)

In 1969 Guy begins private Art instruction and classes out of his Chatsworth badlands home and other area locations.

In 1970 Guy and Geno are notified that their fire insurance has been cancelled due to being in a high fire location. Two weeks later a devastating fire sweeps up from the Santa Suzanna mountains and destroys their home and studio along with all their earthly possessions and a life's worth of Art and memorabilia. Shortly after this event a huge out pouring of support of all types comes from students, fellow artists and other associates. Guy establishes the first of two new Guy Maccoy Studios in the Canoga Park area near his new residence. Yvonne and her son Alan Linnemeyer work alongside Guy, Yvonne as additional color separator and screen stenciling, Alan as print technician.

In 1972 Guy opens the second larger and greatly updated Guy Maccoy Studio, where he begins painting originals, producing his own serigraphs, conducts Art classes and seminars as well as begins taking on commissioned artworks from renowned artists looking for fine Art Limited Edition Serigraphs. Again Yvonne takes a key role in color separation and screen stenciling along with additional help from Dan Merrit and Ann Paes. Guy, Alan and Dan take on the key printing duties. Over this period the studio produces multiple commissioned works from renowned artists such as: Marco Sassone, Eyvind Earle, Ted Degrazia, Peter Hurd, Fredrick & Eileen Whitaker, Millard Sheets, Peter Ellenshaw, Jeffery Roy Lunge' just to name a few. Guy produced well over 100 original paintings and over eighty limited editions of his own works. Keeping in mind that all these serigraphs where hand stenciled on their screens using a method of color separation controlled one hundred percent by the mind's eye and knowledge of the Guy Maccoy process. Once the individual color run was completed on as few as 10 sheets of 100 percent rag paper to a practical sheet maximum of two hundred and fifty and never higher than three hundred with proofs included. After each print had been hand registered and printed it was hand hung up to dry, after all sheets in the edition had been run the screen was washed out, cleaned, dried and readied for the process to begin all over. The number of color runs to produce many of these fine work of art averaged in the fifty to eighty plus color runs with many prints having over one hundred color runs. This effect of color layering and intimate knowledge of color is what made Guy's work so beautiful, unique, collectable and valuable.

In 1981 Guy Crittington Maccoy with advanced stages of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. A disease of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement succumbs while in the hospital after only eight months with friends at his side he and his gentle greatness finally pass. Geno Pettit Maccoy passes a year later.

The Guy Maccoy Studio is continued under the direction of Yvonne Linnemeyer and over the next five years produces another fifteen commissioned works before the studio's location is moved to a smaller remote location to be closed a short time thereafter.

Guy is largely credited as "the Father" of the Serigraph process and his original paintings, serigraphs, mono prints and sketches are widely collected and remain a lasting testament to this great American artist's genius.

References
  1. http://www.guymaccoy.com
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