{{Short description|American art historian, musician, and artist (1935–2022)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2026}} {{Infobox person | name = Stephen Addiss | image = Stephen Addiss on Rainbow Quest 1966.jpg | caption = Addiss performing on ''Rainbow Quest'' (1966) | birth_name = Stephen Addiss | birth_date = 1935 | birth_place = New York City, U.S. | death_date = May 11, 2022 | occupation = {{hlist|Art historian|musician|painter|calligrapher}} | education = {{plainlist| * Harvard University (BA) * University of Michigan (MA, PhD) }} | known_for = Scholarship on Japanese art; the folk duo Addiss & Crofut }}
'''Stephen Addiss''' (1935 – May 11, 2022) was an American art historian, musician, painter, and calligrapher. He was a scholar of Japanese art, particularly Zen painting and calligraphy and haiga, and the author of numerous books. Earlier in his career he was, with Bill Crofut, half of the folk-music duo '''Addiss & Crofut''', which toured internationally under United States State Department programs in the 1960s.
==Early life and education== Addiss was born in New York City in 1935.<ref name="aha"/> He studied music composition at Harvard University, graduating ''cum laude'' in 1957, and continued at the Mannes College of Music. He took an experimental composition course with John Cage at the New School.<ref name="aha"/> He later earned a master's degree and a doctorate in East Asian art history at the University of Michigan,<ref name="aha"/> completing his PhD in 1977 with his dissertation on Japanese painter Uragami Gyokudo.<ref>{{cite web |title=Dissertation Titles |publisher=University of Michigan Department of the History of Art |url=https://lsa.umich.edu/histart/graduates/dissertation-titles.html |access-date=May 31, 2026 |quote=1977 Stephen Addiss: Uragami Gyokudo: The Complete Literati Artist (Directed by Cal French)}}</ref>
==Music career== With Bill Crofut, Addiss formed the folk duo Addiss & Crofut, which was active for roughly sixteen years beginning in the early 1960s.<ref name="aha"/><ref name="folkways"/> The pair toured many countries in Africa and Asia under the sponsorship of the U.S. State Department's cultural-exchange program,<ref name="folkways"/><ref name="nyt-crofut"/> performing songs in many languages and were billed as the "troubadours of goodwill."<ref name="rfk-foreword">{{cite book |last=Crofut |first=William |author-link=Bill Crofut |title=Troubadour: A Different Battlefield |publisher=E. P. Dutton |location=New York |year=1968 |oclc=440141 |others=Foreword by Robert F. Kennedy |quote=Mr. Crofut and his companion, Mr. Addiss, have rightly been called the "troubadours of goodwill."}}</ref> On April 2, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson honored Addiss and Crofut at a White House ceremony for their cultural work in Southeast Asia.<ref name="lbj"/>
The duo recorded for Folkways Records and Columbia Records. Their albums include ''400 Years of Folk Music'' and ''World Tour with Folk Songs'' for Folkways and ''Addiss and Crofut'' (1967) and ''Eastern Ferris Wheel'' (1968) for Columbia.<ref name="folkways"/><ref name="allmusic"/><ref>{{cite AV media |people=Addiss & Crofut |title=Addiss and Crofut |type=LP |location=New York |publisher=Columbia Records |date=1967 |id=CL 2611 / CS 9411 |oclc=13915438}}</ref> They appeared on national television, including Johnny Carson and "Captain Kangaroo",<ref name="aha"/> and on Pete Seeger's folk-music series ''Rainbow Quest'', where they performed with the Vietnamese songwriter Phạm Duy.<ref name="rainbowquest"/>
==Academic career== Addiss taught at the University of Kansas from 1977 to 1992, and then from 1992 at the University of Richmond.<ref name="aha"/> At Richmond, he held the Tucker-Boatwright Professorship in the Humanities until his retirement in 2013.<ref name="marquis"/><ref name="wapo-jenkins"/> His scholarship focused on Japanese literati painting (''nanga''),<ref name="mn-tall"/><ref name="jas-quest"/> Zen painting and calligraphy,<ref name="mn-zen"/><ref name="studio-hakuin"/> haiku, and haiga (haiku painting).<ref name="aha"/>
His grants and awards included a presidential award in 1965, a Fulbright-Hays scholarship to Japan in 1981, a Korean government cultural grant in 1979 and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1984 and 1989.<ref name="marquis"/> Addiss was also an adjunct curator at the New Orleans Museum of Art from 1978 to 1986<ref name="marquis"/> and served as honorary curator of the American Haiku Archives at the California State Library, 2009-2010.<ref name="aha"/>
He wrote ''The Art of Zen: Paintings and Calligraphy by Japanese Monks 1600–1925'' (Abrams, 1989).<ref name="shambhala"/> He produced a translation of the ''Tao Te Ching'' (Hackett, 1993) with Stanley Lombardo.<ref name="hackett"/> Other books in this field he worked on were ''The Sound of One Hand: Paintings and Calligraphy of Zen Master Hakuin'' (with Audrey Yoshiko Seo), ''77 Dances: Japanese Calligraphy by Poets, Monks, and Scholars 1568–1868'' (Weatherhill, 2006), ''Zen Sourcebook'' (Hackett, 2008), and ''The Art of Haiku'' (Shambhala, 2012).<ref name="shambhala"/>
Addiss's scholarship was reviewed in leading academic journals, including ''Monumenta Nipponica'',<ref name="mn-zen"/><ref name="mn-tall"/> ''The Journal of Asian Studies'',<ref name="jas-tall"/><ref name="jas-quest"/> ''Philosophy East and West'',<ref name="pew-tao"/> and ''The Art Bulletin''.<ref name="ab-arthist"/>
==Artwork== Addiss practiced ink painting, calligraphy, and haiga. This work was exhibited in Asia, Europe, and the United States.<ref name="shambhala"/><ref name="aha"/>
==Personal life and death== Addiss died on May 11, 2022.<ref name="shambhala"/>
==Selected publications== * ''The Art of Zen: Paintings and Calligraphy by Japanese Monks 1600–1925''. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1989. {{ISBN|9780810918863}}. * ''Haiga: Takebe Sōchō and the Haiku-Painting Tradition''. Richmond: Marsh Art Gallery, 1995. * ''Tao Te Ching'' (translation, with Stanley Lombardo). Indianapolis: Hackett, 1993. {{ISBN|9780872202320}}. * ''77 Dances: Japanese Calligraphy by Poets, Monks, and Scholars 1568–1868''. New York: Weatherhill, 2006. * ''The Art of Haiku: Its History through Poems and Paintings by Japanese Masters''. Boston: Shambhala, 2012. {{ISBN|9781590309582}}.
==References== {{reflist|refs= <ref name="studio-hakuin">{{cite web |last=Di Marzo |first=Cindi |title=Picturing Paradox: The Sound of One Hand |website=Studio International |date=September 12, 2010 |url=https://www.studiointernational.com/picturing-paradox--the-sound-of-one-hand-paintings-and-calligraphy-by-zen-master-hakuin |access-date=June 1, 2026}}</ref> <ref name="lbj">{{cite web |title=Remarks at a Ceremony in Honor of Stephen Addiss and William E. Crofut II |work=The American Presidency Project |publisher=University of California, Santa Barbara |date=April 2, 1965 |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-ceremony-honor-stephen-addiss-and-william-e-crofut-ii |access-date=May 25, 2026}}</ref> <ref name="shambhala">{{cite web |title=Remembering Stephen Addiss (1935–2022) |publisher=Shambhala Publications |year=2022 |url=https://www.shambhala.com/stephen-addiss/ |access-date=May 25, 2026}}</ref> <ref name="aha">{{cite web |title=Stephen Addiss, Honorary Curator 2009–2010 |publisher=American Haiku Archives |url=https://www.americanhaikuarchives.org/curators/StephenAddiss.html |access-date=June 1, 2026}}</ref> <ref name="wapo-jenkins">{{cite news |last=Jenkins |first=Mark |title=In the galleries: simplicity, spontaneity and the beauty of imperfection |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=April 3, 2015}}</ref> <ref name="marquis">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Addiss, Stephen |encyclopedia=Who's Who in America |publisher=Marquis Who's Who |via=Marquis Biographies Online |url=https://search.marquiswhoswho.com/profile/100002129095 |url-access=subscription |access-date=June 1, 2026}}</ref> <ref name="nyt-crofut">{{cite news |title=Bill Crofut, 64, a Folk Singer, Banjo Player and Crossover Artist |newspaper=The New York Times |date=February 1, 1999 |page=B8 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/02/01/arts/bill-crofut-64-a-folk-singer-banjo-player-and-crossover-artist.html |access-date=June 1, 2026}}</ref> <ref name="folkways">{{cite web |title=Stephen Addiss and Bill Crofut: 400 Years of Folk Music |publisher=Smithsonian Folkways Recordings |url=https://folkways.si.edu/stephen-addiss-and-bill-crofut/400-years-of-folk-music/american-folk/album/smithsonian |access-date=May 25, 2026}}</ref> <ref name="allmusic">{{cite web |title=Addiss & Crofut |work=AllMusic |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/addiss-crofut-mn0001436839 |access-date=May 25, 2026}}</ref> <ref name="hackett">{{cite book |author=Lao-Tzu |translator=Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo |title=Tao Te Ching |publisher=Hackett Publishing |year=1993 |isbn=9780872202320}}</ref> <ref name="rainbowquest">{{cite web |title=Rainbow Quest, Episode 30: Addiss & Crofut with Phạm Duy |publisher=Internet Archive |date=1965 |url=https://archive.org/details/RainbowQuest30 |access-date=May 25, 2026}}</ref> <ref name="mn-zen">{{cite journal |last=Baekeland |first=Frederick |title=Review of ''The Art of Zen: Paintings and Calligraphy by Japanese Monks, 1600–1925'' by Stephen Addiss |journal=Monumenta Nipponica |volume=45 |issue=1 |year=1990 |pages=119–121 |jstor=2384509 |url=https://dept.sophia.ac.jp/monumenta/article/the-art-of-zen-paintings-and-calligraphy-by-japanese-monks-1600-1925-by-stephen-addiss/}}</ref> <ref name="mn-tall">{{cite journal |last=Berry |first=Paul |title=Review of ''Tall Mountains and Flowing Waters: The Arts of Uragami Gyokudō'' by Stephen Addiss |journal=Monumenta Nipponica |volume=43 |issue=4 |year=1988 |pages=505–508 |jstor=2384813 |url=https://dept.sophia.ac.jp/monumenta/article/tall-mountains-and-flowing-waters-the-arts-of-uragami-gyokudo-by-stephen-addiss/}}</ref> <ref name="jas-tall">{{cite journal |last=Horton |first=Elizabeth |title=Review of ''Tall Mountains and Flowing Waters: The Arts of Uragami Gyokudō'' by Stephen Addiss |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |volume=48 |issue=2 |date=May 1989 |page=380}}</ref> <ref name="jas-quest">{{cite journal |last=Berry |first=Paul |title=Review of ''Japanese Quest for a New Vision: The Impact of Visiting Chinese Painters, 1600–1900'' edited by Stephen Addiss |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |volume=47 |issue=3 |date=August 1988 |page=631}}</ref> <ref name="pew-tao">{{cite journal |last=Kohn |first=Livia |title=Review of ''Tao Te Ching'' translated by Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo |journal=Philosophy East and West |volume=47 |issue=3 |date=July 1997 |page=441}}</ref> <ref name="ab-arthist">{{cite journal |last=Singerman |first=Howard |title=Review of ''Art History and Education'' by Stephen Addiss and Mary Erickson |journal=The Art Bulletin |volume=77 |issue=3 |date=September 1995 |page=511}}</ref> }}
==External links== * {{cite web |title=Addiss & Crofut |work=Smithsonian Folkways Recordings |url=https://folkways.si.edu/}}
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Category:1935 births Category:2022 deaths Category:American art historians Category:Historians of Japanese art Category:American folk musicians Category:University of Richmond faculty Category:University of Kansas faculty Category:Harvard University alumni Category:University of Michigan alumni Category:American calligraphers Category:Musicians from New York City