Researching Stella Snead

Stella Snead's paintings show her fascination with the "earth's most powerful phenomena, including tornadoes, geysers, and volcanoes," revealed by her "paintings of animals and humans performing ritualistic movements in anthropomorphic landscapes." One of her better known paintings is Ecstatic Cow (1943). Snead had a solo show in 1941 at Gallery 10 in New York, and shows at Bonestall Gallery in 1945, the Arcade Gallery in London (1945), and at E.L.T. Mesens's London Gallery (1950). In 1949, her work was shown at the Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh. "Wider recognition returned to Snead in 2005, when her work was included in Surrealism USA, a major exhibition of American Surrealism at the National Academy Museum in New York, followed by subsequent exhibitions at the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and several important gallery exhibitions of Surrealism."

Snead moved to India in the 1950s where she began working as a photographer. Snead is noted for the eight books of photography she published, including Shiva's Pigeons: An Experience of India (1972), Beach Patterns: The World of Sea and Sand (1975), and Animals in Four Worlds: Sculptures from India (1989). These were based on various extended trips to India in the 1960s, where she shot imagery of Hindu sculpture, Indian nature and street life in India’s urban centers.

Snead spent most of her adult life moving between New York City, London, Taos, New Mexico, and India. In 1971, she settled on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, remaining there until her death. Snead died on March 18, 2006, at the Jewish Home and Hospital in Manhattan, New York. According to Snead’s art dealer Pavel Zoubok, Snead died of natural causes. She left no immediate survivors upon her death.