1952

January 10, signs first contract with Hallmark for a series of annual Christmas and Valentine’s Day cards; is paid $10,000/year. Unlike the earlier Museum of Modern Art cards, Hallmark’s are in color.

Mid-January, in Palm Beach, Florida, for pictorial research for a LIFE magazine article on Palm Beach.

Late January, ST and Hedda move into two floors of a brownstone owned by Frederick Stafford (formerly Stern), Hedda’s first husband, at 179 East 71st. ST rents space above as a studio. Stafford eventually transfers title of the building to Hedda, who receives rental income from two other apartments for the rest of her life.

January-February, solo exhibition at the Betty Parsons Gallery and Sidney Janis Gallery, New York; the first of the joint exhibitions the two galleries will mount (through 1976). The Parsons-Janis show initiates a three-year series of exhibitions in the US, South America, and Europe that will give ST wide national and international exposure, among them, shows at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, and the Museu de Arte de São Paulo. The Metropolitan Museum of Art prepurchases the 11-part drawing Parade from the Parsons segment of the show.

March, ST and Sterne have simultaneous solo exhibitions at Gump’s Gallery, San Francisco.

Late April, sails to London for the May 1 opening of his show at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. On the occasion of the exhibition, the BBC produces a film, “Coast to Coast,” with the camera moving across and closing in on a series of ST drawings, accompanied by American jazz, marching, and Western/cowboy music.

Travels by train through England sketching Victorian structures, railway stations, and pavilions.

By May 3 is in Paris, then on to Nice for six-day stay, a brief trip to Rome, then back to Paris by the middle of the month. Returns to London on May 20; sets sail for New York on the 28th.

July, goes to Chicago to cover the Democratic and Republican presidential conventions for The New Yorker. Produces no drawings of the conventions, but fills a sketchbook with verbal and pictorial notations about Chicago domestic and commercial architecture.

September 9, flies to Rio with Hedda; they spend time there and in Buenos Aires before going to São Paulo for the opening of their respective exhibitions at the Museu de Arte on September 18. They visit with museum director Pietro Maria Bardi and his wife, architect Lina Bo Bardi, whom ST had known in Milan.

After three weeks in São Paulo as well as Rio and Buenos Aires, Hedda returns to New York. ST journeys in Brazil, visiting Recife, Belém, and Manaus, among other places. October 21, returns to New York.