Leonard "Knute" Stiles

Knute Stiles (1923-2009) was a painter, collagist, art critic, and writer. During World War II, he served in Alaska and thereafter spent summers working on salmon boats and organizing workers. He enrolled at Black Mountain College in 1946 and studied with Ilya Bolotowsky. In San Francisco, he was briefly co-owner with Leo Krikorian of The Place, an influential bar in San Francisco’s North Beach district that was a gathering place for Beat writers and artists. Stiles taught drawing at the San Francisco Art Institute and wrote criticism for Art Forum and Art in America. He was a founder and member of San Francisco’s East-West House, a communal living space, where many artists and writers lived.

Biography written by Mary Emma Harris for the Black Mountain College Project.

Black Mountain College Project

Mary Emma Harris interviewed Leonard in 2002 and the transcript is available from Appalachian State University under The Mary Emma Harris and Black Mountain College Project, Inc. Oral History collection.

Topics: Hearing about BMC – family background – pre-BMC art study and jobs – work as fisherman – Ilya Bolotowsky art class – BMC students – Alice Jackson – work with civil rights organizations– general curriculum – visit to Trappist monastery – work program – Bolotowsky students – college cliques – excursions into mountains – post-BMC jobs – San Francisco in 1950s – Leo Krikorian and The Place in San Francisco – exhibitions at The Place – move to Mexico – post-BMC study – East-West House in San Francisco – Tom Field