When you drive from Woodstock to Mt. Tremper on Wittenberg Road, you’ll see a blue pyramidal sign on your right: “Matagiri.” The five buildings nestled across 49 acres of mountain forest were purchased by Sam Spanier in 1965 as a retreat honoring The Mother, Mira Alfassa, a French-Indian spiritual guru and yoga teacher whom he had met while on a spiritual search in India at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry. Matagiri—meaning “Mother’s Mountain” in Sanskrit—became both a spiritual center and the home he shared with his life partner, Eric Hughes.
Before founding Matagiri, Sam had been a Broadway actor and a painter studying under Hans Hofmann in New York City. In 1950, he moved to Paris, where he lived in a modest hotel on the Left Bank and befriended artists and thinkers like Alberto Giacometti, James Baldwin, Beauford Delaney, Paul Jenkins, and Sam Francis. When he returned to New York with 150 canvases, gallerist Betty Parsons told him, “You’re very talented,” and arranged his first show. Soon after, his work was accepted by the Museum of Modern Art.
Sam painted what he called apparitions—faces or visions that appeared to him during meditation. “The face is the means by which the soul is revealed,” he said. He believed that art was spiritual, a force reflecting divine energy. “We are all one,” he often told me. He trusted the soul to perceive what matters, and rejected the ordinary.
When we met in 1994, we were both certain we had known each other before—perhaps in Paris, where I lived in the early 1990s and he returned annually. We never figured it out, but instantly became close. I was making photo collages at the time and wanted to begin abstract painting. I called Sam to ask for a reference for a mentor or coach. “What about me?” he asked. Every Friday, he came to my studio. “That’s done, sign it,” he’d say—or, turning a piece upside down, “There, isn’t that better?” It always was. One painting from that time went into an exhibit titled Sam’s Up.
A few years before he passed, Sam asked me to help him write his biography—part memoir, part art book. As we worked, I took notes, jotting down questions to keep his 80-year-old mind on track, though it often wandered back to past lives, people, and paintings he still longed to make. To my question, “How do you balance ego with spirit?” he replied: “You cannot rid yourself of something you don’t know.”
This May, I look forward to sharing Sam’s generous spirit with others during his centenary celebration, with events at Matagiri, the Woodstock Artists Association, the Woodstock Library, and online.
Sam Spanier Centenary Events
- May 3, 5:30 p.m. – Film premiere and remarks, Woodstock Artists Association
- May 4, 4 p.m. – Gallery tour, Matagiri
- May 6, 9 a.m., 2 p.m., 8 p.m. – Online film presentation via Zoom (registration required at matagiri.org)
- May 10, 5 p.m. – Friends of Sam Spanier Remember, Woodstock Library
Note: Road work is planned on Wittenberg Road during May. Visitors to Matagiri should take Route 212 and Bearsville-Wittenberg Road instead.
Pat Horner is an artist and writer who has lived in Willow, N.Y., since 1994. Her book “Loving Scott: A Memoir” was published in 2023. Send correspondence to reporting@theoverlooknews.com.