ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONIST WOMEN
Heather James Fine Art is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings by women Abstract Expressionists. These paintings, constituting and available exclusively as a whole collection, represent the height of Abstraction Expressionism of the 1950s. Many of these artists, such as Elaine de Kooning, Perle Fine, Grace Hartigan, and Yvonne Thomas, were part of the pivotal 9th Street Show in 1951, and others were invited to participated in the famed Stable Annual Invitationals, which spotlighted the Post-War avant-garde scene in New York. Others featured in the collection are Sonja Sekula, Mary Abbott, Judith Godwin, Charlotte Park, Shirley Goldfarb, and Michael Corinne West. These artists are important, not just because they are women, but because they pioneered, transformed, and directed the Abstract Expressionist movement. De Kooning, Fine, and Abbott were part of “The Club”, the center of the Abstract Expressionism while others like Goldfarb, Park, and Thomas were part of this first generation that spearheaded the movement. Second and third generation artists including Hartigan and Godwin expanded the visual vocabulary and creative possibilities. Hartigan in particular was the first of the second generation artist to have their work acquired by the Museum of Modern Art at the behest of the director Alfred Bar. The artworks in this painting have also been featured in important exhibition that have re-examined the impact of these artists including “Women of Abstract Expressionism” (Denver Art Museum, 2016) and “Sparkling Amazons: Abstract Expressionist Women of the 9th St. Show” (Katonah Museum of Art, 2019). This re-examination broadens our understanding of the influence of art and artists; this is part of the larger conversation taking place as evidenced by the inclusion of Sekula as part of the landmark re-installation of the Museum of Modern Art following its expansion.
MARY ABBOTT ELAINE DE KOONING PERLE FINE JUDITH GODWIN SHIRLEY GOLDFARB GRACE HARTIGAN CHARLOTTE PARK SONJA SEKULA YVONNE THOMAS MICHAEL CORINNE WEST
MARY ABBOTT (1921-2019) Untitled mixed media on paper mounted to canvas 30 x 22 in. 1953 Provenance: Estate of the Artist Thomas McCormick Gallery, Chicago Private Collection, Minnesota
Mary Abbott was one of three female members of The Club, along with Perle Fine and Elaine de Kooning. In the early 1950s, the era in which Untitled was painted, Abbott began to exhibit with Stable, Kootz, and Tibor de Nagy galleries. She participated in three of the famous Stable Gallery annuals in 1954, 1955, and 1957. These were the prime breakout years of her career. Her paintings, like Purple Crossover (1959), feature bright colors inspired by her travels in the village markets and jungles of the Caribbean.
Mary Abbott in her New York studio in about 1950.
SOLD MARY ABBOTT (1921-2019) Purple Crossover oil on canvas 52 x 62 in. 1959 Provenance: Private Collection, USA Private Collection, Minnesota
ELANIE DE KOONING (1918-1989) Matador oil on canvas 40 x 60 in. 1959 Provenance: Estate of the Artist, by descent until present Private Collection, Minnesota
Elaine de Kooning, Bullfight, 1957, oil on paper Smithsonian American Art Museum
Elaine de Kooning’s bullfight paintings are some of her most well-known and celebrated contributions to Abstract Expressionism. Inspired by visits to Mexico where she attended many bullfights, de Kooning began to incorporate bolder colors onto canvases bursting with energy. Her bullfights are part of the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Denver Art Museum.
Elaine de Kooning, Bullfight, 1960, acrylic on paper Museum of Modern Art, New York
ELANIE DE KOONING (1918-1989) Untitled oil on paper on canvas 38 x 28 in. 1950 Provenance: Estate of the Artist Washburn Gallery, New York Salander O’Reilly Gallery, New York Owings Dewey Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2005 Private Collection, New York Private Collection, Massachusetts Debra Force Fine Art, New York Private Collection, Minnesota
Elaine de Kooning was a member of the Eighth Street Club in New York, where leading Abstract Expressionists met to discuss art and writing. It was a rare membership for a woman at the time. Shortly after de Kooning painting Untitled (1950), she presented her first solo exhibition and spent the summer at art dealer Leo Castelli’s house at the Hamptons (1952). In 1951, she showed at the 9th Street Art Exhibition, as well as the subsequent New York Artists’ Annual Exhibitions at Stable Gallery.
PERLE FINE (1905-1988) The Early Morning Garden oil and collage on canvas 44 x 35 3/4 in. 1957 Provenance: Private Collection, USA Thomas McCormick Gallery, Chicago Private Collection, Minnesota Exhibited: Women of Abstract Expressionism. Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado. June 12 - September 25, 2016 Literature: Marter, Joan, ed. Women of Abstract Expressionism (New Haven: Yale University Press with Denver Art Museum): 2016, illus. p. 86-87
Perle Fine’s The Early Morning Garden was featured in the Denver Art Museum’s notable 2016 exhibition, Women of Abstract Expressionism. Fine was chosen by her peers to be included in the seminal 1951 Ninth Street Show. She also participated from 1951 to 1957 in the invitational New York Painting and Sculpture Annuals. She was one of the 24 artists (from 156 New York School artists) to be included in all of the Annuals – Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Elaine de Kooning were among the other 24.
Fine’s Early Morning Garden hangs on the wall in the background of a studio with Willem de Kooning and other AbEx painters.
PERLE FINE (1905-1988) Figure Descending a Ladder oil on canvas 43 x 48 in. 1960 Provenance: Thomas McCormick Gallery, Chicago Private Collection, Minnesota
JUDITH GODWIN (b. 1930) Trial oil on canvas 66 x 50 in. 1957-59 Provenance: Berry Campbell Gallery, New York Private Collection, Minnesota
Considered a third-generation Abstract Expressionist, Judith Godwin’s work is influenced by color, gesture, emotions, and personal experiences. In 1953 she moved to New York to attend the Art Students League of New York and the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts. It was during this period that she embraced Zen living, which has continued to inspire her style and personal life. In the late 1950s, around the time this painting was created, Betty Parsons invited Godwin to join her gallery, Section Eleven.
Class at the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts, Provincetown, ca. 1945
SHIRLEY GOLDFARB (1925-1980) Untitled oil on board 30 x 40 in. 1963 Provenance: Private Collection, Connecticut Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers, Connecticut, Thursday, October 24, 2019 Thence by descent to current owner Private Collection, Minnesota
Pennsylvania native Shirley Goldfarb won a scholarship for study at the Art Students League of New York from 1952-1953. During this time in New York she frequented the Cedar Bar where other AbEx artists convened, then the following year moved to Paris. She remained there the rest of her life, developing her particular AbEx style that combines painterly action with light and color. There, she befriended contemporaries Joan Mitchell, Sam Francis, Alberto Giacometti, Man Ray, Max Ernst, Andy Warhol, and David Hockney. A portrait of Goldfarb by Hockney is now in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
David Hockney, Shirley Goldfarb + Gregory Masurovsky, 1974 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
GRACE HARTIGAN (1922-2008) Cedar Bar oil on canvas 39 1/2 x 31 3/4 in. 1951 Provenance: BC Holland Gallery, Chicago Private Collection, Chicago Private Collection, Minnesota Exhibited: Sparkling Amazons: Abstract Expressionist Women of the 9th St. Show, 6 Oct. 2019-26 Jan. 2020, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY
Hartigan’s Cedar Bar references the famous gathering place for artists of the New York School. The bar in Greenwich Village regularly hosted central figures of the Post-War avant-garde scene, including Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and many others, and is considered to be a key incubator of Abstract Expressionism. Hartigan discussed the Cedar Bar in her private journal. It was recently featured in an important show of the Ninth Street Women artists, Sparkling Amazons: Abstract Expressionist Women of the 9th St. Show, curated by Michele Wije.
Photo of Cedar Bar by Walt Silver
Grace Hartigan with friends in the Cedar Tavern
GRACE HARTIGAN (1922-2008) Still Life with Cucumber oil on canvas 29 x 30 in. 1953 Provenance: Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY (label verso) Mr. and Mrs. Merlyn Pizele, New York, NY, purchased from above, 1953 Gruenebaum Gallery, New York, NY, circa 1983 (label verso) Private Collection, Dallas, TX, circa 1983 - 2011 Private Collection, Minnesota Exhibited: Grace Hartigan Solo Exhibition (March 31 - April18, 1953), Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY (label verso) Paintings by Grace George Hartigan (October 25 - November 24, 1954), Vassar College Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY (Label verso above annotated with “Vassar Exhibit” and “Mr. and Mrs. Merlyn Pizele”. Listed in catalogue flyer as work number 7, “Collection of Mr. and Mrs. M.S. Pizele” Gruenebaum Gallery, New York, NY, circa 1983 (label verso) Literature: The Journals of Grace Hartigan 1951-1955 (Syracuse University Press, 2009). Referenced on page 109, 110, and 156
Still Life with Cucumber was shown at Hartigan’s very first solo exhibition with Tibor de Nagy Gallery in 1953. It was created in the wake of her discovery by Clement Greenberg and Meyer Schapiro in 1950, when they selected one of her paintings for the Kootz Gallery’s New Talent show, as well as the 1952 and 1953 purchases by MoMA New York of The Persian Jacket and River Bathers. It was also after these breaks in her career that Hartigan began drifting toward figuration in her work In search of her distinct artist voice. Still Life with Cucumber fits within this significant and critical period of her career. Five years later, in 1958, Hartigan would be featured as the youngest and the only female artist in the Museum of Modern Art’s New American Painting traveling exhibition.
CHARLOTTE PARK (1918-2010) Untitled oil on canvas 42 x 26 in. 1950-51 Provenance: Private Collection Mark Borghi Fine Art, New York Private Collection, Minnesota
A first-generation Abstract Expressionist, Charlotte Park lived next to Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner who became close influences. Before moving to New York, Park lived in Washington D.C. and took classes with Cubist painter Wallace Harrison. Those Cubist influences are evident in her distinctive geometric and gestural forms. Her early 1950 works consisted mainly of black and white paintings, colored gouaches, and gestural drawings; here, in Untitled, we see an exploration of color, gesture, and form in this critical early period of her career. A year after this painting was completed, Park showed at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Painting.
Class at the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts, Provincetown, ca. 1945
SOLD SONJA SEKULA (1918-1963) 7am oil on canvas 24 7/8 x 30 3/4 in. c. 1948-1949 Provenance: Private Collection, Minnesota Exhibited: Sparkling Amazons: Abstract Expressionist Women of the 9th St. Show, 6 Oct. 2019-26 Jan. 2020, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY
Swiss-born Sonja Sekula brought a unique perspective to New York Abstract Expressionism influenced by European Surrealism. Her late 1940s painting 7am is similar to the Sonja Sekula painting now prominently displayed after the major reinstall of the galleries at MoMA. 7am was also featured in the recent exhibition curated by Michele Wije, Sparkling Amazons: Abstract Expressionist Women of the 9th St. Show.
Sonja Sekula, The Town of the Poor, 1951, oil on canvas Museum of Modern Art, New York
SOLD YVONNE THOMAS (1913-2009) Transmutation oil on canvas 70 x 66 in. 1956 Provenance: Thomas McCormick Gallery, Chicago Art Enterprises, Limited Private Collection, Minnesota Literature: Marter, Joan, ed. Women of Abstract Expressionism (New Haven: Yale University Press with Denver Art Museum): 2016, illus. p. 1
Yvonne Thomas studied at the Subject of the Artist school (active from 1948-49) with Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, William Baziotes, and David Hare. Although short-lived, the school was important as the genesis of “The Club,� the exclusive center of Abstract Expressionism. Thomas is one of the few women recognized as a first-generation AbEx artist, she was included in all five of the New York Paintings and Sculpture Annuals, and she exhibited in the 1951 9th Street Show.
MICHAEL CORINNE WEST (1908-1991) Nihilism oil, enamel, and sand on canvas 53 1/8 x 40 1/4 in. 1949 Provenance: Estate of the Artist Private Collection, Minnesota Exhibited: Pollock-Krasner house and Study Center, East Hampton, New York, Michael West, Painter-Poet, August 1 - October 26, 1996, no. 12 Literature: Marter, Joan, ed. Women of Abstract Expressionism. (New Haven; Yale UP with the Denver Art Museum, 2016), illus. p. 24
Born Corinne Michelle West in 1908, by 1936 she began to go by Mikael (or Michael) to gain better opportunities – AbEx painter Arshile Gorky told her that the name “Corinne” sounded like that of a “debutante’s daughter.” For a brief time, she was a student of Hans Hofmann at the Art Students League of New York, but soon rejected formality for experimentation and instinctive creativity. The 1949 painting, Nihilism, showcases West’s interest in process – here rubbing sand over a dynamic drip painting.
Michael West in her studio with Black and White (1947), 1947.
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