Sophie Bouvier Ausländer MARY ANN UNGER FLUID LINE: 1968-83
Avalanche
Mary Ann Unger Fluid Line 1968-83
January 10 - February 16, 2019
521 West 26th St, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10001 T (212) 759-7555 F (212) 759-5824 www.davidsongallery.com info@davidsongallery.com
Davidson Gallery is pleased to present Fluid Line: 1968-83 a solo exhibition of work by Mary Ann Unger. This show – our third exhibition of Unger’s work – will focus specifically on the sculptures and drawings from the first half of her career. The title of the exhibition references the highly detailed geometric-meets-biomorphic imagery evidenced throughout the works, but also to the ease with which Unger transitioned between and among styles. This 15-year period proved extremely productive for Unger who, through worldwide travels, graduate school, and the birth of her daughter, found an inspiration and drive that would be drastically altered in the final years of her life. It is work from these earlier years that has recently entered the permanent collections of both the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Mary Ann Unger was a New York-based artist who began her career in the late 1960s, an artistic period in which she was one of several female artists deserving and worthy of recognition, but who never quite received her due. She received an MFA from Columbia in 1975, and had solo exhibitions throughout the 80s and 90s, until her untimely death in 1998 at the age of 53. Though her work is in the permanent collections of many major institutions in the US, she is far from a household name, having been cut down in the prime of her art career. In conjunction with the Mary Ann Unger Estate, housed in Unger’s former home and studio, Davidson Gallery has continued to present the artist’s drawings and sculptures from a across her prolific but truncated career. Concurrent with this exhibition, the Mary Ann Unger Estate will have on display the artist’s seminal late sculpture installation, Across the Bering Straits, available for viewing by appointment.
Mary Ann UNGER UNTITLED 1968 Acrylic 8 3/4 x 8 3/4 inches 22 x 22 cm
Mary Ann UNGER UNTITLED (AUG 17, 1968) 1968 Acrylic 10 x 11 inches 25.5 x 28 cm
Mary Ann UNGER UNTITLED (SEPT 30, 1968) 1968 Acrylic 9 x 12 inches 23 x 30.5 cm
Mary Ann UNGER WINTER TREE/UNTITLED 1971 Watercolor and Ink 13.5 x 11 inches 34.3 x 27.9 cm
Mary Ann UNGER UNTITLED 1975 Aluminum screen 30 x 30 x 30 inches 76 x 76 x 76 cm
Mary Ann UNGER UNTITLED 1978 Graphite 22.25 x 30 inches 56.5 x 76 cm
Mary Ann UNGER UNTITLED 1978 Graphite 22.25 x 30 inches 56.5 x 76 cm
Mary Ann UNGER UNTITLED 1978 Watercolor 2 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches 14 x 6.4 cm
Mary Ann UNGER UNTITLED 1978 Watercolor 2 1/2 x 5 inches 6.5 x 12.7 cm
Mary Ann UNGER UNTITLED 1978 Watercolor and graphite 8 1/2 x 12 inches 21.6 x 15.2 cm
Mary Ann UNGER UNTITLED 1978 Watercolor 6 x 6 inches 15.2 x 15.2 cm
Mary Ann UNGER UNTITLED 1978 Watercolor 6 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches 16.5 x 19.cm
Mary Ann UNGER UNTITLED 1978 Watercolor 7 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches 19 x 16.5 cm
Mary Ann UNGER UNTITLED 1978 Watercolor 4 1/2 x 8 inches 11.5 x 20 cm
Mary Ann UNGER UNTITLED 1978 Watercolor and graphite 3.5 x 3 inches 8.9 x 7.6 cm
Mary Ann UNGER UNTITLED (STUDY FOR HEXAGONAL QUINTET) 1978 Watercolor and Graphite 20.75 x 27 inches 52.7 x 68.6 cm
Mary Ann UNGER SPOON MUSIC (VERTEBRAE SERIES) 1980-81 Birch Plywood with Paint 48 x 6 x 30 inches 122 x 15 x 76 cm
Mary Ann UNGER UNTITLED c. 1977 Watercolor and Ink 8 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches 21.6 x 16.5 cm
Mary Ann UNGER UNTITLED c. 1978 Acrylic 15 x 18 3/4 inches 38 x 47.6 cm
Mary Ann UNGER UNTITLED c.1970 Acrylic 13 x 20 inches 33 x 50.8 cm
Mary Ann UNGER UNTITLED c.1980 Graphite 20 x 30 inches 51 x 76 cm
Biography Lived 1945-1998 Education 1975 M.F.A., School of the Arts, Columbia University 1968 Graduate study, University of California at Berkeley 1967 B.A., Mount Holyoke College Solo Exhibitions 2019 Davidson Gallery, New York, NY, Fluid Line: 1968-83 2016 Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York, NY, Flesh and Bone 2011 Maxwell Davidson Gallery, New York, NY, Geometry: Selected Works from the Estate of Mary Ann Unger 2000 McDonough Museum of Art, Youngstown, OH, Mary Ann Unger: In Life’s Balance (15 year Retrospective) 1999 Trans Hudson Gallery, New York, NY, Last Works 1997 Trans Hudson Gallery, New York, NY, New Sculpture and Drawings (catalogue) 1997 New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ, New Sculpture and Drawings 1994 Trans Hudson Gallery, Jersey City, NJ, Across the Bering Strait 1992 Klarfeld Perry Gallery, New York, NY, Dark Icons (catalogue) 1988 Bellevue Hospital Park, New York, NY, Family (site-specific installation) City University of New York Graduate Center, New York, NY, Tweed Garden (site-specific installation) 1986 Sculpture Center, New York, NY, Communion 1985 Tweed Courthouse, New York, NY, Tweed Garden (site-specific installation) Nassau County Museum of Fine Arts, Roslyn, NY, Gardens 1984 John Jay College Sculpture Garden, New York, NY, Mary Ann Unger: Paradise as Garden and Other Wood Constructions 1983 55 Mercer, New York, NY, Waterfalls 1982 City University of New York Graduate Center, New York, NY, Paradise as a Garden (site-specific installation) 1977 5 East Third Street Studio, New York, NY, 10 Downtown Awards 1995 1994 1992 1990 1985 1984 1979 1978
Pollock-Krasner Foundation, also 1989 Yaddo Residency Fellowship, also 1980, 1978 Guggenheim Fellowship New York Foundation for the Arts Athena Foundation Artists Fellowship, Inc. New York State Council on the Arts, also 1981, 1979 Betty Brazil Memorial Fund Award C.A.P.S. Grant in Sculpture Kutztown State College, Research Grant Committee for the Visual Arts, Artists Space
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Public Collections Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY City College of New York, NY The Dorsky Museum, State University of New York at New Paltz, NY The Fields Sculpture Park at Art Omi, Ghent, NY Guggenheim Foundation, New York, NY Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA Hillwood Art Museum of Long Island University, Charles William Post College, Greenvale, NY Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, MA Munson Williams Proctor Art Institute, Utica, NY Neuberger Museum, State University of New York at Purchase, NY New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL Shearson Lehman, New York, NY Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, FL Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC Whitney Museum, New York, NY Permanent Site Commissions 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986
Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, Flushing, NY, “Ode to Tatlin” North Regional Courthouse, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, “Pineapple” Merrimack Riverfront Park, Lawrence, MA “Gazebo” Cave Creek Sports Complex, Phoenix, AZ, “Tower” City Hall Plaza, Tampa, FL, “Wave” Gaithersburg Regional Library, Gaithersburg, MD, “Muktesvara Arch” Princeton Forrestal Village, Princeton, NJ, “Forrestal Garden” Lehigh University, Philip and Muriel Berman Sculpture Gardens, Bethlehem, PA, “The Temple” Ursinus College, Collegeville, PA, Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art, “Temple”
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This catalogue was produced in conjunction with the exhibition FLUID LINE 1968-83 at Davidson Gallery, New York, January 10 - February 16m 2019 All works © MARY ANN UNGER ESTATE