A Quest for Parity: Women in Art

A QUEST FOR PARITY WOMEN IN ART JODY KLOTZ FINE ART



A QUEST FOR PARITY WOMEN IN ART WINTER/SPRING 2021 JODY KLOTZ FINE ART 1060 North 2nd Street • Abilene, TX 79601 • 325.670.9880 f ineart@ jodyklotz.com • www.jodyklotz.com

ABOUT THE GALLERY International roots are at the heart of this distinctive Texas gallery. In 1980, Jody Klotz began her career working as a young art dealer in Paris for four years, and then New York City for fifteen years, specializing in 19th and 20th Century European and American paintings including Barbizon, Academic, Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Modern works. She cultivated an internationally based business with a broad network of dealers and collectors. In 1997, she relocated her gallery to Abilene, Texas while continuing to be highly active in the international art market. The gallery has participated in international art fairs including Art Palm Springs, Modernism Palm Springs, the Palm Beach International Art and Antique Fair, Beverly Hills Art and Antique Fair, and the Dallas Art and Antique Fair. Jody purchases much of the gallery inventory abroad. European and American Post War and Color Field painting, as well as some early Texas art and mid-century Texas Modernism, have become an expanded focus of the gallery in more recent years. The gallery has exhibited in numerous regional art fairs such as the Houston Theta Art and Antique Fair and the Texas Art Fair of the Center for the Advancement and Study of Early Texas Art. Jody Klotz Fine Art contributes locally to the cultural scene of the City of Abilene by curating periodic shows, hosting art talks and vibrant events, and publishing catalogs to accompany its exhibitions. JKFA takes great pride in this aspect of the gallery life and in the collaboration with our cultural community. It's not the most likely place for an International art gallery but as in the movie Field of Dreams, our mantra is \"If you build it they will come\"... OUR STAFF JODY KLOTZ | OWNER JOSHUA WRIGHT | GALLERY DIRECTOR MANDY LAMBRIGHT | CREATIVE DIRECTOR BILL HUBER | PRODUCTION SPECIALIST

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION One of the most relevant focuses of the current art market is a growing recognition of the often-overlooked role that women have played in the visual arts. While we are still far from achieving parity in the art world, there has been an increased appreciation for female artists of the past and the present. Yet there is still much work to be done. Even as I research artists for this show, I am struck by how history has remembered some of these artists only in the context of their husbands or fathers. While these women had the talent to stand on their own, their accomplishments often are mentioned only as a side note to the careers of the men in their lives.   Just as in society at large, art historians, galleries and collectors alike are beginning to see not only the value that current female artists are bringing to the market, but also the enormous impacts that women of the past have made. This exhibition seeks to highlight those contributions by displaying the work of six highly accomplished women with unique artistic perspectives. In this show, we see the impact of the Romanian born artist Natalia Dumitresco on Post-War Lyric Abstraction, as well as the influence of the great French artist Geneviève Claisse on the development of Geometric Abstraction. We also examine the importance of Elaine de Kooning on American Abstract Expressionism and two generations of Avery women on American Modernism.   A Quest for Parity looks to these influences of the past as a way to envision a bright future ahead for equality in the arts. Through this exhibition we recognize that extremely talented female artists are not new – they have worked throughout history. What is new is the recognition that they garner. While many strides have been made in bringing their work into the spotlight, there is much more work to be done. In presenting this show, we hope to stand up for the pioneering women of the past and the persevering women of the present in their pursuit of equality in art. JOSHUA WRIGHT GALLERY DIRECTOR

MARCH AVERY AMERICAN, BORN 1932 March Avery, born 1932, is the daughter of famous and influential American painter Milton Avery and American artist Sally Michel Avery. Inspired by their example, Avery grew up painting with her family and developed a distinct style, one that uses abstract forms and brilliant color to depict the scenes of everyday life. Avery avoided the influences, like world events and abstract expressionism embraced by many artists in the 1930s and '40s. Instead, she always adhered to her father's methods: reducing elements to their essential forms, eliminating many details, and instead developed flattened shapes and strong colors. Even today, Avery is most influenced by her father, who died at age 85 in 1965. Without much parental supervision, perhaps she gravitated to his style by osmosis. Avery grew up in New York around her parents’ artist friends, such as Mark Rothko, Adolf Gottlieb, Barnett Newman and Marsden Hartley. She spent her summers in the country, which has had a clear influence on her work. The artist never took a single studio or art history class. Instead, Avery hoped she might discover the definition of \"truth and beauty\" by studying philosophy at Barnard College. Youthful idealism didn't stop the headstrong artist from returning to her roots. \"I knew no one but artists, so I knew that is all I would ever be,\" she says. Avery married Philip Cavanaugh in 1952 and graduated from Barnard College in 1954 with a degree in philosophy. Avery’s son, Sean, is also a painter. Avery, who is based in New York, has been exhibited at museums and galleries around the country, including The Chrysler Museum, Vanderbilt University, Bryn Mawr College, the Brooklyn Museum, the Newark Museum, the New Britain Museum and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: Waverly Gallery, New York, 1963-1978 Paul Kessler Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1963-78 Fontana Gallery, Narberth, Pennsylvania, 1964-1981 \"The Milton Avery Family\", The New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut, 1968 \"Paintings by Milton Avery and His Family\", Allentown Art Museum, Pennsylvania, September 4-26, 1971 \"March Avery: Recent Paintings and Mixed Media\", Agra Gallery, Washington, DC, 1972

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS (CONTINUED): \"March Avery: Recent Paintings\", Summit Gallery, New York, 1982 Visual Images Gallery, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, 1982-1983 Armstrong Gallery, New York, 1986 Kendall Gallery, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, 1987-2010 Bell Gallery, Woodstock, New York, 1988 Sena East Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1988 David Barnett Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1992 \"March Avery: Selected Works: 1974-1994\", Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery, Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, Fairfield University, Connecticut, in conjunction with Hoorn-Ashby Gallery, New York, 1994 Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, 1994 Hoorn-Ashby Gallery, New York, New York, 1995 Marguerite Oestreicher Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1997 Yearly exhibitions, Marin-Price Gallery, Chevy Chase, Maryland, 2004-2014 \"March Avery\", Louise McCagg Gallery, Diana Center, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, 2019 \"March Avery\", Blum and Poe, New York, 2019 \"Summer with the Averys: [Milton/Sally/March]\", Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut, 2019 \"March Avery\", Blum and Poe, Los Angeles, 2020-2021 MUSEUMS & COLLECTIONS: Art & History Museums, Maitland, Florida Artists Association of Nantucket, Massachusetts Brooklyn Museum, New York William and Uytendale Scott Memorial Study Collection of Works by Women Artists, Bryn Mawr College Art & Archeology Collections, Pennsylvania The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia The Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine The Long Island Museum of American Art, History & Carriages, Stony Brook, New York Newark Museum, New Jersey New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut

MUSEUMS & COLLECTIONS (CONTINUED): Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee Woodstock Artists Association and Museum, New York Woodstock Historical Society, New York The artist at work March Avery in her studio A young March Avery painting

WOMAN IN GREEN, 1984 Gouache and watercolor on paper 18 x 24 inches Signed and dated upper right: MARCH AVERY '84

GENEVIÈVE CLAISSE FRENCH, 1935-2018 Geneviève Claisse, who specialized in geometric abstraction, was born in 1935, in Quievy, France. She studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Her approach to painting was influenced by reading Art d’Aujourd’hui, Tribune of Geometrical Abstraction. Claisse was the great niece of artist Auguste Herbin, a founder of the French group of artists known as Abstraction-Création. In the late 1950s, Genevieve worked as an assistant in Herbin's studio. In Herbin's mind, Claisse was \"le successeur désigné par le destin et par l'hérédité\" (\"the successor appointed by destiny and heredity\"). Like Herbin, Claisse's work shows a devotion to the ideals of formal purity and the perfection of execution. At this young age she worked tirelessly, often working at night after a day in the studio, carefully painting abstract forms on bold, colorful canvases. Geneviève Claisse’s work is a rigorous exploration of geometric abstraction, which began in 1954 and went through various creative phases. Her early works were lyrical abstractions treated in vivid patches of solid color. She later expanded her vocabulary in her search for movement and multiple spaces that would animate the flatness of the painted surface. Circles and triangles, which the artist treats in turns and independently, are the two recurring themes in her serial compositions, in which the extreme simplicity of the shapes is transfigured by the variations in color ratios. Claisse’s two-dimensional kinetic approach reached a new peak in the mid-1970s when she temporarily gave up shapes and colors in favor of the geometric play of black lines on a white background. Enhanced by what she learned, her work reverted to a comparative treatment of color, which the artist chose to use with the strictest economy of means. Claisse reduced her compositions to precisely executed and sensitively balanced compositions, alternating solid color blocks and lines. During this transitional period, the white background became a permanent feature in her work. The artist's work was included in the recent museum exhibition, focusing on women artists in France in the 1950s, entitled \"Femmes années 50. Au fil de l’abstraction, peinture et sculpture\" (Women from the 1950s. The thread of abstraction, painting and sculpture) at the Musée Soulages in Rodez, France. SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: Galerie Caille, Cambrai, 1958 Galerie Hybler, Paris, 1958 Galerie Denise René, Paris, 1961

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS (CONTINUED): Museum of Fine Art of La Chaux-de-Fonds, Biennale de Paris, 1967 \"Art Optique\", Museum of Fine Art of Oslo, 1968 Galerie Denise René, Paris, 1970 Galerie d'Eendt, Amsterdam, 1971 Modern art center of Alencon, 1972 \"Concepts multilinéaires\", Galerie Denise René, Paris, 1978 Galerie Denise René, Paris, 1981 Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, 1983 \"Femmes années 50. Au fil de l’abstraction, peinture et sculpture,\" Musée Soulages, Rodez, France, 2019-2020 MUSEUMS & COLLECTIONS: Guggenheim Museum, New York Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago Hirschhorn Foundation, Washington, D.C. Musée Matisse du Cateau-Cambrésis Musée des Beaux-Arts, Grenoble Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne Musées des Beaux-Arts, La Chaux de Fonds Tel Aviv Museum of Art Collection UNESCO, Paris Museum Ritter, Waldenbuch/Stuttgart FRAC-Ile de France LaM, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France Portrait of a young Geneviève Claisse

The artist in her studio Portrait of Geneviève Claisse The artist at a book signing A young Geneviève Claisse with her uncle, Auguste Herbin

COMPOSITION, 1957 Gouache on paper 8 ¼ x 10 ⅝ inches Signed lower right and dated lower left: Genevieve Claisse / 8-57-

COMPOSITION, 1959 Gouache on paper 17 ⅜ x 24 ⅜ inches Signed lower right and dated lower left: Genevieve Claisse / 1959

H, 1969 Acrylic on canvas 39 ¼ x 39 ¼ inches Signed, dated and titled on reverse: Claisse 1969 \"H\"

PAVANE, 1960 Gouache on paper 13 ⅜ x 11 ⅜ inches Signed and dated lower right and titled lower left: g. claisse. 1960 / \"Pavane\"

POK, 1971 Oil on canvas 39 ⅜ x 39 ⅜ inches Signed, dated and titled on reverse: Claisse 1971 / \"PoK\"

ELAINE DE KOONING AMERICAN, 1918-1989 Elaine Fried de Kooning was an artist, writer, and wife during the heyday of Abstract Expressionism. Being a painter came first, yet her relationship to one of the dominant figures of the movement shaped her existence. She was a twenty-year old art student in 1938 when she first met Willem de Kooning, the Dutch painter sixteen years her senior. Elaine’s boyfriend at the time, Milton Resnick, claimed Bill de Kooning “seduced her by teaching her art.” She subsequently became de Kooning's model and the inspiration for his famous paintings of women. They were married in 1943. As a child, Elaine Fried, a native of Brooklyn, New York, made regular visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At Erasmus High School, she excelled in writing and math, but after a few weeks at Hunter College in Manhattan she dropped out to study at the Leonardo da Vinci Art School and the American Artists School. In the spring of 1948, the de Koonings were struggling to make ends meet. When an invitation came from Josef Albers to teach at his experimental program near Asheville, North Carolina, they jumped at the chance. The couple thrived at Black Mountain College, especially Elaine who took classes with Albers, Buckminster Fuller, and Merce Cunningham. She was actively involved in the social life of the college, participated in theatrical performances, and painted bold organic abstractions on wrapping paper with enamel paint. De Kooning became a writer for the influential magazine Art News in 1948. Over the next forty years as a contributor, she ran a series of articles in which she described artists at work—a novel approach in art criticism, as was her positive tone. As a fellow artist, she had access to individuals creating in a broad range of styles and shared a unique rapport with her subjects, who included Albers, Andrew Wyeth, Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline, Hans Hofmann, and Edwin Dickinson. In her own work, de Kooning vacillated between complete abstraction and representational imagery. A respected portrait painter, she was at work on a commission of her most famous subject, President John F. Kennedy, at the time of his assassination in 1963. De Kooning worked almost obsessively in series that dealt with such subjects as faceless men, bullfighters, Bacchus, cave paintings, and Sumi drawings. Vivacious and energetic, Elaine de Kooning was a full participant in the heady and collegial environment of New York’s art scene, which included weekly discussions, lectures, and parties. Although frequently overshadowed by her husband and their tumultuous relationship, she successfully gained recognition for herself. Her 1954 one-artist exhibition at the Stable Gallery was the first of over fifty solo and group exhibitions in the United States, many occurring during the halcyon days of the feminist movement and after she turned sixty.

She held numerous teaching positions. From 1957 to 1962 she was at the University of New Mexico, and later taught at the University of Georgia (as the Lamar Dodd Visiting Professor of Art), Carnegie Mellon Institute, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University graduate school. SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: 9th Street Art Exhibition, the first \"New York Painters and Sculptors Annual Exhibition\" and subsequent 5 New York Artists' Annual Exhibitions, Stable Gallery, New York, 1951, 1953-1957 Stable Gallery, New York, 1954, 1956 \"Abstract Expressionism\", by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1956 \"Young American Painters\", Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1956 \"Pittsburgh International\", Carnegie Institute, 1956 Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, 1957 Museum of New Mexico Art Gallery, Santa Fe, 1958 \"Action Painting, 1958\", Dallas Contemporary, Texas, 1958 Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, Connecticut, 1959 Ellison Gallery, Fort Worth, Texas, 1960 \"Abstract Expressionists Painting of the Fifties\", Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1960 Graham Gallery, New York, 1960, 1963, 1965, 1975 The Whitney Museum of American Art Annuals and Biennials, New York, 1961 \"25 Portraits of J.F.K.\", Peale House Gallery, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1964 \"67th Annual American Exhibition: Directions in Contemporary Painting and Sculpture\", Art Institute of Chicago, 1964 Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey, 1973 \"Bacchus, Works on Paper\", Lauren Rogers Museum of Art and Library, Laurel, Mississippi, 1979 \"The Fifties: Aspects Painting in New York\", Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., 1980 \"Heads: An Exhibit of Portraits\", C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland, 1980 Gruenebaum Gallery, New York, 1982 \"Elaine de Kooning and the Bacchus Motif\", Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 1983 \"Elaine de Kooning: New Paintings\", C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland, 1984 \"Four Centuries of Women's Art\", National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., 1990 \"East Hampton Avant-Garde, A Salute to the Signa Gallery\", Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York, 1990

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS (CONTINUED): \"Black Mountain Paintings from 1948\", Joan T. Washburn Gallery, New York, 1991 \"Preserving the Past, Securing the Future: Donations of Art 1987–1997\", National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., 1997 \"Elaine de Kooning: Portraits\", National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., 2015 \"Marks Made: Prints by American Women Artists from the 1960s to the Present\", Museum of Fine Arts, St Petersburg, Florida, 2015 \"Expanding the Narrative: Women Artists and Abstract Expressionism\", Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 2016 \"Women in Abstract Expressionism\", Denver Art Museum, Colorado, 2016 \"Sparkling Amazons: Abstract Expressionist Women of the 9th St,\" Katonah Museum of Art, Westchester County, New York, 2019 \"Postwar Women:alumnae of the Art Students League of New York 1945-1965\", Phyllis Harriman Gallery, Art Students League of New York, curated by Will Corwin, 2019 \"9th Street Club\", Gazelli Art House, London, curated by Will Corwin, 2020 MUSEUMS & COLLECTIONS: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Guggenheim Museum, New York Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. San Diego Museum of Art, California Georgia Museum of Art, Athens Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia Kresge Art Museum, East Lansing, Michigan Amarillo Museum of Art, Texas Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida Greenville County Museum of Art, South Carolina The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, South Carolina Elaine de Kooning in her studio

Portrait of Elaine de Kooning The artist with her husband, Willem de Kooning The artist at work Elaine de Kooning posing

UNTITLED Gouache on card 7 ¼ x 9 ½ inches Signed lower center: E de K

UNTITLED, CIRCA 1956-1959 Gouache on card 11 ¼ x 8 ¼ inches Signed lower left: E de K

LYNNE MAPP DREXLER AMERICAN, 1928-1999 Lynne Mapp Drexler found her artistic voice during one of the most exciting and significant art movements of the 20th century. Born in Newport News, Virginia in 1928, Drexler began her study of art as a child. Her parents, who were very supportive of both the visual and performing arts, enrolled Drexler in various art courses, and her early introduction to music would directly influence her later mature work. In the late 1950s, after attending the College of William and Mary in Virginia, Drexler became interested in contemporary art. She was encouraged to explore this venue by her uncle, who had ties to the Hudson River School of painting, and by some of her more influential teachers. She immersed herself in Abstract Expressionism, studying with Hans Hofmann in both his New York and Provincetown schools. It would be Hofmann's work as a colorist and his theories on color that would be one of Drexler's most significant influences. From there, she went on to graduate study at Hunter College in New York City with Robert Motherwell. Drexler’s academic training from Motherwell, along with the lessons of color theory from Hofmann, would set the foundation for the style of painting for which she is known. Her swatch-like patterns and painterly blossoms of color are quite unique when compared to her contemporaries of the Abstract Expressionist genre. In her early works, Drexler focused on color and composition, eventually reconciling her two interests – landscape and abstraction – in her late work of the 1980s and 1990s. But it was in the 1950s that she set her foundation – a synthesis of Post-Impressionist landscape painting and post-war painterly abstraction. The results are something not familiar to most students of the period, and her crisp, colorful brushwork set her apart. Classical music remained an important part of her art. When she lived in New York she regularly attended concerts at Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Opera, and would often make sketches inspired by the music while she was in the audience. The musical inspiration in her work echoes the theories of her teacher, Hans Hofmann, who promoted the idea that colors have scales in the same way that music has scales. Her vibrant surfaces are both complex and painterly, but with a flatness akin to something found in the background of a Gustav Klimt work. In 1961, Drexler met and married fellow artist John Hultberg at The Artist's Club in New York, where accomplished artists gathered to discuss Abstract Expressionism. Through their connections, she had her first solo exhibition at Tanager Gallery. Unlike her male counterparts, Drexler found it difficult finding gallery representation in the gender-biased atmosphere of the New York art world, while her husband was quite successful and was considered a talented up-and-comer as an abstract artist.

The couple bought a house off the coast of Maine on Monhegan Island, an artists' haven, in 1971 and split their time between New York City and Maine. For Drexler, summering there would be a major change in her life. The solitude of the island and the inspiration of the natural surroundings greatly impacted her artistic career. Drexler would sketch outdoors on the island. Then, back in New York during the winters, these sketches were reimagined into large colorful abstract paintings. By 1983, Drexler moved permanently to the island, near Lighthouse Hill. Drexler lived the last 16 years of her life on Monhegan Island. Drexler passed away in 1999 on Monhegan Island surrounded by her friends and fellow islanders. After her death, the estate fell to her friends, who were charged with the difficult task of assessing her body of work. While extracting the many paintings from the Drexler house, they were shocked to realize the magnitude and multitude of paintings. Works of art not seen for decades were pulled from the basement, closets and even from under mattresses. Drexler exhibited throughout her life at venues such as Tanager Gallery, Esther Robles Gallery and Westerly Gallery. Retrospective exhibitions of her work were held at the Monhegan Museum and the Portland Museum of Art in Maine. Her work is part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Monhegan Museum, Farnsworth Museum, Brooklyn Museum and the Queens Museum among others. SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: Sun Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1959 Twentieth Century Gallery, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1960s Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia, 1960 Tanager Gallery, New York, 1961, 1962 Two Person Show, Galleria, San Miguel Allende, Mexico (a hand written bio says 1962), 1963 Esther Robles Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 1965 Westerly Gallery, New York, 1965 Nuuana Valley Gallery, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1967 \"Mr. and Mrs. Painting and Sculpture\", Alonzo Gallery, New York, 1969 Alonzo Gallery, New York, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1975 Spring Arts Festival, Educational and Cultural Trust Fund of the Electrical Industry, 1971 Hudson River Museum, Ciba-Geigy Collection, 1971

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS (CONTINUED): Lynne Mapp Drexler posing \"Women Artist Show\", Ciba-Geigy Collection, 1975 with her work Landmark Gallery, New York, 1977 Veydras Ltd, New York, 1981, 1983 Portrait of the artist Aldona Gobuzas Gallery, New York, 1983 Middlesex Community College, Piscataway, New Jersey, 1984 St. John's University, Staten Island, New York, 1984 Three Person Show, Anita Shapulsky Gallery, New York, 1987 Gallery 127, Portland, Maine, 1989 Judith Leighton Gallery, Blue Hill, Maine, 1989 Gallery 6, Portland, Maine, 1989 Two Person Show, The Art Gallery at 6 Deering Street, Portland, Maine, 1992 Lupine Gallery, Monhegan, Maine , 1998 \"Monhegan Modernists\", Collection of John Day, Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine, 2002 Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston Maine, 2003 Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, 2003 Portland Museum of Art, Maine, 2005 \"A Century of Women Artists on Monhegan Island\", Monhegan Museum, Monhegan Island, Maine, 2005 Albright Knox Museum, Buffalo, New York, 2007 MUSEUMS & COLLECTIONS: Best Company, Richmond, Virginia Brooklyn Museum, New York Ciba-Geigy Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, Maine Martha Jackson Collection Monhegan Museum, Monhegan Island, Maine Museum of Modern Art, New York Rosenwald Collection, National Gallery of Art Portland Museum of Art, Maine Prentice-Hall Collection, New York Queens Museum for Art Education, New York Reynolds Metal

JOMO'S WORLD, 1966 Oil on canvas 22 x 22 inches Signed, titled and dated on reverse: Lynne Drexler / Jomo's World / 1966

SUMMER BLOSSOMS, 1962 Oil on canvas 30 x 25 inches Signed, titled and dated on reverse: Lynne Drexler / Summer Blossoms / 1962

UNTITLED, 1962 Oil on canvas 20 x 24 inches Signed and dated on reverse: Lynne Drexler / 1962

NATALIA DUMITRESCO FRENCH/ROMANIAN, 1915-1997 Natalia Dumitresco, born in Bucharest, Romania in 1915, was a French/Romanian abstract painter associated with the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, a Paris group that promoted geometric abstract art during the post-World War II period. Other abstract expressionist painters associated with the group include Serge Poliakoff and Alexandre Istrati, Dumitresco's husband. Dumitresco studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest from 1934 to 1939, the same year she married Alexandre Istrati. From 1940 to 1947, she worked and exhibited in Romania. In 1946, she had her own dedicated exhibition at Sala Dalles in Bucharest. Because of a French grant in 1947, Dumitresco and Istrati moved to Paris. They soon befriended the legendary sculptor Constantin Brancusi, another displaced Romanian. At his request, the couple moved into a studio next door to his at 11 Impasse Ronsin in the XVth arrondisement of Paris. They worked for Brancusi for nine years until his death in 1957. Istrati and Dumitresco were named the legal executors of his will. Together, the two reorganized the “Studio Brancusi”, a wing in the illustrous Pompidou Center in Paris, dedicated in 1977. Dumitresco and Istrati moved in 1958 from l’Impasse Ronsin to 18 Rue Sauvageot, where they built their studios on a property left to them by Brancusi. They both became naturalized French citizens in 1965. Dumitresco’s style of painting followed the movement of the post-war trends that evolved in the School of Paris circle, and she was greatly influenced by the art of Wassily Kandinsky. Her austere and rigorous style of painting relied on modulations of geometric frameworks – squares, grids, stripes, meshes, circles, rectangles, diamonds – like a kaleidoscope of infinite variations on emptiness and light, in which graphic style and colors are indissociable. Using armatures and quadrangular cells that structure the space into labyrinths, optical mazes, and bustling molecules, the artist seeks to capture rhythm and pace through the use of serial repetition. Beginning in 1952, Dumitresco won many prestigious awards, including one from the group Espace in 1952, the Kandinsky Award in 1955, the Prix des Amateurs et Collectionneurs d’Art in 1957, and the Carnegie Prize in Pittsburgh in 1959. This early period in the 1950s is the finest of Dumitresco’s and will further be explored by historians and collectors in the future as this school of painting is more critically reviewed. The artist's work was included in the recent museum exhibition, focusing on women artists in France in the 1950s, entitled \"Femmes années 50. Au fil de l’abstraction, peinture et sculpture\" (Women from the 1950s. The thread of abstraction, painting and sculpture) at the Musée Soulages in Rodez, France.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: Natalia Dumitresco in her studio Galerie Breteau, Paris, France, 1950 The artist with her husband, Alexandre Istrati Galerie Huit, Paris, France, 1951 Galerie Arnaud, Paris, France, 1952, 1954, 1956, 2957 Galerie Aujourdhui, Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium, 1956 Galerie la Roue, Paris, France, 1959 Saidenberg Gallery, New York, New York, 1959 Galleria del Naviglio, Milan, Italy, 1960 Galerie de la revue XXème siècle, Paris, France, 1960 Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany, 1960 Hanover Gallery, London, England, 1961 \"Femmes années 50. Au fil de l’abstraction, peinture et sculpture,\" Musée Soulages, Rodez, France, 2019-2020 MUSEUMS & COLLECTIONS: Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France Centre National d'Art de de Culture Georges Pompidou, Paris, France Musée d'Art Contemporain de Dunkereque, France Musée d'Art de d'industrie de Saint-Etienne, France Musée des Beaux-Art de Nantes, France Musée Despiau-Wlerick, Mont-de Marsan, France Musée Picasso, Antibes, France The Hirschorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Kunst Museum, Basel, Switzerland Städtische Kunsthalle, Mannheim, Germany New York University Corporation, New York The Salomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York Rose Museum Brandheis University, Waltham, Massachusetts Saint-Louis University, Missouri

BLEU, 1960 Oil on canvas 25 ⅜ x 31 ⅞ inches Signed lower left and signed, titled and dated on reverse: N. Dumitresco / Natalia Dumitresco, bleu 1960

COMPOSITION, 1963 Mixed technique on paper 22 x 15 inches Signed and dated lower right: N. Dumitresco 1963

GALAXIE, 1959 Oil on canvas 28 x 36 ¼ inches Signed upper left: N. Dumitresco

SANS TITRE, 1959 Gouache on paper 11 ¼ x 15 ½ inches Signed and dated lower right: Natalia Dumitresco 59

SALLY MICHEL AVERY AMERICAN, 1902-2003 Born in 1902, Sally Avery, also known as Sally Michel, knew by the age of five that she wanted to be an artist. A modernist painter and illustrator, Avery worked in an early modernist style. She attended the Art Students League in New York and exhibited at the Child's Gallery in Boston. In 1924, she spent the summer painting in East Gloucester, where she met and fell in love with the artist in the next studio, Milton Avery. At this time in his career, Milton Avery was painting Impressionist works and was living with his mother in Connecticut. He soon followed Sally to New York. Two years later, they were married. For the next forty years, the two artists were inseparable. They were each other's model, collaborator, critic and champion. Together they created a style of \"high modernist\" painting that is most often solely attributed to Milton's hand. Although they painted side by side, their purposes were quite different. Sally made no effort to exhibit or sell her art, but instead managed Milton's career and the Avery household. For many years, it was her work as an illustrator for \"The New York Times\", children's books, and other publications, which supported the family. During the summer, the Avery family would often spend their vacations travelling throughout New England, Canada, Mexico, and Europe. Their excursions were often in the company of their close friends and fellow artists, Mark Rothko, Adloph Gotlieb and Barnett Newman. By the mid-1950s, their daughter, March, had grown up and Milton's works had finally begun to sell. Both enabled Sally to devote more time to her own painting (still largely for her own pleasure). She exhibited at a handful of shows during the decade. SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: New York City Center Gallery, New York, 1950 Woodstock Art Center, Woodstock, New York, 1950 Sid Deutsch Gallery, New York City, 1950 Village Art Center, New York City, 1957, 1958 Paul Kessler Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1965-1967 Jarvis Gallery, Woodstock, New York, 1969 New Britain Museum of Art, New Britain, Connecticut, 1970

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS (CONTINUED): Galerie du Jonelle, Palm Springs, California, 1973 Henry Fox Gallery, 1975-1983 Solo exhibition, Waverly Gallery, New York, 1981 Solo exhibition, Ulster County Council for the Arts, Kingston, New York, 1982 Allentown Museum of Art, Allentown, Pennsylvania, 1984 Solo exhibition, Kleinert Gallery, Woodstock, New York, 1985 \"A Century of Women Artists\", Childs Gallery, Boston and New York, 1986-1988, 1989 \"Seventy Five American Masters\", Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1987 Retrospective, University of Iowa Museum of Art, 1987 Solo exhibition, Wallace Wentworth Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1988 Art in the Ambassador's Residence, Manila, 1988 Solo exhibition, Bell Gallery, Woodstock, New York, 1988 Retrospective, Mekler Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 1989 Solo exhibition, David Barnett Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1989 Rudolph Gallery, Coral Gables, Florida, 1989 Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee, 1989 Retrospective, Fresno Art Museum, California 1990 Knoedler Gallery, New York, 2003 Katharina Rich Perlow Gallery, New York, 2003 MUSEUMS & COLLECTIONS: Sally Michel Avery sketching with her daughter, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York March Avery National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C. Israel Museum Fresno Art Museum, California Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, Connecticut New Britain Museum of Art, New Britain, Connecticut Holyoke Museum, Holyoke, Massachusetts

MUSEUMS & COLLECTIONS (CONTINUED): University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa Grinnell College Housatonic Community College Museum of Art, Bridgeport, Connecticut Sally Michel Avery with her husband, Milton Avery and daughter, March Avery The artist with her husband, Milton Avery The Avery family outdoors

AUTUMN, 1978 Oil on board 22 x 27 ¾ inches Signed and dated lower right: Sally Michel 1978

STREAM SIDE, 1976 Oil on canvas 39 x 39 inches Signed and dated lower right: Sally Michel 1976



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