Heroines of the Abstract Expressionist Era
Southampton Arts Center
Opening October 6, 2023
Southampton Arts Center (SAC) presents Women of the Abstract Expressionist Era, curated Christina Strassfield. The Abstract Expressionist movement is best known for its male superstars, but women were also pioneers of the genre. This exhibition showcases the work of artists such as Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Perle Fine, Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler, Alice Baber, Lynne Drexler, and others—women whose artwork finds long overdue acclaim and new appreciation with a contemporary audience. We are also celebrating women whose work, while not abstract, is associated with the Abstract Expressionist era and are individuals who were part of the New York art scene, such as Mercedes Matter, Hedda Sterne, Jane Freilicher, and Jane Wilson. These works by First and Second-generation Ab Ex Women artists are exclusively from the collection of Rick Friedman and Cindy Lou Wakefield.
This exhibition features paintings, sculptures, and works on paper that are visually mesmerizing and technically complex. It offers the widest breadth of any private assemblage of this genre, featuring over 100 works by 32 women artists. The artwork demonstrates how these artists pushed themselves in new directions as leaders and total participants in the Abstract Expressionist movement. The artists and their work were undervalued and overlooked for many years but have recently been revisited and re-evaluated, giving these artists their due.
Abstract Expressionism was the first specifically American style to achieve international influence, and, as a result, 1940s New York replaced Paris as the center of the art world. The style was characterized by experimental, gestural, and nonrepresentational painting, and for some artists associated with the movement, abstract art and blurring the lines between representational and abstraction expressed ideas concerning nature, the spiritual, and the mind. For others, it was a way to explore formal and technical concerns. This exhibition differs from other exhibitions by focusing on the 1950 New York School and the migration of many of these artists to the Hamptons.
From 1947 to 1951, several Abstract Expressionists developed their signature painting styles, including Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Hans Hofmann, and Mark Rothko. During the following years, these artists, informally called the First Generation of the New York School, received growing recognition nationally and globally. Several groundbreaking women artists from this same period are featured in this exhibition, including Elaine de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Hedda Sterne, Helen Frankenthaler, Grace Hartigan, and Joan Mitchell.
For more than sixty years, these women's contributions to the movement were forgotten, while works by men such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning have been canonized in the history of American art. It has taken the dedication of scholars and curators—and the commitment of a handful of visionary collectors like Rick Friedman and Cindy Lou Wakefield—to restore these women artists to their rightful place in the history of American art.
The exhibition includes works by the following artists: Mary Abbott, Alice Baber, Nell Blaine, Janice Biala, Dusti Bonge, Louise Bourgeois, Elaine de Kooning, Dorothy Dehner, Lynne Drexler, Amaranth Ehrenhalt, Perle Fine, Audrey Flack, Helen Frankenthaler, Jane Freilicher, Grace Hartigan, Carol Hunt, Buffie Johnson, Lee Krasner, Fay Lansner, Emily Mason, Mercedes Matter, Joan Mitchell, Louise Nevelson, Charlotte Park, Betty Parsons, Irene Rice Pereira, Hilla Rebay, Ethel Schwacher, Hedda Sterne, Yvonne Thomas, Michal Corinne West, Jane Wilson.
About the Collectors Cindy Lou and Rick Friedman
For the last 17 years, Cindy Lou and Rick Friedman have enjoyed the never-ending journey of researching and assembling a collection of “talented but underappreciated “women artists who helped pioneer the 1950s era AbEx movement, the so-called New York School, and their subsequent migration to the East End. The art world has embraced their contributions recently, resulting in several museum shows, books, and insatiable demand for their works. This is perhaps the most comprehensive survey produced in this genre, featuring 30 acclaimed women artists of that NYC-based movement, with close to 100 pieces.
Rick Friedman notes, “Although our collection was displayed prior at the Fenimore Art Museum and the Nassau County Museum of Art, SAC is the most appropriate venue for this newly expanded survey. Over the past half-century, many of the artists in this show, pioneers of the AbEx movement, proudly exhibited their work in this historic SAC building during their illustrious careers. So this is sort of a ‘homecoming’ show for them. This Fall 2023 show provides guests with a ‘rediscovery’ of the breakthrough and innovative mid-century art movement, considered by many as America’s most significant art movement of the 20th century. It also provides a new generation of viewers an opportunity to discover these influential artists, many of whom lived and worked locally. We have enthusiastically worked closely with Christina Strassfield over the years. We value her deep understanding, respect, and appreciation for these artists’ oeuvre and their significant contributions to art in America. Her long experience helped guide this curation and display. We are very enthusiastic to team up again with SAC, having produced the Hamptons Fine Art Fair on their grounds two years ago. We are pleased to offer select pieces available for public acquisition, some of which benefit SAC.”
SOUTHAMPTON ARTS CENTER
25 Jobs Lane, Southampton, New York 11968
