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GRACE HARTIGAN

About the Artist

Critics and historians have called Grace Hartigan both a second-generation Abstract Expressionist painter and a forebear of Pop art, though she was not satisfied with either categorization. In explaining the content and purpose of her work, Hartigan once said: “perhaps the subject of my art is like the definition of humor—emotional pain remembered in tranquility.” Hartigan painted intensely colored, gestural figures, inspired by coloring books, film, canonical painting, and advertising. She was a disciple of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, and also studied with Isaac Lane Muse. She gained early critical attention when in 1950, she was included in Clement Greenberg and Meyer Schapiro’s “New Talents” exhibition. In 1958, Hartigan was hailed by Life magazine as one of the best young female American painters.

Artist CV

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

 

 

2017

Grace Hartigan: A Survey, ACA Galleries, New York, NY
Grace Hartigan: The Late Paintings, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD (also exhibitions in 1979, 1981, 1982, 1984,

1986, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009) 2015 Grace Hartigan 1960-1965, the Perry Collection, X Contemporary Art Fair, Miami, FL

Grace Hartigan: Myths and Malls, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, State University of New York, New Paltz, NY 2014 Grace Hartigan: A Survey, Strathmore Mansion, North Bethesda, MD
 

2013

TEXTURES: The Written Word in Contemporary Art, ACA Galleries, New York, NY

 

2011

Fragments 1915-2011, Modern and Contemporary Collage, ACA Galleries, New York, NY 2009 Grace Hartigan: (1922-2008) A Life in Painting, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD 2008 Grace Hartigan: An Original, Amarillo Museum of Art, Amarillo, TX

Painting Art History, Trout Gallery, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA and Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD

 

2003

5 Decades of Large Scale Paintings, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York ACA Gallery, New York, NY (1991, 1992, 1994, 1997, 2001)

 

2001

Paintings from Popular Culture, Susquehanna Museum
AB-EX Pointillism/1988-1993, Loyola College Art Gallery, Baltimore, MD

 

2000

Lawrence Gallery, and Rosemont College, Rosemont, PA
 

1997

Hartigan’s Women, The Robeson Center Art Gallery, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ

The Art Gallery at Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY
Allen Priebe Art Gallery, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, WI

Grace Hartigan and the Poets, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY

Kouros Gallery, New York, NY
 

1993

Gruenebaum Gallery, New York, NY (1984, 1986)
 

1989

Grace Hartigan, A Mini Retrospective, 1954-1984, Watkins Gallery, The American University, Washington DC 1988 DollyFitterman Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
 

1987

Van Wickle Gallery, Lafayette College, Easton, PA

Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN 1984 Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA​

 

1983

Hamilton Gallery of Contemporary Art, New York, NY 1981 Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC

 

1980

The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Myers Gallery, State Universtiy of New York, Plattsburgh, NY
Universtiy of Maryland Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park, MD

 

1978

Genesis Gallery, Ltd., New York, NY, (1977)

 

1975  

American University, Washington, DC

William Zierler Gallery, New York, NY

 

1976  

Gertrude Kasle Gallery, Detroit, MI, (1969, 1972, 1974)

 

1970

Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, NY (1962, 1964, 1967) 1967 Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD

University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, Selection made by Harold Rosenberg & Saul Bellow 1959 Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY (1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957)
 

1955 Vassar College Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY

 

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2017

Elaine, Let’s Get the Hell Out of Here, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York, NY
The New York School (1940’s-1980’s), Levis Fine Art, New York, NY
Collage: Made in America, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY

 

2016

Human Interest: Portraits fromthe Whitney’s Collection, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY Women of Abstract Expressionism, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina;

Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA; Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
Under Glass: Master Works on Paper, Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe, CA
Test Show, Levis Fine Art, New York, NY
Women! Women! (Of the 50’s), Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York, NY
Works On Paper, Erin Cluley Gallery, Dallas, TX

 

2015

Pretty Raw: After and Around Helen Frankenthaler, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA

 

2014

Shaping A Collection; Five Decades of Gifts, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY
Modernism from the National Gallery of Art: The Robert & Jane Meyerhoff Collection, de Young, San Francisco, CA

organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Art of Another Kind: International Abstraction, 1949-1960, Cobra Museum of Modern Art, Amstelveen, Netherlands The Amusing Style, Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York, NY
 

2012

Art of Another Kind: International Abstraction and the Guggenheim, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY

 

2011

5 Maryland Icons, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD
Tibor de Nagy Gallery Painters and Poets, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY

 

2010

Abstract Expressionist New York, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
 

2008

Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning and American Art, 1940-1976, The Jewish Museum, New York, NY

 

2006 - 2007

Women Only, Smith – Kramer Traveling Exhibitions
 

2005

Another View, Opalick Gallery, Albany, NY, New York School
 

2004

Narrative Visions, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD
 

1999

In Memory of My Feelings: Frank O’Hara and American Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA American Century, Part II, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
 

1998

Robert and Jane MeyerhoffColletion, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC​

1997

Forty Years of ULAE, Corcoran Gallery, Washington DC; Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
 

1996

The Dialectic of Line, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD
 

1995

Summer ‘96 Part 2 - The Painters, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD Artist’s Choice - Modern Women, curated by Elizabeth Murray, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

 

1993

Hand-Painted Pop, American Art in Transition 1955-62, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA;

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and The Whitney Museum of American Art, NY

 

1988 - 1989 The Figurative Fifties: New York Figurative Expressionism, Newport Harbor Museum, Newport Beach, CA; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX

 

1987 Color: Pure and Simple, Stamford Museum and Nature Center, Stamford, CT
 

1984 - 1986

Action/Precision: The New Direction in New York, 1955-1960, Grey Art Gallery, New York, NY; Worcester Art

Museum, Worcester, MA; Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH; Albright-Knox Art Gallery,

Buffalo, NY; Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, University of Texas, Austin, TX
 

1985 - 1960

Points of View: Four Painters, 1985-86, Traveling I.C.I show
 

1985

The Gathering of the Avant-Garde, The Lower East Side, New York, NY
The New Figure, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL
Survival of the Fittest. Ingber Gallery, New York, NY

 

1983

Tenth Anniversary Exhibition, Gruenebaum Gallery, New York, NY
E. de Kooning, Greene, Hartigan, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY

 

1982

Hartigan, Louis, Still, Truitt, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
The Americans, The Collage, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX
Women of the Americas, Kouros Gallery, New York, NY
Contemporary American Prints and Drawings, 1940 - 1980, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

 

1980

Modern American Painting, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Plus Four, Hamilton Gallery of Contemporary Art, New York, NY
The Fifties Aspect of Painting in New York, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC
Poets and Painters, National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, DC

 

1975

Biennial Exhibition, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Edinburgh Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland

 

1974

Frank O’Hara, A Poet Among Painters, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
 

1969

20th Century Art from the Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

 

1964

A Decade of New Talent, American Federation of Arts, traveling exhibition
Figuration and Defiguration, Museum of Ghent, Belgium

 

1960

Abstract Expressionists and Imagists, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Sixty American Painters, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN

 

1959

Contemporary American Art, World’s Fair, Brussels
Documenta II, Kassel, Germany

 

1958 - 1959

The New American Painting, International Council, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY,

and eight European cities
 

1957

Artists of the New York School, Second Generation, The Jewish Museum, New York, NY Fourth International Art Exhibition, Tokyo, Japan
Third International Art Exhibition, New Delhi, India

 

1951

9th Street Show (with Pollock, Kline, de Kooning), New York, NY
 

1950

Twelve Americans, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Talent 1950, Kootz Gallery, New York, NY

 

AWARDS

 

2006 Governors Awards, Baltimore, MD
2002 Life Time Achievement, Neuberger Museum

1974 Childe Hassam Purchase Award, National Institute of Arts & Letters 1957 Recipient: Mademoiselle Magazine Merit Award for Art

Honorary Life Trustee, The Baltimore Museum of Art

 

 

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