Alice Trumbull Mason: Shutter Paintings
4 November 2021 - 22 January 2022
Washburn Gallery
177 Tenth Avenue, NYC
CLICK HERE TO VIEW PRESS RELEASE
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS DROPBOX FOLDER OF HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGES
(As well as artworks, folder includes archival materials such as the artist’s correspondence with Gertrude Stein, Piet Mondrian, and Josef Albers)
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THUMBNAIL CHECKLIST OF WORKS ON VIEW
CLICK HERE TO VIEW CATALOG OF WORKS ON VIEW
CLICK HERE TO VIEW LIFE AND CAREER CHRONOLOGY (RIZZOLI EXCERPT)
Nearly 50 years after her Whitney Museum retrospective, the work of American Abstraction pioneer Alice Trumbull Mason is contextualized anew in Shutter Paintings, a tightly focused exhibition of 16 late-career paintings that follows the Rizzoli publishing of a trove of documents that cement Alice Trumbull Mason’s status as a leading, avant-garde force within the “boys club” of Abstraction in the 1930s-1960s New York art world. Picketing MoMA in 1940; having Elaine de Kooning babysit her daughter; corresponding with Gertrude Stein; and training under Arshile Gorky are just several of the stories illuminated by the book’s archival materials.
Having co-founded the American Abstract Artists group with Josef Albers in 1936, it’s undeniable that Mason’s gender was a main roadblock to proper recognition. The technical depth of her work itself, expanded upon in the above-linked press release, makes it clear why Mason maintained the vocal support of her now-legendary male contemporaries. Remarked Ad Reinhardt in the early-1960s: “Were it not for Alice Trumbull Mason, we [the Abstract painters] would not be here, nor in such force.”
The new exhibition, Shutter Paintings, is presented by Washburn Gallery, which has represented the artist’s estate since 1974. In addition to the Washburn show, Mason currently headlines an all-women group show at the Whitney, Labyrinth of Forms, named for one of Mason’s works and posed by its curator as “an exciting opportunity to reevaluate the history of Abstraction in the United States.”
A preview of works on view is below. See the Dropbox folder linked above to download high-resolution image files. Image reuse must be with credit to the Emily Mason | Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation, unless otherwise noted in the file title.
