The 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Abstract Expressionist Mary Abbott.
Mary Abbott, Flying Point Beach, Water Mill, 1959. Photo: John Jonas Gruen
Mary Abbott, a descendant of President John Adams and General Robert E. Lee, was born in Boston in 1921 and grew up in NYC/Washington, DC high society. She made her debut among the first generation of American Abstract Expressionists, known as the New York School, who in the 1950s traveled between Manhattan and the East End of Long Island.
Abbott received her artistic training in the late 30s at the Corcoran School and Arts Students League where she studied under George Grosz. She also worked as a model and appeared on the covers of Vogue and Harpers Bazaar among other publications. Through these associations, Abbott moved into the heart of the New York avant-garde. In 1946, she established a studio on 10th Street in Manhattan where she frequented the famous Cedar Tavern and joined the prestigious Artist Club where she was one of three female members, along with Perle Fine and Elaine De Kooning. During that period, she had a romantic relationship with Willem de Kooning whose 4th Street studio was only a few minutes away.
Abbott earned critical and public success by exhibiting at the most prominent galleries of that era including Samuel Kootz Gallery, Tanager Gallery, Tibor de Nagy Gallery and the Stable Gallery where she appeared in three of the now famous annual shows. Her colleagues included Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler, Mark Rothko, Larry Rivers and Grace Hartigan among others.
During the mid 70s Abbott taught painting at the University of Minnesota. She was among the first of her era to set up a studio in Manhattan’s revitalized SoHo district. Abbott has often said that her life’s work is to “define the poetry of living space.” She has done so for more than sixty years.
Mary Abbott is represented by the McCormick Gallery, Chicago.
Meet May Abbott, Saturday, July 9, from noon-2pm in the