Affinities for Abstraction:
Women Artists on Eastern Long Island, 1950-2020

Often regarded as playing an ancillary role in male-dominated Abstract Expressionism, five painters of the first and second generations of the movement, recently canonized in author Mary Gabriel’s in-depth account Ninth Street Women, spent formative years on the East End. Helen Frankenthaler, Grace Hartigan, Elaine de Kooning, Lee Krasner, and Joan Mitchell, each in her own way, staked out territory for a unique style by inventively pushing the boundaries of their collective agency. 

With works drawn from the Parrish collection augmented by key loans, Affinities for Abstraction is a nuanced history of both the period and the waves of artists who have come to Long Island’s East End—a place that continues to offer proximity, camaraderie, and leisure combined with great natural beauty.  The exhibition will include a look at successive generations including Mary Heilmann, Howardena Pindell, and Michelle Stuart, and more recent arrivals Jacqueline Humphries and Amy Sillman, among many others.

Read interviews with Chief Curator Alicia Longwell and artists Nanette Carter and Virva Hinnemo from the Press News Group this week: 

The Mothers Of Invention: Women Trailblazers In Abstraction

Let’s Talk Art: Abstract Artist Nanette Carter

Let’s Talk Art: Virva Hinnemo

Participating Artists—Affinities for Abstraction: Women Artists on Eastern Long Island, 1950-2020:

Mary Abbott (1921–2019), Marina Adams (b. 1960), Victoria Barr (b. 1937), Jennifer Bartlett (b. 1941), Lynda Benglis (b. 1941), Nanette Carter (b. 1954), Louisa Chase (1951–2016), Elaine de Kooning (1920–1989), Natalie Edgar (b. 1932), Perle Fine (1908–1988), Audrey Flack (b. 1931), Connie Fox (b. 1925), Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011), Jane Freilicher (1924–2014), Gertrude Greene (1904–1956), Grace Hartigan (1922–2008), Mary Heilmann (b. 1940), Virva Hinnemo (b. 1976), Sheree Hovsepian (b. 1974), Jacqueline Humphries (b. 1960), Michi Itami  (b. 1938), Virginia Jaramillo (b. 1939), Gina Knee  (1898-1982), Lee Krasner (1908–1984), Agnes Martin (1912-2004), Mercedes Matter (1913–2001), Joan Mitchell (1925–1992), Louise Nevelson (1899–1988), Ruth Nivola (1917–2008), Charlotte Park (1918–2010), Betty Parsons (1900-1982), Howardena Pindell (b. 1943), Dorothea Rockburne (b. 1932), Dorothy Ruddick (1925–2010), Anne Ryan (1889–1954), Sonja Sekula (1918–1963), Amy Sillman (b. 1955), Joan Snyder (b. 1940), Pat Steir (b. 1940), Hedda Sterne (1910–2011), Michelle Stuart (b.1933), Sue Williams (1954).

Affinities for Abstraction: Women Artists on Eastern Long Island, 1950-2020 is made possible, in part, thanks to the generous support of The James and Charlotte Park Brooks Fund,  Stephen Meringoff, The Deborah Buck Foundation, Ellen and Howard Katz, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Caroline Hirsch and Andrew Fox, Garrett and Mary Moran, Leslie Rose Close, Herman Goldman Foundation, and Fred Schmeltzer. Public support provided by Suffolk County.