Grace Hartigan's Billboard
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Grace Hartigan Introduction |
The Artist
- Grace Hartigan was born in Newark, New Jersey, in
1922. After high school she moved to Los Angeles, where
she took her first drawing class. In 1942 she returned to
New Jersey and studied mechanical drafting. It was
wartime, and she worked in an airplane factory, painting
watercolor still lifes in her spare time.
- In 1945 Hartigan moved to New York to be in the center of the art world. She was one of the first young artists to admire Abstract Expressionism at a time when few took contemporary American art seriously. Greatly influenced by the Abstract Expressionists, she quickly absorbed their spontaneous, abstract style, but she also became interested in the works of the European old masters, such as Raphael, Rubens, and Caravaggio.
- In 1959 the Museum of Modern Art in New York sent an exhibition called "The New American Painting" to eight European countries. Only one woman was included in this famous exhibition--Grace Hartigan. In the 1960s Hartigan moved to Baltimore, where she still lives and paints.
- In 1945 Hartigan moved to New York to be in the center of the art world. She was one of the first young artists to admire Abstract Expressionism at a time when few took contemporary American art seriously. Greatly influenced by the Abstract Expressionists, she quickly absorbed their spontaneous, abstract style, but she also became interested in the works of the European old masters, such as Raphael, Rubens, and Caravaggio.