Hedda Sterne, America’s Last Original Abstract Expressionist and Sole Woman in the Group, Dies
NEW YORK, NY.- Clara Diament Sujo and collaborators at CDS Gallery announced that the artist HEDDA STERNE passed away yesterday at the age of 100.
Up to the last minutes of her long and illustrative life, she was lucid about her work and felt rewarded by the recent acquisition of her painting by The Tate Modern in London.
Notable for being the sole woman included in the famous 1951 Life Magazine photograph of The Irascibles by Nina Leen [see attached], Hedda Sterne worked alongside such celebrated artists and colleagues as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell, Clifford Still, amongst others.
- Hedda Sterne (1910-2011), “New York, NY, no. X,” 1948. Oil on canvas, 31 ¾ x 45 ½ in., 80.6 x 115.6 cm.
She was the last surviving member of the group, and put forth an active and vast oeuvre that spanned over 70 years. Her last public exhibition held at CDS Gallery in November – October of 2008, Drawing Friends: Hedda Sterne’s Portraititis,”focused on an enduring aspect of her career.
Hedda Sterne’s steady concern with portraits revealed a different side from the styles observed in her varied approaches to painting. Sterne’s subjects have included, among others, her husband the artist Saul Steinberg, art critics Harold Rosenberg and Dore Ashton, and artists Elaine de Kooning and Joan Mitchell.
The works in Drawing Friends: Hedda Sterne’s Portraititis provided a glimpse into the close relationships shared with her friends through the intimacy of pencil on paper reflecting her brilliance and sensitivity as a person, an artist, and a friend.
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- Museum of Modern Art Complements Abstract Expressionist Exhibition with “On to Pop”
- Czech Abstract Painter Zdenek Sykora, Known for Computer Geometrical Paintings, Dies
- Abstract Expressionism and Its Discontents at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
