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Hedda Sterne

Hedda Sterne

  • Biography
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  • Biography
    View works. Hedda Sterne, Vertical Horizontals, c. 1966-67
    Vertical Horizontals, c. 1966-67
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    Hedda Sterne, visionary and endlessly experimental Romanian-American artist, was born in Bucharest in 1910. She attended classes in the Paris ateliers of André Lhote and Fernand Léger and at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In 1929, she began studying philosophy and art history at the University of Bucharest. She produced a variety of mixed media works on paper and collage invoking Constructivism and Surrealism while living again in Paris from 1932 to 1939, leaving France that year to return to Bucharest before the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1941, Sterne traveled across war-torn Europe departing for New York City, where she established a studio on East 50th Street and became close friends with Peggy Guggenheim, who in 1943 began exhibiting Sterne's work. In 1948, she received the first of many solo exhibitions with Betty Parsons Gallery. A self-proclaimed "well working lens," Sterne continuously sought new ways of interpreting the world around her, shifting from urban landscapes, interiors, and machinery in the 1940s, atmospheric space and organic shapes in the 1950s, open spaces and horizons in the 1960s, the face and the figure in the 1970s, prismatic abstractions in the 1980s, and graphite and pastel abstractions on paper in the 1990s and 2000s. She died peacefully in her home in New York City at age 100 in 2011.
     
    Her work has been the subject of museum and gallery exhibitions, such as Hedda Sterne, Galleria dell' Obelisco, Rome, Italy (1953); Hedda Sterne Retrospective, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ (1977); Hedda Sterne: Forty Years, Queens Museum, New York (1985); Paintings by Hedda Sterne, Vassar College Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY (1956); and Uninterrupted Flux: Hedda Sterne; A Retrospective, Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL (2006). Sterne has been included in recent and significant exhibitions, such as Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2017); Epic Abstraction: Pollock to Herrera, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2018); Crossroads: Carnegie Museum of Art's Collection, 1945 to Now, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA (2018-2021); and The Whitney's Collection: Selections from 1900 to 1965, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2019).
     
    Sterne is represented in museum collections around the world, such as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, MA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; The Menil Collection, Houston, TX; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT.
     
    She was awarded a Fulbright fellowship in Painting (1963) and the Childe Hassam Purchase Award of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (1971) and the Hassam and Speicher Purchase Fund Award of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, both New York (1984). She was awarded Chevalier, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, by the Ambassade de France aux États Unis, New York (1999).
    Download Artist's CV (PDF, opens in a new tab.)
  • Works
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: an abstract drawing © The Hedda Sterne Foundation, Inc. / Licensed by ARS, New York, NY

    Hedda Sterne

    Untitled (April 11, 2001), 2001
    Mixed media on paper, multidirectional
    12 1/4 x 9 1/8 inches (31.1 x 23.2 cm)
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  • Exhibitions
    • installation view

      Rosemarie Beck, Zoe Longfield, and Hedda Sterne: 1948-1957

      3rd Floor Gallery April 10 - June 27, 2025
      Van Doren Waxter is pleased to present “Rosemarie Beck, Zoe Longfield, and Hedda Sterne: 1948-1957,' an exhibition of earlier works by AbEx women artists the gallery represents. Rosemarie Beck (b....
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    • installation view

      Small is Beautiful

      2nd Floor Gallery February 6 - April 4, 2025
      Van Doren Waxter is pleased to present Small is Beautiful, an exhibition of small-scale works by 22 artists, both familiar and new faces to the gallery’s program. The exhibition features...
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    • installation view

      A Little Touch of Grace

      September 18 - November 8, 2024
      Van Doren Waxter is pleased to present “A Little Touch of Grace,” a group exhibition of works by Farid Haddad, John McLaughlin, Richard Pousette-Dart, Harvey Quaytman, Hedda Sterne, Anne Truitt,...
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    • Hedda Sterne

      Hedda Sterne

      Architecture of the Mind: 2nd Floor October 28 - December 23, 2021
      Van Doren Waxter is delighted to present an exhibition of paintings and drawings by artist Hedda Sterne (b. 1910 - d. 2011), on view on the 2nd floor of the...
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    • installation view

      Hedda Sterne

      Patterns of Thought Paintings from 1985 - 1989: 3rd Floor October 7 - 24, 2020
      CLICK HERE TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT “I have a feeling my painting is about thinking.” —Hedda Sterne, 1981 Van Doren Waxter is very pleased to announce Hedda Sterne: Patterns of...
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    • Brooks, Diebenkorn, Goldberg, Sterne, Tworkov: Works from the 1950s

      Brooks, Diebenkorn, Goldberg, Sterne, Tworkov: Works from the 1950s

      Special Presentation: 3rd Floor November 16, 2019 - January 16, 2020
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    • Chroma

      Chroma

      2nd Floor July 17 - August 16, 2019
      For its summer group exhibition, Van Doren Waxter is pleased to present Chroma, a show that brings together color-specific works by artists from the gallery’s roster and program. On view...
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    • Hedda Sterne

      Hedda Sterne

      Structures & Landscapes 1950 - 1968: 2nd Floor November 1 - December 22, 2018
      Van Doren Waxter is pleased to announce Hedda Sterne: Structures and Landscapes, 1950-1968, on view at 23 East 73rd Street from November 1 to December 22, 2018. The exhibition traces...
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    • Gaze

      Gaze

      August 1 - 30, 2018
      Van Doren Waxter is pleased to present Gaze, a multigenerational group exhibition which explores multidisciplinary approaches to depicting forms found in or related to the natural world. Featured historical and...
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    • Hedda Sterne

      Hedda Sterne

      Drawings 1967 | Special Presentation February 16 - April 26, 2018
      The 1960s was a particularly prolific decade for the artist Hedda Sterne (1910-2011). Previously in the 50s Sterne explored the urban landscape of New York, her new home after emigrating...
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    • Go Figure

      Go Figure

      January 11 - February 18, 2017
      Van Doren Waxter is pleased to present Go Figure, a group exhibition that explores the intersection of select historical and contemporary artists through the vernacular of figurative painting. Spanning a...
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    • Hedda Sterne

      Hedda Sterne

      Machines 1947-1951 March 10 - May 7, 2016
      “You see, before I came here, I was doing a combination of accident and Surrealist collage. And then, when I came to the United States, I was struck that this...
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    • Color(less)

      Color(less)

      October 28 - December 23, 2015
      Diebenkorn, Goldberg, Gorky, Held, Judd, Kline, LeWitt, Mangold, Motherwell, Rockburne, Sterne, Tobey Van Doren Waxter is pleased to present Color(less) , a selection of 14 works on paper by Richard...
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    • Frankenthaler, Rockburne, & Sterne

      Frankenthaler, Rockburne, & Sterne

      July 8 - August 28, 2015
      Van Doren Waxter is pleased to present an exhibition of works by Helen Frankenthaler, Dorothea Rockburne, and Hedda Sterne. This exhibition will include a painting and drawing by each of...
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    • Hedda Sterne

      Hedda Sterne

      April 2 - May 1, 2015
      Van Doren Waxter is pleased to announce our representation of The Hedda Sterne Foundation. A special presentation of works by Hedda Sterne (1910-2011) will be exhibited in the gallery’s Viewing...
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  • News
    • abstract work on paper

      Out of Thin Air: Emerging Forms

      Hedda Sterne | Menil Drawing Institute September 20, 2024
      Sep 20, 2024 – Jan 26, 2025 Out of Thin Air: Emerging Forms examines drawing as a meditative process that invites the gradual appearance of...
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    • lyrical abstract painting

      Epic Abstraction: Pollock to Herrera

      Hedda Sterne | The Metropolitan Museum of Art November 28, 2018
      Epic Abstraction: Pollock to Herrera will begin in the 1940s and extend into the twenty-first century to explore large-scale abstract painting, sculpture, and assemblage through...
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  • Publications
    • cover of a book

      Hedda Sterne

      Architecture of the Mind 2021
      Book, Softcover, 46 pages
      ISBN: 978-1-7325933-4-3
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    • cover of a book

      Hedda Sterne

      Structures & Landscapes 1950 - 1968 2018
      Book, Softcover; 44 pages
      ISBN: 978-1-7325933-0-5
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    • cover of a book

      Hedda Sterne

      Machines 1947-1951 2016
      Book, Softcover, 36 pages
      ISBN: 978-0-9908058-3-0
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  • Art fairs
    • installation view

      Art Basel Miami Beach

      Booth G4 December 6 - 8, 2024
      Van Doren Waxter will present a select group of works that embody expressionism and restraint. The variety of formalist impulses behind this concept will be...
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    • installation view

      Art Basel Miami Beach

      December 8 - 10, 2023
      Meridians : Alan Shields Kabinett : Alan Shields: Works on Paper
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    • installation view of an art fair booth with various artworks

      The Art Show | ADAA

      November 1 - 5, 2023
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    • art fair booth

      Art Basel Miami Beach

      December 1 - 3, 2022
      Main Booth Marsha Cottrell Karin Davie Moira Dryer Judy Fiskin Helen Frankenthaler Carmen Herrera Vera Molnar Mariah Robertson Dorothea Rockburne Jackie Saccoccio Hedda Sterne Anne...
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    • image of an art fair booth with various items hung on the walls

      Frieze Masters

      October 12 - 16, 2022
      Works Available By: Max Bill Richard Diebenkorn Tom Fairs Hans Hofmann Willem de Kooning John McLaughlin Vera Molnár Camille Pissarro Ken Price Harvey Quaytman Pierre-Auguste...
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    • Dallas Art Fair

      Dallas Art Fair

      April 21 - 24, 2022
      Caetano de Almeida James Brooks Marsha Cottrell Richard Diebenkorn Jeronimo Elespe Jessie Henson Hans Hofmann Volker Hüller Robert Motherwell Joshua Nathanson Evan Nesbit Harvey Quaytman...
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    • art fair booth

      The Armory Show

      March 5 - 8, 2020
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    • The Art Show

      The Art Show

      February 27 - March 3, 2020
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  • Press
    • Hedda Sterne

      By Barry Schwabsky, Artforum, March 1, 2022
    • Hedda Sterne

      by Rachel Churner, Artforum, February 28, 2019
    • A Radical Female Artist (and an Unsung Hero of the Avant-Garde) Gets Another Look in “Hedda Sterne: Structures and Landscapes”

      by Marley Marius, Vogue, October 29, 2018
    • ‘Hedda Sterne: Printed Variations’ Review: Elevating the Everyday

      By Judith H. Dobrzynski, The Wall Street Journal, August 18, 2018
    • How Artists Fight Vision Loss and Continue to Make New Work

      by Claire Voon, Artsy, July 6, 2018
    • Surface Work review – women abstract artists dazzle in historic show

      by Laura Cumming, The Guardian, April 15, 2018
    • Surface Work: the women who made abstract art

      by Julia Weiner, The Jewish Chronicle, April 12, 2018
    • Review: Beyond Irascible, the Art of Hedda Sterne

      The New York Times, March 24, 2016
    • FRANKENTHALER, ROCKBURNE & STERNE

      The New Yorker, August 28, 2015
    • On Fame and Famous Friends

      6 Quotes to Celebrate Hedda Sterne's Birthday
      by Lauren Palmer, Artnet News, August 4, 2015
    • The Whitney's Buried Treasures: 10 Rarely Seen Masterworks Making Their Debut in the New Building

      HEDDA STERNE
      Artspace, April 17, 2015
    • Hedda Sterne

      by Joan Simon, Art in America, February 1, 2007
    • Hedda Sterne

      by Anney Bonney, BOMB Magazine, May 1, 1992
    • The Irascible Hedda Strene

      WNYC, April 23, 1985

Van Doren Waxter, 23 East 73rd Street New York, NY 10021

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