Rosemarie Beck, Zoe Longfield and Hedda Sterne: 1948-1957: 3rd Floor Gallery

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. 1923 – d. 2003) was regarded as a member of the second generation of the New York School of abstract expressionists, and her work was often exhibited at the annual shows of the Stable and Peridot galleries. Beginning in the late 1940s, she was mentored and promoted, first by Kurt Selgimann and then by Robert Motherwell in their respective ateliers. During this time, Beck identified as an abstract expressionist, but by the late 1950s, she had switched to the figurative focus that she would retain for the rest of her career. This exhibition highlights her abstract paintings and collages.

Zoe Longfield (b. 1924 – d. 2013) was an American abstract expressionist painter in the San Francisco Bay Area. She was a participant in the first generation of Bay Area Abstract Expressionism, which occurred in San Francisco in the last half of the 1940s. Zoe Longfield was also one of the earliest women artists working in this movement. During her brief active years, Longfield produced a significant body of paintings, prints, and drawings that showcase both a deft handling of media and a unique visual vocabulary that she employed. Like many women artists of her time, she gave up her own creative ambitions when she married in order to support her husband’s career. She never returned to painting after 1951. This exhibition highlights both her paintings and works on paper.

Hedda Sterne (b. 1910 – d. 2011) was a visionary and endlessly experimental Romanian-American artist. 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 in Paris from 1932 to 1939. 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. Sterne continuously sought new ways of interpreting the world around her. This exhibition highlights her works from the 1940s of urban landscapes, interiors, and machinery.