Grace Hartigan

Image courtesy of ACA Galleries, 2003

Grace Hartigan (1922-2008) was an internationally-renowned artist from Newark, New Jersey who was active in the visual arts from the 1950s onward as a painter and printmaker. Early in her career, she signed her work with the name George Harigan in order to find gallery representation and avoid sexism, as few women artists were able to show their works in the 1950s. Hartigan worked primarily in the Abstract Expressionist style, though she experimented with a variety of other styles, such as Pop Art. She knew many influential contemporary writers, including the poet Frank O’Hara, who dedicated several poems to her.

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References:

Hartigan, Grace, and Joseph D. Ketner. Hartigan, thirty years of painting, 1950-1980. Fort Wayne, Ind.: Fort Wayne Museum of Art, 1981. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/8111256.

Hartigan, Grace. Grace Hartigan. Purchase, N.Y.: Neuberger Museum of Art, 2001. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/49302508.

Baker, Kenneth. “Second Generation: Mannerism or Momentum?” Art in America 73, no. 6 (1985): 102-111.

“New Talent USA: Fifty-Six Painters and Sculptors.” Art in America 52, no. 4 (1964): 22-79.

Westfall, Stephen. “Then and Now: Six of the New York School Look Back.” Art in America 73, no. 6 (1985): 112-121.

Questions to Explore

What encourage Hartigan to finally use her name when presenting her work?

How did Hartigan’s connection to influential contemporary writers affect her work as an artist?

Additional Resources

Hartigan, Grace, Robert Saltonstall Mattison, and Ann Aptaker. Grace Hartigan : a Survey: Paintings and Works on Paper 1949-2006 : April 27 through June 3, 2017. New York, N.Y: ACA Galleries, 2017.

Curtis Cathy. 2015. Restless Ambition : Grace Hartigan Painter. New York: Oxford University Press. http://site.ebrary.com/id/11006378.

Hartigan Grace Robert Saltonstall Mattison and Kouros Gallery. 1989. Grace Hartigan Four Decades of Painting : [Exhibition] April 7-May 6 1989 Kouros. New York N.Y. (23 East 73 Street New York NY 10021): Kouros Gallery.https://www.worldcat.org/title/22314878