Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art
£17.90£19.00 (-6%)
Five women revolutionize the modern art world in postwar America in this “gratifying, generous, and lush” true story from a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist (Jennifer Szalai, New York Times).
Set amid the most turbulent social and political period of modern times, Ninth Street Women is the impassioned, wild, sometimes tragic, always exhilarating chronicle of five women who dared to enter the male-dominated world of twentieth-century abstract painting — not as muses but as artists. From their cold-water lofts, where they worked, drank, fought, and loved, these pioneers burst open the door to the art world for themselves and countless others to come.
Gutsy and indomitable, Lee Krasner was a hell-raising leader among artists long before she became part of the modern art world’s first celebrity couple by marrying Jackson Pollock. Elaine de Kooning, whose brilliant mind and peerless charm made her the emotional center of the New York School, used her work and words to build a bridge between the avant-garde and a public that scorned abstract art as a hoax. Grace Hartigan fearlessly abandoned life as a New Jersey housewife and mother to achieve stardom as one of the boldest painters of her generation. Joan Mitchell, whose notoriously tough exterior shielded a vulnerable artist within, escaped a privileged but emotionally damaging Chicago childhood to translate her fierce vision into magnificent canvases. And Helen Frankenthaler, the beautiful daughter of a prominent New York family, chose the difficult path of the creative life.
Her gamble paid off: At twenty-three she created a work so original it launched a new school of painting. These women changed American art and society, tearing up the prevailing social code and replacing it with a doctrine of liberation. In Ninth Street Women, acclaimed author Mary Gabriel tells a remarkable and inspiring story of the power of art and artists in shaping not just postwar America but the future.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Back Bay, Illustrated edition (31 Oct. 2019) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 944 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0275926575 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0316226172 |
| Dimensions | 16.26 x 5.84 x 23.75 cm |
by BlueSkinBlake
I am a painter who grew up wanting to paint like Frankenthaler, Krasner, Mitchell, and E. deKooning. So after many years, I was very happy to see someone who would take on the challenge write about these incredible artists lives.
I respect the huge amount of research that went on to creating such a work and I appreciate how hard it must’ve been to collate all the threads of anecdotes and stories of the 9th Street Women.
However, although I appreciated the detail of these these artists lives Ifelt that a lot of the information used was irrelevant and the writing often orbited too much on the male artists and their influence on the art world. As I read I kept feeling that the author was missing something as I was hoping that the book would be about the artist’s studio practice and they organised and supported each other in a more concise way. I remember that I kept wondering what was the impact these painters had on the likes of O’Keefe and Carrington et al. Consequently I felt
that the book could have been shorter and I was surprised to discover that, although not being a 9th Street Artist, Agnes Martin was omitted from this narrative as, dare I say, very much part of the Abstract Expressionist scene, at the time. Sadly it read like someone’s PHD thesis. So the reason I have it a 3 star only was because I think it needed a good editor and a clear vision of what needed to be said about these incredible artists. There was so much that was glossed over by inconsequential information and sometimes the narrative was bogged down and confusing as we jumped from one artist to another. Sadly, I after reading the last page I felt that the book didn’t truly explore the artist’s output only how they supported the men in their lives.
by Amazon Customer
A much needed documentation of the 1st and 2nd generation women pioneers of Abstract Expression. Beautifully placed in its historical context, a seamless chronological insight. Very happy to see their male counterparts have been included to accurately portray the sometimes tacit dialogue essential to a vital historical movement. Some gems of private correspondence and thoughts. I’ve never taken so many notes! Sorry to have finished it. 10/10!
by Tracey Murray
I’m an art student. This book is going to shift my viewpoint I know that after reading the intro…brilliant!!
by ae_a
Lovely book. Arrived in good condition.
by Lawlor Erin
This is a fabulous read – a long-awaited account of some of the major female characters of the Ab Ex movement, replacing them in their rightful role at the heart of the movement. Mary Gabriel has produced a work that is remarkably well-documented and insightful, but also hugely fun to read; a prefect blend of historical context, artistic understanding and personal anecdotes…It’s a doorstopper of a book, but I would have happily read the same length again. Also contains welcome photographic documentation.
by Deb
I was looking forward to this book being available in the UK as soon as I saw references to it on US social media accounts. I was not disappointed. The way in which the author brings to life the five influential women and their contemporaries is breathtaking. The detailed research is apparent on every page, and I learned so much about Abstract Expressionism, but it reads like a novel that instantly takes you back to New York in the forties and fifties. Mary Gabriel has absolutely done these women justice and captured their struggles and their genius for us all to appreciate.
by Skit
Great history, herstory!