Alice Trumbull Mason

Known as a pioneer of American abstraction (she produced her first abstract paintings in 1929), Mason was a founding and active member of the American Abstract Artists group and was regarded as a spirited and outspoken member, regularly exhibiting in group shows. She descended from Revolutionary-era painter John Trumbull.

During the 1930s and 40s, her work featured biomorphic shapes, recalling Mondrian and Gorky although more subtle and playful. Pincus-Witten notes that her art fluctuates between biomorphism and Mondrianism; she gave up curving shapes in favor of geometric and hard-edged abstraction by 1944. Mason said: “In painting, I developed through a biomorphic period to straight edges and angles, loosely and popularly called ‘geometric.’ These works spring from the need of a greater potential in governing the allotted space, and at the same time of creating a lyrical statement.” Mason’s use of simplified geometric forms has been tied to Purism, and the absence of personal expression and meaning anticipates Minimalism.