Schoelkopf Gallery Announces Worldwide Representation of the Estate of Mary Abbott New York City (August 2024) - Schoelkopf Gallery is pleased to announce the exclusive worldwide representation of the estate of accomplished American artist Mary Abbott (1921-2019). A pivotal figure in Abstract Expressionism and the New York School, Abbott's dynamic and emotive works have been celebrated for their bold exploration of color, form, and texture.
In 1946, 25-year-old Mary Abbott ended her three-year marriage to Rudolph Lewis Teague, rented a cold water flat at 88 East 10th Street in Manhattan's East Village as her studio, and thrust herself into the crucible of a developing artistic movement the critic Robert Coates described that same year as Abstract Expressionism. Abbott was descended from U.S. Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams. She benefitted from childhood training with the modernist George Grosz, but her association with her 10th Street neighbor David Hare introduced her to a new milieu in the New York School in the mid-1940s. In 1948, Abbott enrolled at the experimental Subjects of the Artist School, where she studied under and painted alongside luminaries such as Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, and Mark Rothko. Abbott, Elaine de Kooning, and Joan Mitchell were among few women invited to join The Club, a group of artists dedicated to shaping Abstract Expressionism. Abbott's inventive approach to abstraction centered on a vibrant color palette and myriad experimental techniques she developed across a variety of media, including collage, oil, charcoal, and pastel. Throughout her career, her works were exhibited alongside those of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Lee Krasner, notably in the 1950s at the Stable Gallery and Signa Gallery. Abbott earned her first international solo exhibition at the Galerie Kléber in Paris in 1962.
"We are honored to represent the estate of Mary Abbott," says Andrew Schoelkopf, owner of Schoelkopf Gallery. "Abbott is one of a group of artists left behind by previous generations of academics but she was immersed in the development of Abstract Expressionism and was a sensational and important artist. We are grateful for the notoriety she has received in the last decade, particularly since the landmark exhibition Women of Abstract Expressionism at the Denver Art Museum in 2016, as well as her inclusion in the international traveling exhibitions: The Shape of Freedom: International Abstraction after 1945 which started at the Museum Barberini in 2022 in Potsdam, Germany, and Action | Gesture | Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940 - 1970 which opened in 2023 at Whitechapel Gallery in London, United Kingdom."
As Schoelkopf Gallery prepares for a 2025 retrospective exhibition, the gallery will exhibit Mary Abbott's work at several prestigious art fairs, including a solo presentation at The Armory Show (September 6 – 8, 2024), as well as inclusion in group presentations at both The Art Show, organized by the ADAA (October 29 – November 2, 2024), and Art Basel Miami Beach (December 6 – 8, 2024). These showings will display many of her iconic works in collage, pastel, and oil, offering a comprehensive look at the evolution of her style.
