Ethel Kremer Schwabacher (born May 20, 1903, New York, New York, U.S.— died November 25, 1984, New York, New York, U.S.) was an

abstract expressionist Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

painter, represented by the

Betty Parsons Betty Parsons (born Betty Bierne Pierson, January 31, 1900 – July 23, 1982) was an American artist, art dealer, and collector known for her early promotion of Abstract Expressionism. She is regarded as one of the most influential and dynamic f ...

Gallery in the 1950s and 1960s. She was a protégé and first biographer of

Arshile Gorky Arshile Gorky (; born Vostanik Manoug Adoian, hy, Ոստանիկ Մանուկ Ատոյեան; April 15, 1904 – July 21, 1948) was an Armenian-American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. He spent the last years of his ...

, and friends with many of the prominent painters of New York at that time, including

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning (; ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter El ...

Richard Pousette-Dart Richard Warren Pousette-Dart (June 8, 1916 – October 25, 1992) was an American abstract expressionist artist most recognized as a founder of the New York School of painting.Kimmelman, Michae"Richard Pousette-Dart, 76, Dies; An Early Abstract E ...

Kenzo Okada Kenzo Okada (岡田謙三, ''Okada Kenzō''; born on September 28, 1902, died on July 25, 1982) was a Japanese-born American painter and the first Japanese-American artist to work in the abstract expressionism, Abstract Expressionist style and ...

, and José Guerrero. She was also the author of a monograph on the artist

John Ford John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...

and a memoir, "Hungry for Light".

Biography

Schwabacher was born in New York in 1903. Her family moved to Pelham in 1908 where she first began painting in her garden. She attended

Horace Mann School , motto_translation = Great is the truth and it prevails , address = 231 West 246th Street , city = The Bronx , state = New York , zipcode = 10471 , count ...

and at age 15 enrolled at the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...

. She also studied sculpture at the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...

until 1921. During 1921,

Arnold Genthe Arnold Genthe (8 January 1869 – 9 August 1942) was a German-American photographer, best known for his photographs of San Francisco's Chinatown, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and his portraits of noted people, from politicians and socialite ...

took several photographs of her. After her apprenticeship in stone carving with the sculptor

Anna Hyatt Huntington Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington (March 10, 1876 – October 4, 1973) was an American sculptor who was among New York City's most prominent sculptors in the early 20th century. At a time when very few women were successful artists, she had a thrivi ...

, in 1927 Schwabacher abandoned sculpture and enrolled in

Max Weber Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas profo ...

's painting class at the Art Students League. That year she met

, with whom she developed a lasting friendship. She lived in Europe from 1928 to 1934. She and Gorky took independent studies together between 1934 and 1936. Gorky introduced her to automatism. She was inspired by Gorky's biomorphic abstractions and erotic forms. In the 1930s she began to explore her own sub-conscious, combining automatism with abstract forms, referring to nature. Schwabacher often interconnected themes of womanhood, childbirth, and children. In 1934, she married the prominent entertainment lawyer

Wolf Schwabacher Wolf Schwabacher (died 1951) was a prominent Jewish entertainment lawyer, a partner in the New York City law firm of Hays, Wolf, Schwabacher, Sklar & Epstein, whose clients included the Marx Brothers, Lillian Hellman, and Erskine Caldwell. He mar ...

and had two children:

Brenda Webster Brenda Webster is an American writer, critic and translator. She is the author of five novels, including ''The Beheading Game'' (2006) and ''Vienna Triangle'' (2009), which appeared on bestseller lists in both the San Francisco Chronicle and th ...

, American critic and novelist; and Christopher Schwabacher a lawyer in New York. Her cousin

George Oppen George Oppen (April 24, 1908 – July 7, 1984) was an American poet, best known as one of the members of the Objectivist group of poets. He abandoned poetry in the 1930s for political activism and moved to Mexico in 1950 to avoid the attentions o ...

, an objectivist poet who went on to win the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

, also lived in New York in the 1930s. Following the untimely death of her husband, she expressed her personal traumas through the a series of figurative paintings based on Greek myths. She died on November 25, 1984. Schwabacher's work is included in the collections of The

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

, the

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...

, the

Jewish Museum A Jewish museum is a museum which focuses upon Jews and may refer seek to explore and share the Jewish experience in a given area. List of Jewish museums Notable Jewish museums include: *Albania ** Solomon Museum, Berat *Australia ** Jewish Mu ...

, the

Brooklyn Museum of Art The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

, and the

Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is a private biomedical research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and provides doctoral and postdoctoral education. It is classif ...

in New York City. Her work has been exhibited in a number of galleries, including the

Anita Shapolsky Gallery The Anita Shapolsky Gallery is an art gallery that was founded in 1982 by Anita Shapolsky. It is currently located at 152 East 65th Street, on Manhattan's Upper East Side, in New York City. The gallery specializes in 1950s and 1960s abstract e ...

, the Betty Parsons Gallery and the Green-Ross Gallery in New York City. Her work was featured in "Women of Abstract Expressionism" at the

Denver Art Museum The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With encyclopedic collections of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums between t ...

from June–September, 2016, and at the

Palm Springs Art Museum The Palm Springs Art Museum (formerly the Palm Springs Desert Museum) was founded in 1938, and is a regional art, natural science and performing arts institution for Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley, in Riverside County, California, United St ...

in 2017.

Gendered Themes

Much like her female abstract expressionist contemporary

Lee Krasner Lenore "Lee" Krasner (born Lena Krassner; October 27, 1908 – June 19, 1984) was an American abstract expressionist painter, with a strong speciality in collage. She was married to Jackson Pollock. Although there was much cross-pollination betw ...

, whose work was cast in her husband’s shadow until his death, Schwabacher’s work stands as an example of gender politics in art as her works are continually attributed her role as a woman, wife, and mother. Her allusion to Greek themes and myths in the ''Odes'' series are said to have been influenced by the death of her husband, but this assertion fails to consider her interest in the

Surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

movement. She uses loose brushstrokes and bold colors to explore themes central to the abstract expressionist movement — Freudian psychology, dream states, and the unconscious.

References

* "Ethel Schwabacher: The Lyric/Epic and the Personal", Judith E. Johnson, Jayne L. Walker, Brenda S. Webster, ''Woman's Art Journal'', Vol. 10, No. 1 (Spring – Summer, 1989), pp. 3–9 * ''Arshile Gorky'' by Ethel Kremer Schwabacher (New York: Macmillan, 1957) * Schwabacher, Ethel; Jeanne Reynal; Bodley Gallery (New York, N.Y.
''Of people : Ethel Schwabacher, pastels : Jeanne Reynal, mosaics.''
(New York :

, 1976) OCLC: 48706042 * ''Hungry For Light: The Journal of Ethel Schwabacher'', edited by Brenda S. Webster and Judith Emylyn Johnson (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1993) * Marika Herskovic
''American Abstract and Figurative Expressionism: Style Is Timely Art Is Timeless''
(New York School Press, 2009.) . p. 216–219 {{DEFAULTSORT:Schwabacher 1903 births 1984 deaths Art Students League of New York alumni American women painters People from Pelham, New York 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women artists

Biography

Gendered Themes

See also

References