Jeanne Reynal (1903–1983) is a mosaicist and a significant figure of the New York School group of artists. She showed with Betty Parsons Gallery. Her work is in the collections of

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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 (1875–194 ...

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Phillips Academy ("Not for Self") la, Finis Origine Pendet ("The End Depends Upon the Beginning") Youth From Every Quarter Knowledge and Goodness , address = 180 Main Street , city = Andover , state = Ma ...

, and

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. Her personal papers from 1942 to 1968 are included in the

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Early life

Reynal was born in 1903 in

White Plains, New York (Always Faithful) , image_seal = WhitePlainsSeal.png , seal_link = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = U.S. state, State , su ...

. She was the second of five children. When Reynal was nine years old, her parents separated. She moved to

Millbrook, New York Millbrook is a village in Dutchess County, New York, United States. Millbrook is located in the Hudson Valley, on the east side of the Hudson River, north of New York City. Millbrook is near the center of the town of Washington, of which it is a ...

with her father where she was taught by a governess. Her other siblings continued to live with her mother.

Early career

At the age of twenty-four, Reynal spent a summer to England, France, and Italy with her siblings and her mother. It was during this trip that Reynal first met the Russian mosaicist Boris Anrep. Two years later, Reynal began an apprenticeship with Anrep in Europe after assisting him with a mosaic he installed in the

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. The two also became romantically involved until Anrep left Reynal for a wealthy Englishwoman. Reynal left Paris in 1937 and moved to California, where she worked in a potting shed in Marin County. She then moved to the High Sierras, where she built a house and studio. After living in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

for eight years, Reynal returned to her

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studio in 1946. At that time, she further developed friendships with artists including Willem and Elaine de Kooning. She married the painter Thomas Sills in 1955. They traveled together across Russia, Turkey, Greece, and Italy in 1959 to further study the art of mosaic.

Art and mosaics

Reynal was known as a pioneer of mosaics during the New York Abstract Expressionist Movement. Her work prompted a rebirth of ancient mosaic techniques in the modern art world. In addition, Reynal freed the mosaic from the traditional confines of architectural settings. Reynal embraced the layered effect of mosaics, as they could stand alone, be a part of architecture, or engage with nature. One technique Reynal developed to create her murals included mixing own Portland cement. Portland cement is weather tolerant which allows for mosaics to be displayed outdoors for the first time. This medium is only workable for four hours before hardening so Reynal had to be flexible in her designs. The pacing dictated by this medium allowed for some automatic creation. She was inspired by

Byzantine mosaics Byzantine mosaics are mosaics produced from the 4th to 15th centuries in and under the influence of the Byzantine Empire. Mosaics were some of the most popular and historically significant art forms produced in the empire, and they are still studi ...

as well as artwork by Mexican,

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, and American Southwestern artists. Her work discusses mythology through a culturally modern setting. In this way, her mosaic work became accessible to the contemporary art world.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reynal, Jeanne 1903 births 1983 deaths People from White Plains, New York American muralists Mosaic artists 20th-century American women artists 20th-century American artists Artists from New York (state)