Amaranth Ehrenhalt
Curtain

Name: Curtain
Brand: Amaranth Ehrenhalt
Price: 45000 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

One of the "Women of Abstract Expressionism" Amaranth Ehrenhalt was long interested in patter and the idea of decoration in her work. Indeed, in the mid-60s, before Miriam Schapiro or Judy Chicago or the idea of "femmage," she embarked on a series of works that explored these ideas. This is one of them. She wanted to incorporate typically female images and ideas into her art. To quote one reviewer of Miriam Schapiro's work: "These things had been tossed aside, and she gave them appreciation." Amaranth Ehrenhalt was a multifaceted artist best known for her paintings. She was part of the second generation of Abstract Expressionists, working first in New York in the early 1950s, and then in Paris for much of the rest of her career. Never afraid to experiment, Ehrenhalt's work may best be described as bold, even aggressive, in execution, composition and even color. She worked across media, including oils, works on paper, prints and etchings, tapestry, design and sculpture. Amaranth Ehrenhalt died on March 16, 2021 in Manhattan. She was 93. The cause was Covid-19. Ehrenhalt moved to Paris early in her career and settled there as an expatriate artist for the next forty-odd years. Le Select Cafe was the place where artists and cognoscenti met. There Ehrenhalt met Beauford Delaney and Yves Klein (for whom she bought baby clothes when he couldn't afford them), among others. Sonia Delaunay bought her painting materials when she had no money. There she befriended Giacometti. And there she exhibited with, among others, Joan Mitchell, Sam Francis, Shirley Jaffe and Norman Bluhm, most recently in 2017 at the Mona Bismarck Foundation in Paris as part of its "American Artists in Paris" exhibition. She was included in the Denver Art Museum's exhibition "Women of Abstract Expressionism" the year after. "Ehrenhalt worked under the radar for much of her career. It's possible that's because she chose to work in Paris when New York was the locus of the art world," said one gallerist. Like many female artists of the period, she was taken less seriously because she was a woman. This story, which Ehrenhalt liked to tell, illustrated that fact: Completed in 1961, her work Jump in and Move Around was shown at an exhibition in Paris in 1962 along with the work of several other artists. The work was signed "Ehrenhalt." John Ashbery, the critic for the International Herald Tribune, reviewed the show and wrote the following: "A key figure among these 31 artists from 14 countries might be the American Ehrenhalt. [Jump In and Move Around is] both an example of New York School abstraction (lush colors, fluent brushwork, bustling composition) and an attempt at a new, possibly eerie, form of figuration." Several weeks later, Ehrenhalt met Ashberry and thanked him for his review. At first, Ashbery could not remember the review, but when she reminded him of the piece, he had this to say: "I never would have reviewed your painting if I had known you were a woman!" That work is now in a French museum collection.

Creator:

Amaranth Ehrenhalt (1936, American)

Dimensions:

Height: 32 in (81.28 cm)Width: 39 in (99.06 cm)

Medium:

Oil

Movement & Style:

Feminist

Period:

1960-1969

Framing:

Framing Options Available