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Emily Mason Abstract Paintings

American, 1932-2019

Emily Mason was born in New York City in 1932. She graduated from New York City’s High School of Music and Art and studied at Bennington College for two years before attending and graduating from the Cooper Union. She spent 1956–58 in Italy on a Fulbright grant for painting, where she studied at the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Venice. 

During Mason’s two-year stay in Italy she married the painter Wolf Kahn, whom she had met earlier in New York. Mason and Kahn’s daughter, Cecily Kahn, is also an abstract painter, as was Emily Mason’s mother, Alice Trumbull Mason, a founding member of the American Abstract Artists group in New York. 

Mason spent more than six decades exploring her distinctive vein of lyrical, luminous abstraction. Her paintings executed in oil are distinguished by a sense of intriguing intimacy combined with uncompromising, though gentle, intensity. They evince a sense of structure within open, luminous space and juxtapose robust color harmonies with vivid contrasts that create an engaging optical vibration.

Robert Berlind said of the artist in Art in America, “Mason works within the improvisational model of Abstract Expressionism, though notably without angst or bravado.” 

Mason exhibited steadily throughout her career since she emerged on the Tenth Street gallery scene with multiple exhibitions at the Area Gallery in New York City in the 1960s. In 1979, she was awarded the Ranger Fund Purchase Prize by the National Academy. She taught painting at Hunter College for more than thirty years. Her work has been included in numerous public and private collections. 

Emily Mason: The Fifth Element, a comprehensive treatment of her work by Art in America associate managing editor David Ebony, was published in 2006 by George Braziller publishers. A second monograph, Emily Mason: The Light in Spring, was published in 2015 by the University Press of New England.

Mason died in December of 2019 in Brattleboro, Vermont.

Find a collection of original Emily Mason paintings and other art on 1stDibs.

(Biography provided by Miles McEnery Gallery)

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Artist: Emily Mason
So Slight a Film ex-Lehman Brothers Art Collection unique signed painting Framed
By Emily Mason
Located in New York, NY
Emily Mason So Slight a Film (from the Lehman Brothers art collection), 1978 Oil on paper Abstract Expressionist painting Signed and dated 'Emily Mason '78' bottom right in pencil Fr...
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1970s Abstract Emily Mason Abstract Paintings

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Asiatic Rain
By Emily Mason
Located in New York, NY
EMILY MASON Asiatic Rain, 1989 Oil on paper 29 x 23 inches 73.7 x 58.4 cm Signed (lower right recto) (MMG#32797)
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Previously Available Items
Untitled
By Emily Mason
Located in New York, NY
EMILY MASON Untitled, 1990 Oil on paper 29 x 23 inches 73.7 x 58.4 cm Signed and dated: "Emily Mason 1990 VT" (lower right recto) Formally, Emily Mason (1932-2019) is perhaps best k...
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1990s Abstract Expressionist Emily Mason Abstract Paintings

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Located in New York, NY
EMILY MASON Untitled, 1990 Oil on paper 29 x 23 inches 73.7 x 58.4 cm Signed and dated: "Emily Mason 1990" (lower left recto) Formally, Emily Mason (1932-2019) is perhaps best known...
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Transparent Slope
By Emily Mason
Located in New York, NY
EMILY MASON Transparent Slope, 1989 Oil on paper 29 x 23 inches 73.7 x 58.4 cm Signed (lower right recto) (MMG#32796)
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1980s Emily Mason Abstract Paintings

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EMILY MASON The Thunder Hurried Slow, 1978 Oil on canvas 54 x 54 inches 137.2 x 137.2 cm -- Formally, Emily Mason (1932-2019) is perhaps best known for her vibrant pigments and her intuitive grasp of color theory, as well as her unusual painting method that she mastered over the course of her career: using cat food...
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1970s Emily Mason Abstract Paintings

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Masonry
By Emily Mason
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EMILY MASON Masonry, 1978 Oil on canvas 52 x 44 inches 132.1 x 111.8 cm Signed and dated: "Emily Mason '78" (lower right recto) -- Formally, Emily Mason (1932-2019) is perhaps best...
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Emily Mason abstract paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Emily Mason abstract paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Emily Mason in oil paint, paint and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the abstract style. Not every interior allows for large Emily Mason abstract paintings, so small editions measuring 18 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Amaranth Ehrenhalt, Martin Canin, and Gail Chase-Bien. Emily Mason abstract paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $25,000 and tops out at $25,000, while the average work can sell for $25,000.

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