Faith Bayless Art

Joan Mitchell (Portrait) II, 2020 monotype, unique print from a series of IV 22 3/4 x 18 3/8 in. (57.8 x 46.7 cm) “The Sparkling Amazons,” the term coined by Thomas Hess to described five women who revolutionized the modern art world in postwar America, was a group comprised of Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler. The Irascibles, or Irascible 18, were the labels given to a group of American abstract painters who in 1950, penned an open letter to the president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art to express their intense disapproval and commitment to boycott the museum’s exhibition American Painting Today: 1950. The subsequent media coverage and iconic photo of the group published in Life Magazine in 1951 gave the Irascibles notoriety and helped to canonize the term ‘Abstract Expressionism.’ By reconstructing the image with the inclusion of all the notable Abstract Expressionist artists of the period, Red Grooms attempts to recognize the often-overlooked contribution by women artists to the AbEx movement and the significant role they played as bold innovators within the New York School during the 1940s and 1950s. Grooms became an active participant in 1957, joining the cooperative Phoenix Gallery on East 10th Street, the then heart of the art world. He would later start City Gallery with Jay Milder in his own loft on West 24th Street. “We were reacting to Tenth Street. In ’58 and ’59, Tenth Street was sort of like SoHo is now, and it was getting all the lively attention of everyone downtown. We were just kids in our twenties and had a flair for attracting people to our openings.” The series of monotypes were printed at Derriere L’Etoile Studios, a fine art printmaking studio which was founded by Maurice Sanchez in 1978. Sanchez notes, “Red Grooms in a print studio is like a three-year-old child in a toy store...

Alma Thomas III, 2020 monotype, unique print from a series of IV 26 3/4 x 20 in. (68 x 50.8 cm)

Perle Fine V, 2020 monotype, unique print from a series of VI 21 x 26 1/2 in. (53.3 x 67.3 cm) framed: 24 1/8 x 29 5/8 in.

Grace Hartigan (Color) VII, 2020 monotype, unique print from a series of IX 23 1/4 x 18 3/4 in. (59.1 x 47.6 cm) framed: 26 1/2 x 21 7/8 in.

De Kooning, Kligman VI, 2020 monotype, unique print from a series of VI 21 x 26 1/2 in. (53.3 x 67.3 cm) framed: 24 1/8 x 29 5/8 in.

Ruth and Pollock Sitting on Stairs III, 2020 monotype, unique print from a series of VI 21 x 26 1/2 in. (53.3 x 67.3 cm) framed: 24 x 29 5/8 in.

Elaine (Plaid) II, 2020 monotype, unique print from a series of IV 22 13/16 x 18 1/2 in. (57.9 x 47 cm) framed: 25 7/8 x 21 1/2 in.

Frankenthaler and Hartigan (Laughing) II, 2020 monotype, unique print from a series of IV 22 3/4 x 18 1/4 in. (57.8 x 46.4 cm)

Helen Frankenthaler (Portrait) IV, 2020 monotype, unique print from a series of IV 22 3/4 x 18 1/2 in. (57.8 x 46.4 cm)

Joan, Helen, Grace III, 2020 monotype, unique print from a series of V 18 7/8 x 22 1/4 in. (47.9 x 56.5 cm) framed: 22 x 25 3/8 in.

Betty Parsons Portrait III, 2020 monotype, unique print from a series of V 26 1/6 x 20 in. (66.5 x 50.8 cm) framed: 29 1/8 x 23 1/4 in.

Color monotype with hand coloring and collage