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Mary Abbott Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

American, 1921-2019

Mary Abbott, who passed away in 2019, was one of the last living artists present for the birth of — and who participated in — the Abstract Expressionist movement in New York City in the late 1940s.

A descendant of John and John Quincy Adams, Abbott's father, Naval Commander Henry Abbott, served in Roosevelt’s war cabinet. Her mother, Elizabeth Grinnell, was a poet and syndicated columnist and her aunt, Mary Ogden Abbott, was a well-known sculptor and big game hunter. Abbot’s childhood was spent between New York; Boston; Washington, D.C.; Concord, MA; and Southampton, NY.

As a child Abbott aspired to be a herpetologist and an artist. She took classes in D.C. with Eugene Weiss at the Corcoran School and later in New York at the Art Students League, studying with George Gross and Morris Kantor. Introduced to André Breton and the expat Surrealist group in New York by David Hare, Abbot joined the Subjects of the Artist, an unorthodox school run by Hare, William Baziotes, Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman. In the late 1940s Abbott worked with Rothko and Newman and fostered a lifelong close relationship with Willem de Kooning.

Find a collection of original Mary Abbott paintings on 1stDibs.

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Artist: Mary Abbott
"Flowers" Mary Abbott, Colorful Floral Still Life, Female Abstract Expressionism
By Mary Abbott
Located in New York, NY
Mary Abbott Flowers, circa 1950 Signed lower left Pastel on paper 30 x 22 1/4 inches Provenance: Aaron Galleries, Glenview, Illinois Among the early exponents of Abstract Expressio...
Category

1950s Abstract Mary Abbott Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Paper, Pastel

“Untitled”
By Mary Abbott
Located in Southampton, NY
Original oil pastel on archival paper by the renowned New York artist, Mary Abbott. Signed lower right. Untitled. Circa 1970. Condition is very good. Presently unframed. Sheet size ...
Category

1970s Mary Abbott Drawings and Watercolor Paintings

Materials

Oil Pastel, Archival Paper

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