Artist: Mary Abbott

Schoelkopf Gallery presents Mary Abbott: To Draw Imagination, a major retrospective dedicated to the pioneering Abstract Expressionist Mary Abbott (1921–2019). This exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of Abbott’s career, presenting over 60 works spanning 1940 to 2002.

This retrospective highlights Abbott’s bold exploration of color, form and media, tracing her evolution from early figurative works and Surrealist influences to her later large-scale Abstract Expressionist paintings, collages and experimental works on paper. It also brings to light Abbott’s role as one of the few women artists deeply engaged in The Club, a members-only artists group dedicated to shaping the Abstract Expressionist movement.

“Mary Abbott’s work was at the forefront of Abstract Expressionism, yet her contributions have long been overshadowed. This exhibition reaffirms her place as a defining voice in post-war American art,” says Alana Ricca, Managing Director of Schoelkopf Gallery.

Born and raised on New York’s Upper East Side, Abbott studied with George Grosz, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Robert Motherwell, and maintained deep artistic connections with André Breton, Grace Hartigan, Jackson Pollock, Frank O’Hara, Willem de Kooning and Elaine de Kooning.

Abbott’s ability to push the boundaries of Abstract Expressionism and painting itself set her apart. She worked across diverse media—including oil, charcoal, pastel, collage, and hand-printed elements—creating works that blend gesture with materiality.

This retrospective presents rarely seen works from the Estate of Mary Abbott, including early Surrealist-influenced works (1950s) that trace Abbott’s transition from modernist training to gestural abstraction, Abstract Expressionist canvases (1950s–60s) created in dialogue with Pollock, de Kooning, and Joan Mitchell, highlighting her synthesis of action painting and automatic drawing techniques, and nature-inspired abstractions (1970s–2000s) that explore Abbott’s deep connection to the Hamptons and the Caribbean, capturing the landscapes that profoundly influenced her palette and compositions.

Despite her long-overdue recognition, Abbott exhibited throughout her lifetime in prestigious New York galleries and institutions such as Stable Gallery, Signa Gallery, Kornblee Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Her work has recently gained renewed national and international attention through exhibitions such as Women of Abstract Expressionism (2016, Denver Art Museum), The Shape of Freedom: International Abstraction after 1945 (2022, Museum Barberini, Germany) and Action | Gesture | Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940–1970 (2023, Whitechapel Gallery, London). Today, Abbott’s work is held in major museum collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Denver Art Museum; the Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York; and Femmes Artistes du Musée de Mougins, France.

A fully illustrated scholarly exhibition catalogue will accompany the show, featuring essays by Gwen Chanzit (Curator Emerita, Denver Art Museum) and Laura Smith (Director of Collection and Exhibitions, The Hepworth Wakefield, UK).

In anticipation of the 2025 retrospective, Schoelkopf Gallery featured Abbott’s work at major art fairs throughout 2024, including a solo presentation at The Armory Show (September 6–8, 2024) and group presentations at The Art Show, by the ADAA (October 29–November 2, 2024) and Art Basel, Miami Beach (December 6–8, 2024).