Dawn Sea / Noon Sea - In the Hamptons

Mary Abbott is one of just a few of the first generation Abstract Expressionist artists alive today who continues to live and work in East Hampton. Descended from Pres. John Adams and Robert E. Lee, she grew up in high society

At the age of 12, Mary's first studied at Art Students League.  She lived mainly in New York, but spent time in Washington and studied at the Corcoran Museum School.  In the early 1940's Mary also worked as a model and appeared on the covers of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, among others.

In 1948, through sculptor David Hare, she joined an experimental school called The Subject of the Artist and moved into the heart of the New York avant-garde.  Rothko, Motherwell and Newman became her mentors. She also had an affair with William de Kooning, “the love of my life.”

In the early 1950's Mary worked in the Virgin Islands and Haiti, where she produced a great deal of work.  Around the same time, Mary began to exhibit extensively with shows at Kootz, Tibor de Nagy and Tanager.  She was also in three of the famous Stable Gallery Annuals. In the 1958, her collaborations with poet Barbara Guest were shown at the Kornlee Gallery along with Larry Rivers and Frank O’Hara.

She and her husband, Tom Clyde then moved to Southampton, where Mary still resides, alternating with her NYC apartment. From 1974-77,  she taught at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Mary became a member of the Artist's Club, where she was one of three female members along with Perle Fine and Elaine de Kooning.  Her work is included in Marika Herskovic’s American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s.

Abbott has had many solo exhibitions and she has participated in group shows in the United States and abroad, most recently The Persistence of Abstraction, held at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. Examples of her work can be found at the Avram Gallery, the Parrish Museum, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., and in many private collections. It is offered by a number of galleries including Spaierman and McCormick Galleries.

Price for each (unframed) is $475 / both for $850