Jane Freilicher
| Jane Freilicher | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Jane Niederhoffer |
| Born |
1924 (age 89–90) Brooklyn, New York |
| Spouse |
|
| Nationality | American |
| Field | Painter |
| Training | Hans Hofmann |
| Alma mater |
|
| Movement | Representational |
Jane Freilicher is an American representational painter of urban and country scenes from her homes in lower Manhattan and Water Mill, Long Island. She was a member of the informal New York School beginning in the 1950s, and a muse to several of its poets and writers. She was awarded the Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996.
Personal life
Jane Niederhoffer was born in Brooklyn on November 19, 1924.[1][2] Her parents were linguist Martin and musician Bertha Niederhoffer. She enjoyed painting and drawing as a young child and thought "I might do something in art, not for fame or achievement, but out of a romantic inclination to beautiful things. A free-floating feeling that something was creative in me."[2]
At 17 she graduated from high school and eloped[2] with Jack Freilicher,[3][4] a jazz pianist. They were married from about 1941 to 1946, when the marriage was annulled. She met Larry Rivers through Freilicher and Hofmann and in the 1950s Rivers and Freilicher were good friends.[5][6] In 1952 she met Joe Hazan, who was a businessman and dancer before becoming a painter.[5][6] They were married in 1957 and had one child, Elizabeth.[5][7] She and lived and worked on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and had a summer house they built on Mecox Bay in Water Mill on Long Island, New York.[6][7]
Art
Freilicher studied art under Hans Hofmann and in 1947 earned her Bachelor's degree at Brooklyn College. She received her Master's degree in 1948 from Columbia University's.[5][7] Teacher's College, where art historian Meyer Schapiro was one of her teachers.[2]
As the result of Hofmann's influence she first made abstract expressionist paintings. Then, influenced by artist Pierre Bonnard, she then settled into "softly brushed, meditative lyric"[5] paintings of still lifes and landscapes. She particularly made "urban pastoral"[3][4] scenes of lower Manhattan and Water Mill scenes which appear to be taken as she looks out her windows. "Usually there is a vase in the foreground, filled with flowers painted in lush, riotous colors, the light behind it..." The Long Island works feature nearby fields and sometimes Mecox Bay. The urban landscapes of lower Manhattan are taken from her penthouse view towards the Hudson River.[4][7] Freilicher's work has been considered by art critic Hilton Kramer to be "pre-eminent among the representational painters of the New York School's second generation."[4] Freilicher has also made woodcut, intaglio and lithograph prints.[5]
In 1952 she began showing her works at Tibor de Nagy, a gallery which was also associated with poets.[3]
In 2013 an exhibition "Jane Freilicher: Painter Among Poets" of her work was held at Tibor de Nagy in New York City. It reflects the relationships and inspiration that she was for James Schuyler, Frank O’Hara and Kenneth Koch.[7]
New York School
The paintings of Jane Freilicher, principally landscapes and still lifes, appear calm and assuming; therefore, it seems paradoxical that Freilicher herself should have inspired highly theatrical responses from the painters and poets who gathered around her during the formative years of the New York School.
In the 1950s she became part of an informal circle of writers and artists called the New York School.[4][6] She was portrayed in Mounting Tension, a 1950 film by Rudy Burckhardt in which John Ashbery and Larry Rivers fight for her affections. One year later Rivers, despondent because he was not being able to attain her, Rivers slit his wrists. James Schuyler wrote Presenting Jane, in one scene she walked on water. In A Terrestial Cuckoo O'Hara describes his dream of paddling down a jungle river with her,[3] one of many poems he wrote about her.[4]
Her friends and fellow artists include Larry Rivers, Grace Hartigan, and Fairfield Porter.[7] Hartigan, Nell Blaine and Helen Frankenthaler also exhibited at Tibor de Nagy.[4]
Freilicher's papers, including poetry and photographs, of her relationship with New York School writers and artists are now owned by the Houghton Library of Harvard University.[6]
Awards
- 1974 - American Association of University Women Fellowship[2]
- 1976 - National Endowment of the Arts Grant[2]
- 1987 - Saltus Gold Medal, National Academy of Design[2]
- 1996 - Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award[2]
Collections
- Brooklyn Museum, New York[2]
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio[2]
- Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.[2]
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York[2]
- Museum of Modern Art, New York[2]
- National Academy Museum and School, New York[2]
- Whitney Museum of American Art, New York[2]
References
- ↑ Jane Freilicher. Tibor de Nagy. February 3, 2014.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 Carol Kort; Liz Sonneborn. A to Z of American Women in the Visual Arts. Infobase Publishing; 1 January 2002. ISBN 978-1-4381-0791-2. p. 72–74.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Terence Diggory. Encyclopedia of the New York School Poets. Infobase Publishing; 2009. ISBN 978-1-4381-1905-2. p. 172–173.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Dinitia Smith. "ART; The Views From Her Windows Are Enough". The New York Times. April 19, 1998. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Ann Lee Morgan, Former Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago. The Oxford Dictionary of American Art and Artists. Oxford University Press; 27 June 2007. ISBN 978-0-19-802955-7. p. 166.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Jane Freilicher papers (MS Am 2072). Houghton Library, Harvard University. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Gina Bellafonte. A Painter Amid Friends. New York Times. May 25, 2013. Retrieved February 3, 2014.