Hedda Sterne

Hedda Sterne
Born Hedwig Lindenberg
August 4, 1910
Bucharest, Romania
Died April 8, 2011 (aged 100)
New York City, New York, USA
Nationality Romanian
Education University of Bucharest (1928) Self Taught
Known for Painter; printmaking
Notable work Machine 5, Diary
Movement Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism

Hedda Sterne (born Hedwig Lindenberg; August 4, 1910 – April 8, 2011)[1] was an artist best remembered as the only woman in a group of Abstract Expressionists known as "The Irascibles" which consisted of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, and others. Sterne was the only woman photographed with the group by Nina Leen for Life magazine in 1950. In her artistic endeavors she created a body of work known for exhibiting a stubborn independence from styles and trends, including Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism, with which she is often associated.[2]

Sterne has been almost completely overlooked in art historical narratives of the post-war American art scene. At the time of her death, possibly the last surviving artist of the first generation of the New York School, Hedda Sterne viewed her widely varied works more as in flux than as definitive statements.[2] In 1944 she married Saul Steinberg the Romanian-born American cartoonist and illustrator, best known for his work for The New Yorker.

During the late 1940s she became a member of The Irascible Eighteen, a group of abstract painters who protested the Metropolitan Museum of Art's policy towards American painting of the 1940s and who posed for a famous picture in 1950; members of the group besides Sterne included: Willem de Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, Ad Reinhardt, Richard Pousette-Dart, William Baziotes, Jimmy Ernst, Jackson Pollock, James Brooks, Clyfford Still, Robert Motherwell, Bradley Walker Tomlin, Theodoros Stamos, Barnett Newman, and Mark Rothko.[3]

Her works are in the collections of museums including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, also in Washington, D.C. She turned 100 in August 2010.[4]

Biography

Sterne was born in Bucharest, Romania, in 1910 as Hedwig Lindenberg. Born to Simon Lindenberg, a high school language teacher, and Eugenie (Wexler) Lindenberg. She was the second child with her only sibling, Edouard, who later became a prominent conductor in Paris.[5]

Sterne was raised with artistic values from a young age, most notably, her tie to Surrealism, which stemmed from a family friend, Victor Brauner.[5] Sterne was homeschooled until age 11. Upon graduating from high school in 1927, at age 17, she attended art classes in Vienna, then had a short attendance at the University of Bucharest studying philosophy and art history before she dropped out to pursue artistic training independently.[6] She spent time traveling, especially to Paris developing her technical skills as both a painter and sculptor. Hedda Sterne married a childhood friend, Frederick Stern, in 1932 when she was 22. In 1941 she escaped a certain death from Nazi encroachment during World War II when she fled to New York to be with Frederick. In 1944 she remarried Saul Steinberg and became a U.S. citizen. It is not mentioned if she ever had children. She was involved in many shows and exhibits in New York and practiced her art up until macular degeneration set in and she could no longer paint, but continued to draw. Then, when she was 94 years old, Sterne had a stroke that affected her vision and movement and thereafter was unable to make art at all.[7]

Chronology

Quotes

[8]

The Irascibles

Main article: The Irascibles

Sterne the only woman in a group of artists who were dubbed "The Irascibles". The term was coined to represent the group consisting of 18 prominent artists of their day, including Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman, and Mark Rothko. These artists were also thought to be a part of the New York School as well as Sterne (although she preferred not to be aligned with any artistic group). "The Irascibles" are the artists who signed a letter protesting conservative group-exhibition juries to the president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They were referred to as The Irascibles in an article featured in an issue of Life where the infamous Nina Leen photograph was published of 15 members of "The Irascibles".[5]

Legacy

From the very beginning of her outstanding but unknown career, Sterne maintained an individual profile in the face of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, and Barnett Newman, all of whom she knew personally. Her independence reflected an immense artistic and personal integrity. The astonishing variety of Sterne's work, spanning from her initial appropriation of surrealist techniques, to her investigation of conceptual painting, and her unprecedented installations in the 1960s, exemplify her adventurous spirit. Yet, the heterogeneity of her styles, and her complete disinterest in the commercially driven art world, have contributed to her exclusion from the canon. When the heroic male narratives of modernism begin to fade, we may, eventually, be ready to recognize this amazingly idiosyncratic body of work. Sterne's art is, indeed, a manifesto in favor of the untamable forces of the mind and the continually changing flux of life.[9]

Career

Sterne's career did not bloom until she came to New York, even though she had had a few exhibitions in Romania. She showed her work for the first time in a group show, the 11th Exposition du Salon des Surindépendants, in Paris in 1938. Sterne was included in group and independent art shows throughout her entire career.[10]

Artistic style

"Hedda Sterne views her widely varied works more as "in flux" than as definitive statements. She has maintained a stubborn independence from styles and trends, including Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism".[11] Sterne never liked to define her art or herself into any group socially or artistically; she never followed a boundary of a certain style. She was a self-taught, uninfluenced artist who just worked and made her art as she pleased and how she pleased without having a single concern to try to define her art into any category. "Although she never developed a signature style, Ms. Sterne's explorations have produced a small universe of evocative images".[12]

Artworks

[13]

Awards

[13]

One Woman Shows

Selected group shows

Collections

See also

Books

Articles

References

  1. ↑ Art Daily, Hedda Sterne, America's Last Original Abstract Expressionist and Sole Woman in the Group, Dies Retrieved April 10, 2011
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Sterne, Hedda, Sarah L Eckhardt, Josef Helfenstein, and Lawrence Rinder. Uninterrupted flux : Hedda Sterne, a retrospective. Champaign, Ill.: Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, 2006.
  3. ↑ The Irascibles, retrieved October 25th 2008
  4. ↑ Kate (2010-12-09). "Hedda Sterne’s True Expression". Gorey Memorabilia. My Local Muse. Retrieved 2010-12-14.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Eckhardt, 2006
  6. ↑ Simon, 2007
  7. ↑ Simon, Joan. Patterns of thought: Hedda Sterne. Art in America, 2007.
  8. ↑ Sterne, Hedda from Eckhardt's Flux, 2006
  9. ↑ Helfenstein, Josef. Foreword in Uninterrupted Flux: Hedda Sterne, a retrospective. Champaign, Ill.: Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, 2006.
  10. ↑ Eckhardt, 2006.
  11. ↑ Glueck, Grace. Hedda Sterne.The New York Times. March 10, 2006.
  12. ↑ Glueck, 2006
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 Portraits. Lee Ault & Company, New York, N. Y.. October 15 - November 8, 1975
  14. ↑ The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian, Betty Parsons Gallery Papers, Reel 4087-4089: Exhibition Records, Reel 4108: Artists Files, last names A-B.

External links