MARY ABBOTT (b. 1921)

Mary Abbott (b. 1921) was raised in New York and Washington, D. C. In the early 1940s, Abbott’s early interest in art led her to courses at the Art Students League where she worked with painters such as George Grosz.  In 1948, she met the sculptor David Hare, who introduced her to an experimental school called The Subject of the Artist, an anti-school anyone could join if they left their academic artistic past behind them. Started by Hare, Rothko, Motherwell and Barnett Newman, they became her mentors and she moved into the heart of the New York avant-garde. Also, Abbott became a member of the Club, where she was one of three female members along with Perle Fine and Elaine de Kooning. In the early 1950s, she began to exhibit extensively and participated in three of the famous Stable Gallery annuals that promoted Abstract Expressionism.