Modern and Contemporary Art

Note

The large-scale Grace Hartigan painting, Two Geishas, is an exquisite example of the artist’s later work, when she was living and working in Baltimore, Maryland. The collectors of this beautiful work lived in the Baltimore area and acquired the painting from Hartigan’s final exhibition at the Grimaldis Gallery, Aspects of Far East, New Works on Canvas and Paper in 2000, before her death in 2008. They have lovingly displayed the painting in their home ever since.

At the height of Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s, Hartigan exhibited with Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline and Mark Rothko, often the only female artist represented in the group. The Museum of Modern Art acquired a painting by Hartigan in 1953, cementing her position as a respected and celebrated painter in her own right. Her move to Baltimore, away from the galleries and influential connections in New York City, meant that Hartigan developed her own style and left an enduring legacy on contemporary artists she taught during her long career.