Hedda Sterne

American, 1910 - 2011

Birth-PlaceBucharest, Romania

Death-PlaceNew York, NY

BiographyHedda 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] 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] 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]

REFERENCES
Art Daily, Hedda Sterne, America's Last Original Abstract Expressionist and Sole Woman in the Group, Dies Retrieved April 10, 2011
^ Jump up to: a b 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.
Jump up ^ The Irascibles, retrieved October 25th 2008
Jump up ^ Kate (2010-12-09). "Hedda Sterne’s True Expression". Gorey Memorabilia. My Local Muse. Retrieved 2010-12-14.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Eckhardt, 2006
Jump up ^ Simon, 2007
Jump up ^ Simon, Joan. Patterns of thought: Hedda Sterne. Art in America, 2007.
Jump up ^ Sterne, Hedda from Eckhardt's Flux, 2006
Jump up ^ Helfenstein, Josef. Foreword in Uninterrupted Flux: Hedda Sterne, a retrospective. Champaign, Ill.: Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, 2006.
Jump up ^ Eckhardt, 2006.
Jump up ^ Glueck, Grace. Hedda Sterne.The New York Times. March 10, 2006.
Jump up ^ Glueck, 2006
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Portraits. Lee Ault & Company, New York, N. Y.. October 15 - November 8, 1975
Jump up ^ The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian, Betty Parsons Gallery Papers, Reel 4087-4089: Exhibition Records, Reel 4108: Artists Files, last names A-B.

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