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Ad Code: 3
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from Auction House Records.
Red Gerbera and Balloon Flowers, 1990
Artwork images are copyright of the artist or assignee
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Nell Blaine, painter of still lifes and landscapes in brilliant colors,
created abstract work that gives the appearance of being done in a
carefree, totally lighthearted manner but in fact is the result of
years of disciplined study. It is also an effect achieved after
rehabilitation from polio, which nearly took her life.
Suffering
a paralyzed right hand, she taught herself to paint with her left hand,
and she devoted much time to applying colors, some times as many as
fifty varieties. She attributed her fascination with color with
its discovery when she was two years old and corrective eye surgery
allowed her to see color for the first time.
Blaine was raised
in the Richmond, Virginia, where she grew to hate the prevalent racial
discrimination and left home at an early age. In high school, she
was skilled enough to begin selling her artwork, which was mostly
posters and portraits. She attended the Richmond School of Art, now
Virginia Commonwealth University, between 1939 and 1942 but left its
classical realist curriculum when one of the instructors introduced her
to modern art.
She used money she had earned from commercial art
and went to New York and studied with Hans Hofmann, teacher of Abstract
Expressionism. Shortly after, she married a jazz musician and
immersed herself in the world of jazz, beating drums and improvising
expressive dances, and associating with Charlie Parker, Dizzie
Gillespie, and Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac. Her paintings
of that time reflect her strong developing sense of relationship
between jazz and abstract art.
In 1944 at age twenty two, she
became the youngest member of the American Abstract Artists and
exhibited hard-edged geometric paintings, mostly black and white with
accents of bright colors. She joined a cooperative of abstract artists
and worked so hard at organizing shows that some referred to it as the
Blaine Street Gallery.
She was a strong personality who had
special influence on Larry Rivers and Jane Freilicher and appeared to
thrive in the New York art scene of the 1940s. However, she decided
that her lifestyle was unhealthy, and she left the city, had a period
of seclusion, and then went to France where she admired the work of
Gustave Courbet, Jean Antoine Watteau, Eugene Delacroix, and Nicholas
Poussin and took up figurative art in an abstract style.
She
became known as a "painterly realist," and added landscapes and
interiors to her subject matter. She earned fellowships to Yaddo and
the MacDowell Colony and began spending at least half the year in
Gloucester, Massachusetts. She also traveled in Mexico.
In 1959
on the island of Mykonos, Greece, she had polio. Her New York art
friends in an exhibition of seventy-one artists raised money for
extensive treatment at Mount Sinai Hospital. After recovery, she
settled in a studio on Riverside Drive, spent her summers in
Gloucester, and painted from her wheelchair. She died in 1996.
Source:
Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein, American Women Artists
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Biography from Hess Fine Art:
| Nell
Blaine is sometimes called a "painterly realist. This term belies her
beginnings in abstract expressionism. She studied with Hans Hofmann in
the mid-1940s and was fascinated by the geometric painting of Mondrian.
By the late 1950s she turned towards representation. This change was
reinforced when she met the French painter Jean Helion. He too had
returned to representation.
There is French flavor to Blaine's
work in the Fauve-like use of pure color. Her typical subject matter is
still life, landscapes and gardens. In some of her still life Matisse
is brought to mind, but her style could not be mistaken for French. It
has the unmistakable free brushstroke of the action painters, imbued
with awe for the beauty of nature. Her preference is the use of pure
color, cobalt violet being her favorite, and she reportedly said she
"enjoy(s) color more than words". She respects the traditions of
composition and structure, and is influenced by French Impressionism in
terms of light and subject matter.
Nell Blaine, painter of
still lifes and landscapes in brilliant colors, created abstract work
that not only is the result of years of disciplined study but was
achieved after rehabilitation from polio. She taught herself to paint
with her left hand because she suffered a paralyzed right hand. She
devoted much time to applying colors, some times as many as fifty
varieties. She attributed her fascination with color with its discovery
to corrective eye surgery she had when she was two years old. This
operation allowed her to see color for the first time.
Nell
Blaine was raised in Richmond, Virginia. In high school, she was
skilled enough to begin selling her artwork, which consisted mostly of
posters and portraits. She attended the Richmond School of Art, now
Virginia Commonwealth University, between 1939 and 1942 but left when
introduced to modern art. She used money she had earned and went to New
York and studied with Hans Hofmann. Six months after she arrived in New
York, Blaine married Bill Bass, a jazz musician from Brooklyn.
Through
her husband Bill and her friend Leland Bell, Blaine became deeply
interested in jazz. Leland taught her to play the drums. Later, Blaine
would say that all that practice holding drumsticks affected the way
she used paintbrushes in creating her paintings. The improvising and
rhythmic structures Blaine learned from jazz were also transferred to
her handling of paint and color in her artwork. Though Bill Bass adored
Blaine, he could not match her energy or commitment, and they separated
in 1948. Her paintings of that time reflect her strong developing sense of relationship between jazz and abstract art.
In
1944 she became the youngest member of the American Abstract Artists
and exhibited hard-edged geometric paintings, mostly black and white
with accents of bright colors. She joined a cooperative of abstract
artists and worked so hard at organizing shows that it became referred
to as the Blaine Street Gallery. She was a strong personality and
appeared to thrive in the New York art scene of the 1940s. However, she
decided that she would leave the city, which resulted in a period of
seclusion.
She then went to France where she admired the work
of Gustave Courbet, Jean Antoine Watteau, Eugene Delacroix, and
Nicholas Poussin and took up figurative art in an abstract style.
Blaine's trip to France in the spring of 1950 marked another turning
point in her artistic style. Although she spent six months in Europe,
she saw very few of the great museums and artworks there. Instead she
was transfixed by the landscapes, by nature, and by light. Her abstract
training with Hofmann had guided her to use a limited range of colors
and to focus on the two-dimensional structure of her compositions.
Suddenly
she wanted to paint nature as directly as possible, to capture the
light of each scene with her choice of colors. She painted
spontaneously with distinct brush strokes. She used many more colors in
each painting. This new style right and natural to Blaine that it
developed quickly and became her style for her career. Her mature
style combined thoughtful composition of abstract art, rhythm and
improvisation from jazz, and appreciation of nature, color and light
developed in France.
She
became known as a "painterly realist," added landscapes and interiors
to her subject matter and earned fellowships to Yaddo and the MacDowell
Colony. She began spending at least half the year in Gloucester,
Massachusetts and also traveled into Mexico. In 1959 on the
island of
Mykonos, Greece she contracted polio. Her New York art friends raised
money for extensive treatment. After recovery, she settled in a studio
on Riverside Drive. She spent her summers in Gloucester and
painted from her wheelchair.
She died in 1996.
SUMMARY:
Born: July 10, 1922, Richmond, Virginia
Education:
1939 -1942 Studied at Richmond School of Art (R.P.I) now Virginia Commonwealth
1942(43): Blaine married Bill Bass, a jazz musician- separated in 1948
1945: Etching and engraving at Atelier 17
1945 - 1949: Member of Jane Street Group, New York
1952 - 1953: New School for Social Research
1944 - 1957: Member of American Abstract Artists, New York
1990: Louise Nevelson Award in Art, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
1996: Leslie Cheek Award for Outstanding Presentation in the Arts from the College of William and Mary
1996: Lee Krasner Award from Pollock-Krasner Foundation
Sources:
UMFA Utah Museum of Fine Arts, DAVIS, First in Art Education
Since 1901, Mark Borghi Fine Art Inc., Tibor de Nagy Gallery
set 1950.
Research: Angelina Hartley for Hess Fine Art
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