In a Preface to the book on her mother published by Rizzoli Electa the week of March 16th, Emily Mason, daughter of Alice Trumbull Mason, wrote:
When I look back on my mother, I also remember someone who was resilient and driven by her principles. She was first and foremost an abstract painter — a pioneer of her time from pioneer stock. She was the only abstract painter on view at the Washington Square Art Show in 1935 amongst the 400 participants.
Thirteen paintings on view in the Washburn Gallery exhibition cover five decades from 1929 to 1969 and show how Mason gradually evolved from biomorphic abstraction in the 1930s to hard edge geometric work in the 1940s.
During the 1960s at an evening session of “The Club,” Alice was seen by Ad Reinhardt leaving early and he remarked:
Were it not for Alice Trumbull Mason, we would not be here nor in such strength.
It is interesting that Robert Pincus-Witten quoted Ad Reinhardt in the 1973 Whitney Museum catalogue for the retrospective exhibition the museum organized of paintings by Alice Trumbull Mason. The show also travelled.
For further information, contact the Washburn Gallery.
