An exhibition of paintings by Taos artist Beatrice Mandelman (1912-1998) from her “Music and Garden” series produced during the 1990s will open with a reception Jan. 6 from 5-7 p.m. at David Richard Contemporary, 130 Lincoln Ave., Suite D, in Santa Fe.
Also featured will be smaller works from her “Moon” series of the same period and “Winter” series, of which 31 paintings were produced during the last several months of her life, according to a press release. Mandelman painted a number of diptychs and triptychs in the 1990s in several series, such as “Jazz,” “Carnival,” “New York,” “Garden” and “Music.” Influenced throughout her career by various artists who practiced a range of modernist styles from different art movements, much of her work from the ’80s and ’90s was “a melding and fusion of the past into the present,” the release continues.
“She developed her own signature style though and extended into painting the same collage-like approach that she loved and utilized in her earlier works on paper. The ‘Garden and Music’ series are the most reductive of these later series with large blocks of a limited color palette, generous use of black, lyrical and harmonic compositions — a nice contrast to the more visually active compositions seen in many of the works in the ‘Jazz,’ 'Carnival’ and ‘New York’ series.”
Born in Newark, N.J., Mandelman studied at Rutgers University and the Art Student’s League. She was employed by the Works Project Administration in New York from 1935 to 1942 where she became associated with numerous New York School artists including Louis Lozowick, Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock, and Stuart Davis.
By 1941, her works were included in exhibitions at the Chicago Art Institute, the Museum of Modern Art and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
In 1944, she and her husband Louis Ribak moved to Taos. Mandelman moved briefly to Paris in 1948 to study with Fernand Léger until 1949, where she also met and became friends with Francis Picabia.
Part of the group of artists known as the Taos Moderns, which also included Ribak, Ed Corbett, Agnes Martin, Oli Sihvonen, and Clay Spohn, Mandelman was said to be “a dedicated painter and committed to modernism and abstraction throughout her career,” the release states.
She exhibited all over New Mexico and in Los Angeles and New York, including a Whitney Annual Exhibition. Mandelman’s artworks are included in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, Art Institute of Chicago, Brooklyn Museum, Dallas Museum of Art, Denver Art Museum, Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. among others.
David Richard Contemporary is located in downtown Santa Fe north of the historic plaza and specializes in post-war American abstract art, featuring both historic and contemporary geometric, hard edged, Op, Pop, color field, minimal and gestural abstraction in a variety of media.
The gallery represents many established mid- to late-career artists who were part of important art movements and tendencies that occurred during the 1950s through the 1980s on both the East and West Coasts. The gallery also represents estates, secondary market works, and several emerging artists, the press release states.
The “Music and Garden” show continues through Feb. 25. For more information, call (505) 983-9555 or visit www.DavidRichardContemporary.com.