Hedda Sterne was an accomplished Romanian artist who worked in surrealism and then emigrated to New York. I think she was Jewish and had to escape Nazi persecution. She then subsequently morphed into the abstract expressionism movement of New York, and became a successful female artist in that world.
I saw this painting in the Tate. It’s part of the series on New York which she painted as an emigree when she arrived. I imagine its urban architecture must have been a shock to her.
To me, there is a disorienting/discomforting sense to the morass of lines and planes. The eye naturally wishes to find a “path” to finding some home (or refuge) but there doesn’t seem to be one. Up and down, and across. There are no trees, no humans, and it feels like the "structure" might collapse at any moment.
It’s interesting.
What do you all think?
The painting conveys a subtle yet persistent sense of spatial distortion, as though the very dimensions themselves are twisting and unsettled, lending the work an air of instability and unease.
ReplyDeleteI don't know this artist or her work, but I like your interpretation of this piece. My eyes are drawn to the red posts first of all, and then to the black-and-white striped posts. They seem alarming somehow.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I'm a big fan of her work, but it is interesting.
DeleteI don't often love abstract expressionism and I have never paid much attention to Hedda's works. However, because she was so well connected in the arts, I keep running into her colleagues. I am thinking of Bucharest National University of Arts, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, studios of Fernand Léger, André Lhote and Marcel Janco. and at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière.
ReplyDeleteIt's different and I don't mind it at all.
ReplyDeleteI'd never come across Hedda Sterne before. I like the painting, it has vitality and an interesting composition that keeps your eyes darting around it.
ReplyDeleteIt's the milieau of New York's avante garde of that time.
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