Hedda Sterne

Hedda Sterne was a Romanian-born American artist who was an active member of the New York School of painters. Her work is often associated with Abstract Expressionism and Surrealism. She was also the only woman to appear in the famous photograph of abstract expressionist artists dubbed "The Irascibles", although the group included other women.

Sterne never liked to define her art or herself into any group socially or artistically. In Eleanor Munro's book Originals: American Women Artists, Sterne remarked:

I believe... that isms and other classifications are misleading and diminishing. What entrances me in art is what cannot be entrapped in words.

Grace Glueck wrote:

Hedda Sterne views her widely varied works more as "in flux" than as definitive statements. She has maintained a stubborn independence from styles and trends, including Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism... Although she never developed a signature style, Ms. Sterne's explorations have produced a small universe of evocative images.

Text courtesy of Wikipedia, 2024