Grace Hartigan: Painter, Sympathetic "Tough Broad"



Grace Hartigan ...Source  Journals of Grace Hartigan,  1951-1955 

"Somehow, in painting I try to make some logic out of the world that has been given to me in chaos. I have a very pretentious idea that I want to make life, I want to make sense out of it. The fact that I am doomed to failure — that doesn't deter me in the least. "
Grace Hartigan: Painter, Sympathetic "Tough Broad"
By Federico Correa


   Art defined: "The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power."  Oxford Dictionary

Grace Hartigan, painter, fulfilled the above definition of what art is. She  is among a  select few artists  whose painted image speaks to me  on various  levels. On  esthetic consideration her  paintings  are beautiful and masterful. Upon a more personal consideration,   her paintings are alive  with  "content and emotion". 
Briefly, Hartigan .....a self-taught painter.....began her career as a leading participant in what today is defined as the Second-Wave   Abstract Expressionist Movement.  Within the movement, she was respected for her commitment and thick skin.    Certainly, her striking paintings reflect this attitude.

Algiers, Grace Hartigan, 1994, oil/canvas. 


Years ago in a phone conversation with me about   painters, persistence and the need to be true to oneself,  Grace suggested the painter must   be tough.....iron-willed......however sensitive and sympathetic.  She described herself as  just that... a "tough broad" ... however  aware of   life's varying human sensitivities. She believed that a painter caught in the act of painting should heed and follow   his or her own  heart.   Indeed, she did...creating a path of her own allowing her innermost being as guide.  Without question, she    was  assertive  and uncompromising in her approach to  the creative  process and  her role as  artist.   She had to be. Her life was full....hardly a bed of roses or  privileged. It was neither  a straight line nor scripted. It however was fecund...fraught with discovery and life's many  ups and downs.   In spite it all...Grace triumphed.   
   
Marty Katz/baltimorephotographer.com
Grace Hartigan in her studio in 1993 with her painting “Junk Shop With Egyptian Violet.”




  Slaying the Dragon

 Grace followed her  own muse. She was not driven by  any select   ideology, market   or whatever New York art  trend du jour. She was her own. She was resolute. It is that   determination....that  uncommon  honesty and  passion in her  approach to life and her art    that distinguished her from  many of her contemporaries.   Indeed.....my dear friend was a big hearted "tough broad" with  benevolent concern for others.  Born in 1922, Hartigan  died November 15, 2008. I am fortunate to have befriended her.   I am forever indebted to this gifted and masterful painter. 
Yes, Grace was victorious. She slayed the dragon!
......

Recently while surfing the net....I found the following film clip from "Shattering Boundries: Life and Art of Grace Hartigan ".  It  provides a glimpse to the toughness that  defines this great painter.


        


Click on above photo or link  to view  a clip from  the  Documentary titled, "Shattering Boundries : Life and Art of Grace Hartigan".  The clip  is by   who worked as assistant editor on the Hartigan documentary film .

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    I also strongly suggest reading  Journals of Grace Hartigan,  1951-1955  It is an early diary kept by Grace Hartigan  that shows her  toughness and her unflinching determination  in a male-dominated  art world.  



      
      















             Related  ArtPaintStuff  post on Grace Hartigan :                     
                                                                 
 John Yau Obliquely Characterizes Grace Hartigan

Here John Yau, poet/art critic waxes poetic over Jasper Johns, painter.


Sources Washington Post, NYTs and Art Story.Org 


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