The exhibition “Mary Heilmann: To Be Someone” at the New Museum is the first solo show and retrospective of Mary Heilmann’s work in a New York museum. Mary Heilmann (born 1940 in San Francisco) is one of the most influential abstract painters of her generation and considered as a “painter’s painter”. In her work she mixes abstraction with elements from pop culture and craft traditions. Mary Heilmann’s work has been deeply influenced “by her personal experiences, including a childhood and adolescence split between Los Angeles-area beaches and Bay Area beatnik clubs. The impact of this thoroughly West Coast childhood is seen in the vibrant, lusty color palette, sense of boundless possibility, and experimentation for which Heilmann’s paintings are known.” (excerpt from the press release).
Mary Heilmann: To Be Someone, New Museum, New York. Opening reception, October 20, 2008.
PS: See also the episode “Mary Heilmann: Saturday Night Kiss at Hauser & Wirth Zurich” 2006.
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