Mary Abbott

B. New York, NY, 1921
D. Southampton, NY, 2019

Mary Abbot was one of the women of Abstract Expressionism. Born and raised in New York City, in the 1940s she began studying art at the Art Students League with George Grosz. She went on to study with Eugene Weiss at Corcoran Museum School in Washington, D.C. and began splitting her time between New York City, Southampton, and Washington D.C. Abbott had simultaneous success in her modeling career, appearing on the covers of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.

In 1946, Abbott separated from her husband and moved to downtown Manhattan, where she lived in a cold water flat at 88 Tenth Street. There she met the sculptor David Hare, who introduced her to Willem de Kooning, whose studio was nearby. De Kooning encouraged Abbott to further explore intuitive painting. Abbott and de Kooning remained close friends until his death in 1997. During this time Abbott enrolled in the experimental Subject of the Artists School, founded by William Baziotes, David Hare, Robert Motherwell, and Mark Rothko. She became one of the few female members of “The Club,” and her work was shown at the Tanager Gallery, Kootz Gallery, and Tibor de Nagy. She was also in three of the famous Stable Gallery Annuals.

In 1950 Abbott remarried a businessman from Southampton and began traveling frequently, spending time in Haiti and the Virgin Islands, where the environment influenced her artwork. In the 1960s, after her second marriage ended, Abbot taught at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. After a decade of teaching, she returned to New York, dividing her time between the city and Southampton until her death in 2019.