Beatrice Mandelman
Beatrice Mandelman | |
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Louis Ribak |
Beatrice Mandelman (December 31, 1912 – June 24, 1998),
Early life
Beatrice Mandelman was born on December 31, 1912, in Newark, New Jersey, to Jewish immigrant parents who imbued their children with progressive social values and love of the arts. By age 12, Mandelman had begun taking classes at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art and determined that she would become an artist. Throughout her formative years, Mandelman developed an enduring international sensibility and absorbed influences from various forms of Modernism. In 1924 artist Louis Lozowick, a family friend, returned from a four year sojourn in Europe and Russia and was an important source of information about Russian Constructivism and other avant garde developments abroad. Mandelman met graphic designer and illustrator Robert Jonas, who introduced her to Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky, and other New York vanguard artists.
Education
From 1930-32, Mandelman attended
WPA Years: 1935-1942
Between 1935 and 1942, Mandelman was employed the
Taos Years
Mandelman married fellow artist
In 1944, Mandelman and her husband visited the artist
Mandelman adapted well to life in the Taos art colony. She and Ribak connected with other modern artists settling in Taos in the 1940s and 1950s, such as Edward Corbett and Agnes Martin, and this group became known as the Taos Moderns.[2] In 1947, Mandelman and Ribak founded the Taos Valley Art School, where they taught until it closed in 1953. The school attracted a convergence of New York and San Francisco Bay area artists. Many were World War II veterans taking advantage of the opportunity to study through the G.I. Bill.[6] The school closed in 1953 after losing GI Bill funding. Mandelamn and Ribak decamped for New York where they lived from 1954-56 before returning to their home in Taos.[7]
Her work was included in the 1940
Far from the strictures of the mainstream art world, Mandelman found the creative freedom to develop her own distinct style, which merged an Abstract Expressionist sensibility with inspiration from the light, color, landscape, and cultures of the American West. Other influences derived from Mandelman's love of adventure. She traveled widely throughout her lifetime, visiting South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa and living for extended periods in Mexico, where she and Ribak would go virtually every year to escape the cold northern New Mexico winters [2] Like many of their contemporaries, including their Santa Fe friend, designer Alexander Girard, they were enamored of folk art and collected it.
The 1950s: The Taos Moderns
During these years the art world was heavily male dominated and the Taos Art Colony was no exception. In the 1950s when fellow abstractionist Agnes Martin arrived on the scene, she and Mandelman became close friends. The friendship between the two women became strained when Martin moved back to New York in 1958, and began her professional ascent. Remaining in Taos, Mandelman was disappointed in the lack of commensurate recognition her own work. Tensions aside, the friendship between Mandelman and Martin resumed in 1992, when Martin returned to Taos, where she lived until her death in 2004.[11]
Mandelman and Ribak's home served as the gathering place for an informal group of artists who began calling themselves the Taos Moderns. Key members of this group included Edward Corbett, Agnes Martin, Oli Sihvonen, and Clay Spohn. Mandelman was included in a 1952 group exhibition "Taos Painting Yesterday and Today" at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. It was the first museum exhibition to address the development of Modernist art in Taos.[6]
By the 1950s, Taos was home to over 200 artists and 18 art galleries. Mandelman and some other local artists organized two artist cooperative galleries, the Ruins Gallery, named in honor of the crumbling adobe that housed it, in 1952, followed by the founding of the Taos Artists' Association and its cooperative, the Stables Gallery.[1] In 1955 Mandelman and Ribak also established Gallery Ribak, occasional public exhibitions in their home, mostly showcasing their own work and that of a few of their friends.[4]
The 1960s - 1980s
Mandelman preferred to work in series, a total of 33 starting in the 1940s until her death in 1998. Interspersed were exuberant collages, a medium she first began to explore in the 1950s and continued throughout her career.[12]
After Ribak's death in 1979, Mandelman remained in Taos.
The 1990s: Final Years
In her final decade, Mandelman continued painting despite debilitating bouts with cancer. In May, 1998, two months before she died, Mandelman was featured in an article in Forbes magazine,[13] which drew international attention and sales. Her spirits buoyed by recognition and sales, and propped up by her caregivers as she painted, Mandelman was able to produce thirty-one works comprising the Winter Series. She died of cancer on June 24, 1998, in her Taos home, at the age of 85.[11]
Legacy
The Mandelman-Ribak Foundation was established to preserve the legacy of Mandelman and her husband. Among other activities it catalogued a half century of their work held in the Mandelman-Ribak Collection. In 2014, the collection and associated personal papers were donated to the University of New Mexico.,[2] an endowment for future exhibitions and scholarship, and the naming of the Mandelman-Ribak and Caroline Lee and Bob Ellis Galleries at the UNM Harwood Museum of Art in Taos. The University's Zimmerman Library Center for Southwest Research received the extensive personal papers of both artists, including the notes and poetry written by Mandelman over the years[7]
References
- ^ a b c "Beatrice Mandelman Ribak" Albuquerque Journal (Obituary).
- ^ a b c d e f g "Mandelman-Ribak Collection". University of New Mexico Foundation website. Retrieved Oct. 3, 2016.
- ^ a b Johnson, Ken. "The Triumph of Beatrice Mandelman (1912-1998)". Art in Review section, New York Times, Nov. 16, 2001.
- ^ ISBN 0-8263-1603-4.
- ^ Bea Mandelman: The Social Realist Prints, Harwood Museum of Art, exhibition brochure, 2012, essay by MaLin Wilson-Powell
- ^ a b Witt, David L., "Modernists in Taos: From Dasburg to Martin", Red Crane Books, 2002
- ^ a b Perspective: Beatrice Mandelman [1912-1998] Gussie Fauntleroy Western Art & Architecture, October 2012
- ^ "Press release for "American Color Prints Under $10"" (PDF). Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
- ^ Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (1947). "National Serigraph Exhibition, January 15–February 15, 1947 [Checklist]". The Portal to Texas History. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
- ^ Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (1951). "National Serigraph Society Exhibition, April 1–May 2, 1951 [Checklist]". The Portal to Texas History. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
- ^ a b Bea Remembered: Robert Ellis catalogue essay for Harwood Museum 2001 exhibition 'The Triumph of Beatrice Mandelman'
- ^ Bea Mandelman: Collage, Harwood Museum of Art, exhibition brochure, essay by MaLin Wilson-Powell, 2012
- ^ Goff, Roberts, "The Arts: Hidden light", Forbes, 05/04/1998
External links
- Media related to Beatrice Mandelman at Wikimedia Commons