Hedda Sterne

Infobox Artist
bgcolour =
name = Hedda Sterne


imagesize =
caption =
birthname = Hedwig Lindenberg
birthdate = Birth date and age|1910|8|4|df=yes
location = Bucharest, Romania
deathdate = Still Alive
deathplace =
nationality = Romanian
field = Painter; printmaking
training = University of Bucharest (1928) Self Taught
movement = Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism
works = Machine 5, Diary
patrons =
influenced by = Victor Brauner (artist)
influenced =

Hedda Sterne (born August 4, 1910), born in Bucharest, Romania, is an artist best remembered and often only mentioned as the only woman in a group of Abstract Expressionists known as "The Irascibles" which consisted of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, and more. Sterne was, in fact, the only woman photographed with the group in Time magazine. In her artistic career, she is known for maintaining a stubborn independence from styles and trends, including Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism, with which she is often associated. Sterne, Hedda, Sarah L Eckhardt, Josef Helfenstein, and Lawrence Rinder. "Uninterrupted flux : Hedda Sterne, a retrospective". (Champaign, Ill.: Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, 2006.]

Sterne has been almost completely overlooked in art historical narratives of the post-war American art scene. Possibly the last surviving artist of the first-generation New York School, Hedda Sterne views her widely varied works more as "in flux" than as definitive statements.

According to Artcyclopedia.com, her works are in the collections of museums including the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, also in Washington D.C. Below is an external link to online images of her works in the MOMA collection.

Biography

Hedda Sterne was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1910 as Hedwig Lindenberg. Born to Simon Lindenberg, a high school language teacher,and Eugenie (Wexler) Lindenberg. She was the second child with her only sibling, Edouard, who later became a prominent conductor in Paris. [Eckhardt, 2006] Sterne was raised with artistic values from a young age, most notably, her tie to Surrealism, which stemmed from a family friend, Victor Brauner. [Eckhardt, 2006] Sterne was homeschooled until age 11. Upon her high school graduation in 1927,at age 17, she attended art classes in Vienna, then had a short attendance at the University of Bucharest studying philosophy and art history before she dropped out to pursue artistic training independently. [Simon, 2007] She spent time traveling, especially to Paris developing her technical skills as both a painter and sculptor. Hedda Sterne married a childhood friend Frederick Sterne in 1932 when she was 22. In 1941 she escaped a certain death from nazi encroachment during WWII when she fled to New York to be with her husband Frederick Sterne. In 1944 she remarried Saul Steinberg and became a U.S. citizen. It is not mentioned if she ever had children. She was involved in many shows and exhibits in New York and practiced her art up until she had a stroke that affected her vision and movement when she was 94. She is still alive however unable to follow her passions of drawing. Simon, Joan. "Patterns of thought: Hedda Sterne". Art in America, 2007.]

Chronology

* 1910 - Born in Bucharest, Romania.
* 1919 - Her father Simon dies. Her mother remarries Leonida Cioara, the partner in their family business.
* 1927 - Finishes high school.
* 1928 - Enters University of Bucharest to study Art History and Philosophy but finds curriculum limiting and leaves after a year to do independent study.
* 1932 - Marries childhood friend Frederick Stern. They divorced in 1944.
* 1939 - WWII begins.
* 1941 - Barely escaping a massacre of Jews in her apartment building Hedda flees to New York. Meets Peggy Guggenheim through which she meets several artists.
* 1944 - Marries Saul Steinberg. Sterne Becomes U.S. citizen.
* 1950 - Named one of country's best artists under age of 36 in march 20 issue of Life. Signs a letter to President of The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 20th to protest aesthetically conservative group-exhibition juries. [Eckhardt, 2006] All signers are dubbed "The Irascibles" in an articles about the letter wherein the famous Nina Leen photograph of the artists is published for the first time.
* 1960 - Sterne and Steinberg separate but remain close friends. Begins to disengage socially with the art world and leads an increasingly private life.
* 1997 - Macular degeneration causes Sterne to stop painting, however she continues drawing.
* 1999 - Her second husband Saul Steinberg dies.
* 2004 - Suffers stroke. Makes a remarkable recovery but her eyesight fails causing her to stop practicing her art.
* 2006 - "Uninterrupted Flux: Hedda Sterne; A Retrospective" is written. [Eckhardt, 2006]

Quotes

* "I have a feeling that in art the need to understand and the need to communicate are one."
* "Nobody tried to influence me, I just worked."
* "I always thought that art is not quote self-expression but communication."
* "It's "malentendu" to consider me Abstract Expressionist. I was invited to participate in many things, but I never considered myself part of that group, or any group, and it shows in my work."
* "I can't stand that every time people talk about you they immediately want to place you in a box--influenced by so and so...But you don't derive directly from anyone."
* "My idea being that for the sublime and the beautiful and the interesting, you don't have to look far away. You have to know how to see."
* "I always painted ideas, I have to say. It was always some set of ideas that get me going." [Sterne, Hedda from Eckhardt's Flux, 2006]

The Irascibles

When researching Sterne is most art books you will find that she is most famous for being the only woman in a group of rogue artists who were dubbed "The Irascibles". The term was coined to represent the group consisting of 18 prominent artists of their day, including Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko. These artists were also thought to be a part of the New York School as well as Sterne (although she prefers not to be aligned with any artistic group). "The Irascibles" are the artists who signed a letter protesting conservative group-exhibition juries to the president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They were referred to as The Irascibles in an article featured in an issue of Life where the infamous Nina Leen photograph was published of all members of "The Irascibles". [Eckhardt, 2006]

Legacy

From the very beginning of her outstanding but unknown career, Sterne maintained an individual profile in the face of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, and Barnett Newman, all of whom she knew personally. Her independence reflects an immense artistic and personal integrity. The astonishing variety of Sterne's work, spanning from her initial appropriation of surrealist techniques, to her investigation of conceptual painting, and her unprecedented installations in the 1960s, exemplify her adventurous spirit. Yet, the heterogeneity of her styles, and her complete disinterest in the commercially driven art world, have contributed to her exclusion from the canon. When the heroic male narratives of modernism begin to fade, we may, eventually, be ready to recognize this amazingly idiosyncratic body of work. Sterne's art is, indeed, a manifesto in favor of the untamable forces of the mind and the continually changing flux of life.

[Helfenstein, Josef. Foreword in "Uninterrupted Flux: Hedda Sterne, a retrospective". (Champaign, Ill.: Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, 2006.]

Career

Hedda's career didn't seriously bloom until she came to New York, even though she had done a few exhibits in Romania. She shows her work for the first time in a group show, the "11th Exposition du Salon des Surindépendants", in Paris in 1938. She has been involved in several group and independent art shows her whole life. Below is a list of the majority of her exhibitions, awards, and her artworks. [Eckhardt, 2006.]

Artistic Style

"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". Glueck, Grace. "Hedda Sterne".The New York Times. March 10, 2006.] Hedda never liked to define her art or herself into any group socially or artistically. She never followed a boundary of a certain style. Sterne was a self taught, uninfluenced artist who just worked and made her art as she pleased and how she pleased without having a single concern to try to define her art into any category. "Although she never developed a signature style, Ms. Sterne's explorations have produced a small universe of evocative images". [Glueck, 2006]

Artworks

* New York VIII, 1954 - The Museum of Modern Art
* Violin Lesson, 1944 - Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
* Machine 5, 1950 - Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
* Tondo #22, 1953 - Illinois State Museum
* Third Avenue El, 1952-53 - The Metropolitan Museum of Art
* New York No. 1, 1954 - Toledo Museum of Art
* New York, N.Y., 1955 - Whitney Museum of American Art
* New York, 1956 - The Art Institute of Chicago
* Barnett Newman, 1952 - The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College
* Diary, 1976 [Portraits. Lee Ault & Company, New York, N. Y.. October 15 - November 8, 1975]

Awards

* 1957 - Second Prize, Art Institute of Chicago Annual
* 1963 - Fulbright Fellowship, Studied in Venice
* 1967 - First Prize, Art Institute of Newport Annual
* 1971 - American Academy of Arts & Letters, "Childe Hassam Purchase Award"
* 1984 - American Academy of Arts & Letters, "Hassam and Speicher Purchase Fund Award" [Portraits. Lee Ault & Company, New York, N. Y.. October 15 - November 8, 1975]

One Woman Shows

* 1945 - Wakefield Gallery, N.Y.
* 1945 - Mortimer Brandt Gallery, N.Y.
* 1947 - Betty Parsons Gallery, '48, '50 '53, '54, '57, '58, '61, '63, '66, '68, '70, '74, '75, '78
* 1953 - Galleria dell'Obelisco, Rome, '61
* 1953 - Museo de Arte, SaoPaulo, Brazil
* 1955 - Arts Club of Chicago
* 1956 - Vassar College
* 1956 - Saidenberg Gallery
* 1968 - Rizzoli Gallery
* 1971 - Sneed Gallery
* 1972 - Clinton, N.J.
* 1973 - Upstairs Gallery, East Hampton
* 1973 - Rochester University
* 1975 - Lee Ault & Company, N.Y.
* 1977 - Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey [Portraits. Lee Ault & Company, New York, N. Y.. October 15 - November 8, 1975]

Group Shows (Abbreviated list)

* 1949 - Whitney Museum Annual, '59, '67
* 1951 - Los Angeles County Museum
* 1951 - Third Tokyo International Art Exhibition
* 1954 - Art Institute of Chicago Annual, '55, '57, '60, '61
* 1955 - Museum of modern Art
* 1955 - Corcoran Gallery Annual, Washington, D.C., '56, '58, '63
* 1955 - Whitney Museum, "New Decade Show"
* 1955 - Carnegie International, '58, '61, '62, '64
* 1955 - Rhode Ilsand School of Design, '56
* 1956 - Venice Biennial
* 1956 - Smithsonian Institution
* 1956 - Art Institute of Chicago, "American Artists Paint the City"
* 1957 - Minnesota Institute of Art, "American Painting"
* 1958-59 - American Federation of Arts, University of Iowa, "Contemporary American Paintings"
* 1960 - Mexico City Biennial
* 1961 - Art Institute of Chicago, "Painting & Sculpture"
* 1962 - Molton Gallery, London "Four American Painters"
* 1964 - Cincinnati Art Museum
* 1964 - Das Kunstwerk, "The Work of Art"
* 1966 - Heron Museum of Art
* 1969 - Phillips Collection, Westmoreland Museum
* 1971 - Finch College, "Artists at Work"
* 1972 - Guild Hall, East Hampton, "Then & Now"
* 1971 - Minnesota Museum of Art, "Drawings USA/71"
* 1971 - Heckscher Museum, Huntington, N.Y. [Portraits. Lee Ault & Company, New York, N. Y.. October 15 - November 8, 1975]

Collections

* Metropolitan Museum
* Museum of Modern Art
* Whitney Museum
* Art Institute of Chicago
* Virginia Museum, Richmond
* University of Illinois, Urbana
* Rockefeller Institute
* Detroit Institute of Art
* Joseph H. Hirshhorn Collection
* Albrecht Gallery, St. Joseph, Mo.
* Chase Manhattan Bank
* U.S. Dept. of State
* Albright-Know Art Gallery, Buffalo
* University of Nebraska Art Gallery
* Carnegie Institute
* Inland Steel Co., Chicago
* Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
* Toledo Museum of Art
* Childe Hassam Purchase
* Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul [Portraits. Lee Ault & Company, New York, N. Y.. October 15 - November 8, 1975]

References

Books

*Eleanor C Munro. "Originals : American women artists" (New York : Da Capo Press, 2000) (Worldcat link: [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/43365794&referer=brief_results] ) ISBN 0306809559; ISBN 9780306809552
*Hedda Sterne; Sarah L Eckhardt; Josef Helfenstein; Lawrence Rinder; Krannert Art Museum.; University of Virginia. "Uninterrupted flux : Hedda Sterne, a retrospective". (Champaign, Ill. : Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, 2006) (Worldcat link: [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/63660382&referer=brief_results] ) ISBN 1883015375; ISBN 978188301537
*Hedda Sterne; Queens Museum of Art. "Hedda Sterne, forty years : the Queens Museum, February 2-April 14, 1985". (Flushing, N.Y. : The Museum, 1985) (Worldcat link: [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/12215770&referer=brief_results] ) OCLC 12215770

Articles

* [http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=1264 "U.Va. Art Museum Exhibits Works by Abstract Impressionist Hedda Sterne"] , "UVa Today," January 22007. Accessed July 252007.
* Glueck, Grace. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0DE6DE1331F933A25750C0A9609C8B63 "Art in Review; Hedda Stern"] , "The New York Times," March 102006. Accessed April 132008.
* Simon, Joan. "Patterns of thought: Hedda Sterne"." Art in America," 95.2 2007. 110-59

External links

* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/sterne_hedda.html Artcyclopedia.com] on Hedda Sterne
* [http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O:AD:E:5653&page_number=1&template_id=6&sort_order=1 Images of Sterne's work from the Moma Collection]