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Audrey Flack with her painting Leonardo's Lady (1974) at Museum of Modern Art, New York
Artists always paint who they are.
Though best known today for her stunning Photorealist paintings, Audrey Flack first came to artistic maturity among the vibrant downtown scene of Abstract Expressionism. Flack was a regular at the 8th Street Club and at the legendary Cedar Tavern, where she was immersed in the cultural and social atmosphere of the period and developed ties with art world luminaries such as Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Franz Kline. Through Abstract Expressionism, Flack found her artistic identity and ultimately created highly original work that was ordered yet gestural and captured the core sensibility of the age.
Though best known today for her stunning Photorealist paintings, Audrey Flack first came to artistic maturity among the vibrant downtown scene of Abstract Expressionism. Flack was a regular at the 8th Street Club and at the legendary Cedar Tavern, where she was immersed in the cultural and social atmosphere of the period and developed ties with art world luminaries such as Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Franz Kline. Through Abstract Expressionism, Flack found her artistic identity and ultimately created highly original work that was ordered yet gestural and captured the core sensibility of the age.
Born in 1931 in Brooklyn, New York, Audrey Flack received degrees in art from the Cooper Union in 1951 and from Yale University in 1952. The energetic abstract works executed during this period push the boundaries of the flattened picture plane and speak to her immersion in the Abstract Expressionist milieu in New York at midcentury. The deconstructing and restructuring of the object, the all-over composition, and the intense compositional energy that infused her Abstract Expressionist works would also remain essential to her practice throughout her career.
Linear form becomes rhythmic composition in these early works, accented by tonal variations in color. Organic line breaks through the cubist foundation that underpins many of the compositions, which also display the careful color harmonies that Flack would have mastered during her time at Yale under the tutelage of Josef Albers, perhaps the twentieth century’s most masterful colorist and one of its most stringent teachers.
Flack’s art is intensely personal, and the artist expresses herself through her work across all styles and media. The personal becomes more overt in a series of expressionist portraits completed in the 1950s. Flack turned her artistic eye both on herself and to her family, creating a compelling group of portraits and self-portraits that offer a glimpse into the personal psychology of the artist. In the 1970s Flack began painting still lifes and images from news media in a hyper-realistic style and would become a pioneering photorealist painter. Her decadent compositions of Baroque excess fill the visual field with photorealistic depictions of modern still life elements, alluding to her sustained interest in the work of Tintoretto, Rembrandt, Reubens, and other Old Masters. These works were championed by influential critic Lawrence Alloway, who credited Flack with the reinvention of the still life.
Since 1983, the artist’s focus has primarily been on sculpture. Her three-dimensional work has roots in the figures of the Greco-Roman, Renaissance, and Baroque periods. Flack’s subjects are often powerful females and through this work Flack explores the sources and variations of feminine essence and power, from goddesses such as Islandia and American Athena or queens such as Queen Catherine, for whom the New York borough of Queens is named.
She had completed numerous public commissions, and her work can be found in the collections of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery; Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College; Dallas Museum of Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art; Smithsonian American Art Museum; and Whitney Museum of American Art, among many others. She lives and works in New York City and East Hampton.
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“Audrey Flack: Mid-Century to Post-Pop Baroque”
The New York Times, October 22, 2024
Audrey Flack: Mid-Century to Post-Pop Baroque
Air Mail, October 9, 2024
Parrish Art Museum provides a fitting tribute to Audrey Flack, queen of ‘Post-Pop Baroque’
The Art Newspaper, September 27, 2024
A modern version of the Virgin Mary by Audrey Flack (오드리 플랙이 만든 현대판 성모상)
Vogue, September 2024 (Korean language)
Audrey Flack’s Last Words: A Tale of Success in a Sexist Art World
Observer, July 17, 2024
Fiercely committed and as unapologetic as ever, this 92-year-old artist is having a moment
Forward, May 9, 2024
Nonagenarian Artist Audrey Flack Is Still Booked and Busy With a Tell-All Memoir
Artnet, May 7, 2024
At 92 Years Old, Photorealist Painter Audrey Flack is Having a Moment
ARTnews, April 15, 2024
10 Art Shows to See in New York This April
This month: Audrey Flack, Sonya Clark, Raven Chacon, Mike Olin, and more.
Hyperallergic, April 1, 2024
At 92, Audrey Flack Has a Juicy Memoir, a New Art Show, and a Lot to Say
Vogue, March 30, 2024
With Darkness Came Stars: A Conversation with Audrey Flack
Art & Object, March 28, 2024
8 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.
The New York Times, March 28, 2024
Required Reading
This week, the boundless creativity of Audrey Flack, filmmakers memorialize the Haitian Revolution, medieval women’s embroidery, talking dogs, and more.
Hyperallergic, March 22, 2024
Audrey Flack Is 92 and Still Painting in Her UWS Apartment
She’s in her “Post-Pop Baroque Period,” and has a new gallery show and a memoir.
New York Magazine, March 19, 2024
With Bold Colors and Big Feelings, a Pioneering Painter Tells Her Story
The New York Times Book Review, March 17, 2024
The big omissions at the renovated Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Washington Post, October 5, 2023
Smithsonian American Art Museum Reopens Its Contemporary Galleries with New Stories to Tell
ARTnews, September 27, 2023
Smithsonian American Art Museum Reopens Modern and Contemporary Galleries With a New Installation
Hyperallergic, September 18, 2023
9 Overlooked Women Artists in Their Nineties
Artsy, July 21, 2023
Whitechapel Gallery presents Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-70
All About Shipping, February 19, 2023
Women artists make a radical mess at the Whitechapel Gallery
Apollo, February 16, 2023
Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn Harbor opens 'Other Worlds Than This'
Newsday, October 7, 2022
Chrome Dreams and Infinite Reflections: American Photorealism Exhibition Opens at Reynolda House Museum of American Art July 15
YES! Weekly, June 30, 2022
Audrey Flack
Artspeak, May 26, 2022
Hollis Taggart celebrating Audrey Flack exhibition on 91st birthday
See Great Art, May 23, 2022
Editors’ Picks
13 Events for Your Art Calendar, From a Gallery for Un-Instagrammable Art to a Curators’ Talk on the Term ‘Latinx’
Artnet News, May 23, 2022
Renaissance radical: Carlo Crivelli – Shadows on the Sky at Ikon Gallery reviewed
The Venetian artist's ideas and innovations are finally being taking seriously
The Spectator, March 12, 2022
UAlbany Art Exhibit Presents Ronny Quevedo, Rodrigo Valenzuela, Audrey Flack, and Grace Lee Lawrence
Nippertown, February 6, 2022
Hamptons Fine Art Fair Debuts at Southampton Arts Center
Dan's Papers, September 2, 2021
At home with Christian and Florence Levett
Collecting art and women’s Abstract Expressionism
The Florentine, May 5, 2021
Rutgers Jewish Film Festival presents "Queen of Hearts: Audrey Flack" Q&A On February 11th
February 11, 2021
Audrey Flack on the Gaps in Art History
The veteran photorealist painter talks to Hyperallergic about her work and her new film biography, "Queen of Hearts".
November 18, 2020
Film Pick: Audrey Flack: Queen of Hearts
November 13, 2020
Queen of Hearts: Audrey Flack
November 7, 2020
A Multifaceted Look at the Long, Accomplished Career of Audrey Flack
Hyperallergic has the exclusive premiere of the trailer for Queen of Hearts: Audrey Flack, an upcoming documentary about the abstract expressionist-turned-photorealist.
October 19, 2020
CAM celebrates the 19th Amendment, features 90% of female artists from its permanent collection
October 6, 2020
Top 10 films to watch at the Calgary International Film Festival, according to lead programmer
Queen of Hearts: Audrey Flack
September 22, 2020
Be part of the art
Community project to celebrate women’s right to vote
September 1, 2020
Art Industry News: Notorious B.I.G.’s Crown Will Headline the World’s First Major Hip-Hop Auction + Other Stories
COMINGS & GOINGS
August 26, 2020
National Air and Space Museum
Beneath the Surface: Audrey Flack’s Photorealism
August 19, 2020
Visions of a World in Crisis
July 23, 2020
Film News in Brief: Edgar Wright Boards Comedy ‘Stage 13’
Audrey Flack Documentary Bought By Film Movement
July 22, 2020
Connecting Artists and the Public, Digitally
July 9, 2020
Founder Of ArtHamptons Introduces a Virtual Reality Art Fair for Summer 2020
July 9, 2020
Audrey Flack with Charles Duncan
“When you’re alone in the studio, and your life is turned upside down by something, it’s you and the work.”
May 2020
Top 5 Hamptons and North Fork Art Moments of 2017
December 29, 2017
Audrey Flack: Master Drawings from Crivelli to Pollock
Hollis Taggart Galleries
May 15, 2017
Today's Masters
Flackism: A Dialogue between Audrey Flack and Robert Storr
May/June 2017
Audrey Flack: Master Drawings from Crivelli to Pollock
Featured on Hamptons Art Hub
April 18, 2017
Carlton: In a decade, Lady Justice has seen it all
March 7, 2017
How Texture in Art Affects the Meaning
Hyperrealist Textures on Flat Surfaces
December 8, 2016
10 Famous Still Life Artists of the 20th Century
Audrey Flack - Negotiating Femininity and Feminism
October 23, 2016
Learning from an Artist’s Early Experiments with AbEx
May 28, 2015
An Artist With Too Many Ideas to Consider Retiring
May 21, 2015
Must-See Art Guide: New York
This week's guide includes Mathieu Mercier, Vincent van Gogh, Bill Jensen, and more.
May 7, 2015
101 Women Artists Who Got Wikipedia Pages This Week
February 6, 2014
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Audrey Flack on her exhibition Audrey Flack: Master Drawings from Crivelli to Pollock
Artist Audrey Flack discusses her exhibition Audrey Flack: Master Drawings from Crivelli to Pollock.
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