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later infused her compositions with an architectural dimension. She continued her studies at the Grand
Central Art Galleries until 1931. She later wrote that she became devoted to abstraction in 1929, "fter happily painting these realistic things, I said to myself, 'What do I really know?' I knew the
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In 1958, the body of Mason's son Jo was found in Puget Sound in
Washington, after he had been missing for five months. After the death of her son, Mason struggled with depression and alcoholism. After multiple attempts at rehabilitation, she died in New York City in 1971. She was interred at Milford
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In 2020, Roberta Smith of the New York Times wrote of Mason's trajectory, "The forms on her small canvases mutated with unusual variety and momentum between the biomorphic and geometric (the latter ultimately won out). In other words, the initial influence of
Kandinsky (and also Joan Miró) gave way
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Two years after her death, the
Whitney Museum of American Art hosted a retrospective exhibition of her works. Her work is included in many museum and public collections, including the Hirshhorn Museum, the Newark Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Rhode Island
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From insufficient recognition in her lifetime, often reserved for her male contemporaries, Mason would say, "I'll be famous when I'm dead." Mason remained quite active until her last years of life, exhibiting frequently in gallery shows and having institutions, like the
Whitney and Brooklyn Museum,
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The Emily Mason and Alice
Trumbull Mason Foundation was established in 2019, stewarding the legacies of Mason and her daughter, Emily. In May 2020, Rizzoli published the first comprehensive introduction to Mason's remarkable life and career, "Alice Trumbull Mason: A Pioneer of Abstraction." This
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Mason's first solo exhibition of her work in New York was in 1942 at The Museum of Living Art. Mason exhibited widely over the next few decades in group exhibitions. Many subsequent solo-exhibitions would follow, including Rose Fried
Gallery (Pinacotheca) in 1949 and 1951, and Firehouse Gallery,
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Mason's intimate and experimental abstractions began in a biomorphic style and became increasingly geometric over time. She called what became her signature style "architectural abstraction," which she said was about "painting a positive, architectural construction It is building and not
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through her father. She travelled throughout Europe when she was young. Beginning in 1921, she studied art in Rome, attending the
British Academy in 1923.
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After the death of her son in 1958, Mason struggled with depression and alcoholism. During one stay at a rehabilitation clinic, she met and befriended
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destroying." As New York Times critic
Holland Cotter observed, Mason's paintings show how "rigorous, stimulating, and accessible" abstraction can be.
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in 1936, serving as treasurer, secretary, and then president. She took part in a MoMA demonstration. In the 1940s she began working at the
647:. Elisa Wouk Almino, Emily Mason, Marilyn, Brown, Will Heinrich, Christina Weyl, Meghan Forbes. New York: Rizzoli Electa. pp. 35–40.
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Mason married
Warwood Mason, a sea captain, in 1930. They had two children; a son, Jonathan "Jo" Mason (1933-1958), and a daughter
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Mason was born Alice Bradford Trumbull in Litchfield, Connecticut in 1904, descended from 18th-Century Revolutionary War painter
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shape of my canvas and the use of my colors and I was completely joyful not to be governed by representing things anymore."
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to that of Piet Mondrian, on whose legacy she built with an originality that few other American painters have equaled."
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monograph details Mason's artistic process, painting style, activism, printmaking, poetry, and letters.
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Almino, Elisa Wouk; Marilyn R. Brown (May 2020). "Life and Art". In Almino, Elisa Wouk (ed.).
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group (AAA) in New York City. Mason was recognized as a pioneer of American
513:"Alice Trumbull Mason, a Pioneer of Abstraction, Makes a Triumphant Return"
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at the National Academy of Design in New York where she befriended artists
121:(1904–1971) was an American artist, writer, and a founding member of the
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Architectural Abstraction, Biomorphic Abstraction, American Abstraction
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She settled in New York by 1927 and was influenced by early
299:. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2011. pp. 254–255.
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before resuming her painting in 1934. She helped found the
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Alice Trumbull Mason took up poetry and corresponded with
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Alice Trumbull Mason: Pioneer of American abstraction
564:"Alice Trumbull Mason: America's Forgotten Modernist"
537:"Alice Bradford Trumbull Mason (1904-1971) - Find..."
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Alice Trumbull Mason: Pioneer of American Abstraction
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Alice Trumbull Mason: Pioneer of American Abstraction
596:"Alice Trumbull Mason - Artists - Washburn Gallery"
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184:(1932–2019), who also became an abstract painter.
705:The official artist page of Alice Trumbull Mason.
620:"Emily Mason | Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation"
19:For the New Zealand long distance runner, see
624:Emily Mason | Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation
387:. Rizzoli Electa. p. 978-0-8478-6699-1.
383:Almino, Elisa Wouk (May 2020). "Chronology".
362:. New York: Facts on File. pp. 149–150.
326:Lesser-Known Women: A Biographical Dictionary
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360:A to Z of American Women in the Visual Arts
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199:where she created etchings and woodcuts.
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167:or pure abstraction, her knowledge of
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735:People from Litchfield, Connecticut
329:. Boulder u.a.: Rienner. pp.
223:Cemetery in Milford, Connecticut.
203:Nassau Community College in 1957.
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765:20th-century American printmakers
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163:. While her earlier works were
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643:Mason, Alice Trumbull (2020).
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562:Smith, Roberta (2020-04-30).
511:Quinn, Bridget (2020-06-15).
439:. Christina Weyl, New York.
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293:"Mason, Alice (Bradford) ".
77:1971 (aged 66–67)
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760:American women printmakers
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413:American Abstract Artists
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123:American Abstract Artists
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740:Artists from Connecticut
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151:. She also studied with
600:www.washburngallery.com
356:"Mason, Alice Trumbull"
354:Sonneborn, Liz (2002).
66:Litchfield, Connecticut
52:Alice Bradford Trumbull
169:Byzantine architecture
176:Career and later life
492:Alice Trumbull Mason
119:Alice Trumbull Mason
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21:Alice Mason (runner)
568:The New York Times
540:www.findagrave.com
409:"Founding Members"
265:. Rizzoli Electa.
219:acquire her work.
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