Educational Media Reviews Online

This is an excellent visual biography of the Abstract Expressionist artist, Grace Hartigan, placing her within the historical context of that American art movement. The focus of this documentary is on Grace as an influential artist and her place within the Abstract Expressionist movement. Abstract Expressionism blossomed in New York City and San Francisco primarily during the 1940s and 1950s, and is also known as the New York School or Action Painting. It was the first American art movement that had worldwide influence, supplanting Paris as the Western art center.

The film opens with interview clips of Grace expressing her views on art, followed by comments by others about the impact of her art within the art world, and then segues into a chronological view of her life and art. She had her first major show in 1950 at the Kootz Gallery, followed by a solo show at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery. Shortly thereafter, Alfred Barr and Dorothy Miller of the Museum of Modern Art bought her painting “Persian Jacket.” In one of the interview clips of Grace, she recounts the story of this purchase.

The film is well written, filmed and edited, providing a cohesive story of Grace’s life, how she got involved in painting and her place in the abstract expressionist movement. Interspersed throughout are excellent archival films and photos, including a film of Jackson Pollack painting in his studio, and numerous interview clips from various people in the art world such as artists Archie Rand and Alfred Leslie, art historian Irving Sandler, museum curators Barbara Haskell at the Whitney Museum, Jay Fisher at the Baltimore Museum of Art and Anne Umland at MoMA, her niece, Donna Sessee, and some of her students describing, analyzing, explaining and discussing the importance of her art to Abstract Expressionism. There are many examples of Abstract artwork throughout the documentary, both by Grace and from other Abstract Impressionists, giving visual proof of the influence the artists had upon each other’s work.

Grace lived into her 80s (she died in November 2008) and this film follows her entire artistic life. Little is said about her personal life, except where it intersects with her artistic career. Her last marriage, to Winston Price, is examined in more detail because of the changes and challenges it brought about in her life and art.