“If you’re an extraordinarily gifted woman, the door is open. What women are fighting for is the right to be as mediocre as men.”

In the male-dominated art world of 1950s New York, Grace Hartigan became an influential member of the younger generation of Abstract Expressionists to follow Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, and Willem and Elaine de Kooning. She became well-known for her vibrant, large-scale paintings, but she did not adhere to the pure abstraction of her mentors. Rather, Hartigan combined the gestures and energy of Abstract Expressionism with her own observations of the world around her.

Riviera (1966) is a dynamic, semi-abstract composition with boldly colored shapes and forms hinting at a rocky shoreline. The work is an example of how physical a painting can feel and how much of the artist’s energy remains on the canvas.