Artwork Record
Images
Metadata
Artist |
Hedda Sterne (1910-2011) |
Title |
Herman |
Date |
ca. 1960 |
Dimensions |
34 x 24 in. |
Description |
Hedda Sterne was born Hedwig Lindenberg in Bucharest, Romania. She studied ceramics at the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts), in Paris at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, and in ateliers of Fernand Léger and André Lhote. Her first solo exhibition was held in Bucharest in 1936. Influenced by the Surrealist movement, her work was shown in Paris, where her friend and mentor, Victor Brauner, became an advocate for her within the Surrealist circle. After immigrating to the US in 1941, Sterne joined other European "artsists in exile" among Peggy Guggenheim's circle and exhibited at Guggenheim's Gallery, Art of This Century. Her first solo show in New York, organized by Betty Parsons, was at the Wakefield Gallery in 1943. That year she met fellow Romanian refugee Saul Steinberg, whom she married in 1944. An active member of the New York School, she is the only woman included in the famous "irrascibles" photograph by Nina Leen that appeared in LIFE magazine in 1951. Although best known for her Surrealist and abstract work, Sterne created many portraits of her friends and associates. A selection was shown at the Pollock-Krasner House in 2009. Most are small studies in pencil or ink on paper, but a few, like this stylized profile of her friend Herman Cherry, are large scale works on canvas. While he was not among the documented "irrascibles," Cherry was known as a combative character, a quality Sterne captured brilliantly. Gift of Regina Cherry. |
Catalog Number |
2016.001 |
Object Name |
Painting |
Current Exhibition |
Crosscurrents: Selections from the Permanent Collection |