Berry Campbell is thrilled to announce its first year participating in Art Basel, marking an important milestone in the gallery’s ongoing commitment to championing historically underrecognized artists. The gallery will present a finely curated group of women artists who were once marginalized within postwar art history and are now undergoing significant critical reassessment and market attention.
Featured artists include Mary Abbott (1921-2019), Alice Baber (1928-1982), Janice Biala (1903-2000), Bernice Bing (1936-1998), Elaine de Kooning (1918-1989), Dorothy Dehner (1901-1994), Lynne Drexler (1928-1999), Perle Fine (1905-1988), Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011), Sonia Gechtoff (1926-2018), Judith Godwin (1930-2021), Mercedes Matter (1913-2001), Pat Passlof (1928-2011), Ethel Schwabacher (1903-1984), Yvonne Thomas (1913-2009), and Lucia Wilcox (1899-1974), among others. Together, their work reflects a growing reassessment of postwar American art, one that recognizes the vital contributions of women artists and aligns with Berry Campbell’s founding vision to restore these artists to their rightful place in art history.
Highlights of the presentation include Mary Abbott’s Lucy (c. 1956-1958), a monumental painting emblematic of her lyrical, gestural abstraction. Also featured is Elaine de Kooning’s Tom Hess (1963), a vibrant portrait of her friend and editor at Artnews, captured by her signature gestural figuration. This painting has not been on view since its inclusion in the National Portrait Gallery’s (Washington, DC) solo exhibition of Elaine de Kooning in 2015-2016. Alice Baber’s Sea Cloud Moving West, a brilliant abstraction from 1974, will be presented in dialogue with Lynne Drexler’s Eventide (1968), a painting bursting with her characteristic intricate patterning and distinctive, color-driven language sourced directly from the Lynne Drexler Archive. Additionally, Berry Campbell is pleased to participate in the Basel Exclusive, featuring a major painting from the American postwar period.