This exhibition presents a vital yet lesser-known history of abstract painting in New England by showcasing the work of women painters with strong connections to the region. Despite their relative exclusion from mainstream and male-dominated conversations on postwar abstraction, these artists have made significant contributions to the field. Spanning from the 1950s to the present, the works on view in the exhibition expand traditions of abstract painting and testify to the artists’ unwavering productivity and creative innovation.

Drawn primarily from deCordova’s permanent collection, this survey explores diverse techniques, processes, and concepts. The exhibition and interpretation also emphasizes the artists’ contributions, connections, and reception within New England. Expanding Abstraction reveals the complexities of painting in the region and lays the foundation for a more inclusive understanding of abstraction through the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

Natalie Alper - Adria Arch - Dorothy Arnold - Melinda Ashley - Kristin Baker - Cynthia Bloom - Maggi Brown - Helen Frankenthaler - Sharon Friedman - Jacqueline Gourevitch - Beverly Hallam - Fannie Hillsmith - Sherrill Edwards Hunnibell - Reese Inman - Elizabeth Saalfield Ives - Yeffe Kimball - Jeanne Leger - Alice Trumbull Mason - Maud Morgan - Anne Neely - Roberta Paul - Meg Brown Payson - Irene Rice Pereira - Ann Pibal - Katherine Porter - Terri Priest - Elizabeth Rosenblum - JoAnn Rothschild - Jo Sandman - May Stevens - Barbara Takenaga - Lois Tarlow - Irene Valincius - Barbara Weldon - Lucy White - Maxine Yalovitz-Blankenship - Sandi Slone -
Curator Jennifer Gross - Sarah Montross -