Vaunted Collector Discusses Dan's Cover Artist & Art Icon Audrey Flack

This week’s cover art by Audrey Flack comes to us from Hamptons art collector Rick Friedman, who, along with Cindy Lou Wakefield, has produced the Heroines of the Abstract Expressionist Era: From the New York School to the Hamptons exhibition, on view through December 17 at the Southampton Arts Center (SAC).

The show, which comprises works from Friedman and Wakefield’s Heroines of Abstract Expressionism (AbEx) collection, features more than 100 paintings, works on paper and sculptures by 32 acclaimed abstract expressionist women artists, including Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Mary Abbott, Nell Blaine, Jane Wilson and Charlotte Park.

Here, Friedman discusses Audrey Flack’s “Explorer” cover painting, the artist’s ongoing legacy and the SAC event on November 12, featuring a screening of the documentary short The Last Art Heroine and an interview between Friedman and Flack, moderated by Dr. Charles Riley.

Rick Friedman Talks Audrey Flack

How is Audrey Flack’s 1950 painting “Explorer” representative of her portfolio from around that time?

Flack’s work is endemic of that Ninth Street New York School AbEx period. She said to me, “Abstract Expressionism was in the air. I had a studio on Eighth Street and Third Avenue right in the middle of the explosion. I went to the Cedar Bar and the Artists Club, and just walking down the street, you met all the artists, you had the freedom to experiment, deal with your inner self and catch the power of that moment … I was friendly, gregarious, but a loner.”

How do the colors, composition and title of “Explorer” convey meaning?

“Explorer” is a brutal, powerful work. It emits energy, enthusiasm, with those stroking gestural brush stokes. Its juxtaposition of dark against light color gives it a three-dimensional depth. The title “Explorer,” itself, conveys a wild sense of spontaneity, and Flack’s exploring of both her emotion, as well as what appears to be a boundless colorful universe. It is so representative of the enormous creativity and freedom of those pioneering New York School artists in 1950.

How is Flack’s brand of abstract expressionism unique to that of her late contemporaries?

As baseball player Dale Berra, son of Yankee great Yogi Berra, once said in comparing himself, as a player, to his dad, “our similarities are different,” Flack was one of the esteemed group of first generation AbEx painters. I think everyone was initially inspired by Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, circa 1948, when AbEx first took shape. Flack admitted, “When Franz Kline stopped in front of my painting at a Tanger Gallery opening and told me how much he liked it, it meant the world to me. I remember his words to this day.”

The men’s art pieces had a violent, hard, masculine, bold edge, while the women artists had a different feminine touch to their abstractions. If you look at Lee Krasner, her art is more organic; Joan Mitchell, more lyrical and ethereal; Elaine de Kooning, collage and portraits; and Helen Frankenthaler, color field, pouring paint on the floor; and Grace Hartigan, playful collages.

What makes an Audrey Flack painting such as “Explorer” an enticing acquisition for an art collector?

“Explorer” is a powerful, ideal example of a first-generation AbEx-era artwork. Her painting teacher at Cooper Union, Nicholas Marsicano, was well connected locally, introduced her around and invited her to the famed Artist Club.

So by the early 1950s, she was immersed deep into the scene and sensibility. While Flack is now enjoying an illustrious seven-decade career and has established herself as one of the greatest living American artists, “Explorer” is an important early work that displays her genius.

As a collector, this is a rare piece, and hard to get, as her 1950s works are no longer available. It has an eye-catching presence and holds the wall. Plus, she is the only living artist from the historical era that can actually describe the work, in person. Her pieces from 1950–1955 impressed her fellow artists, such that she was invited into the famed 1956 Stable Gallery show.

What aspects of Flack’s story does The Last Art Heroine film capture, and how much of her ongoing legacy remains to be explored by documentarians?

The 15-minute documentary short The Last Art Heroine focuses on her early career in the 1950s. She reflects on the sensibility of that era. With her sharp memory — as if it was yesterday — she shares her many experiences and confidential episodes with many of the great artists of the era.

Eventually, many migrated to the Hamptons; several artists, such as Elaine de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Grace Hartigan and Mercedes Matter become lifelong friends.

So Flack remains the only living member of that now-famed art community that can recant the story first-hand. Another documentary, Queen of Hearts, focuses on her later career, late 1960s–1980s pioneering photorealism.

What has been the most rewarding or exciting aspect about your involvement in the Heroines of the Abstract Expressionist Era exhibition at the Southampton Arts Center?

What Cindy Lou and I find most rewarding is sharing this portion of our art collection — showcasing these then overlooked, but now finally appreciated female pioneers, with the community — and just think, many of these greatest women painters of the 20th century were local artists. A new generation of viewers can now discover them.

With its wide inclusion of 32 acclaimed artists and 102 pieces, the exhibit intent is to expand and excite the rediscovery and re-evaluation (and price skyrocketing) of other members of that genre. Their time has come, and for others, will come, in 2024–2026, as many art-world-leading decision makers are eagerly looking to uncover other great overlooked women artists. Our collection has included them here, in same sentence as Mitchell, Krasner, Hartigan, de Kooning, Frankenthaler, Drexler and Bourgeois, whose values have now reached into seven figures.

This survey is being watched online closely by influential and investing collectors, galleries, advisors, curators, the art press from all over the world — all seeking to be the first to champion the next major rediscovery.

Would you like to share any thoughts about your upcoming interview with Flack?

I cordially invite all readers to join us Sunday, November 12, 2–3 p.m., when Audrey Flack, 92, will travel to Southampton to share her valuable insights, sharp wit, cutting observations, entertaining tales, and some secrets and confessions, from her amazing seven decades, exclusively with the SAC audience.

The former executive director of the Nassau County Museum of Art, Dr. Charles Riley, will graciously emcee and I will play interviewer to keep the pearls of wisdom flowing. It’s a rare chance for the local community to meet and hear directly from a living American legend, who is presently being feted by the Smithsonian Museum in D.C.

Plus, take your time and peruse the 100-plus works on display from noon–5 p.m.

Registration to the November 12 event is free but recommended at southamptonartscenter.org. To learn more about the extensive AbEx collection, visit heroinesofabex.com.