Mary Henry at her home

During the Twentieth Century the story of Modern Art was mostly one of men but in the past 20 years a more varigated and gender accurate history has been rediscovered major contributors like Sonia Delaunay, Gabreiel Munter and Lygia Clark. There is still a long way to go though and the fact that Helen Frankenthaler's work still sells for less than Morris Louis' is galling since she introduced the staining technique and was more than a little involved in the development of Greenberg's most important theories. We are just beginning a major revision.

Enter the late Mary Henry to that list and her estate's first exhibition with Jeffrey Thomas Fine Art titled Gardens of Delight. A student of Laslo Maholy-Nagy at the New Bauhaus in Chicago Henry distinguished herself by absorbing the Bauhaus teaching of forms conveying underlying spiritual information. Today we call it good design but back then it needed to have an more exotic terminology. Henry is an exceptional poet of forms as Arcy conveyed a while back here on PORT. So often female artists have to traffic in a sense of vulnerability with their private lives or nakedness being used. Henry, like Agnes Martin and Frankenthaler, she's just excellent and justifies how abstraction gets us back to basics by removing gender norms entirely from the work.

Garden of Delight | May 13 - July 11
Opening Reception: May 13 6-8PM
Jeffrey Thomas Fine Art
2219 NW Raleigh

Hello Jeff,
Another little recognized elder woman artist is Margaret Shirley. A native of Astoria, she studied with Albers at Yale. You probably know her intense process minimalism at Russo Gallery.

Thank you for your writing.

Jef