Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art Hardcover – September 1, 2017

Mary Gabriel has completed brilliant work that translates a mind-boggling volume of research into a vivid and eminently readable account of the lives, art and times of these ground-breaking and adventuresome artists, who happened to be women. The broad scope of the book ranges over the broad economic, political, and artistic milieu to provide the very relevant context of the personal lives of these artists as well as their art and the art of their friends and contemporaries.The author got this story right. Full disclosure: I knew one of the artists well, Elaine de Kooning, my aunt. In her studio and elsewhere I met many of the figures that appear in this book over many years. I heard their stories, listened to their conversations, and looked at their work. Reading this book was a nostalgic sojourn spent with them again.I received an advance copy of this book from the author. It is a long book and it took me too long to read it, but it was an enjoyable and enchanting spell. Now I feel somewhat disoriented having to leave those now distant legendary decades of artistic innovation in NYC's Village and the Hamptons with the remarkable artists that peopled it. Highly recommended!

Caveat. I am not an artist or an art historian. I'm simply an art enthusiast. Even though I have already read several biographies on the artists covered in this book, this work offered fresh insight, new angles, and superb context. Like other reviewers have said - at first I could not put the book down - but later I did. I found that often I would read a few pages, but the boo aside and just think and reflect. I realized at some point I didn't want the book to end. Like good novels, the characters in the book became as if they were people I knew, and in each case, I knew, it would end. I felt a longing for a time when Art, literature and drama mattered so much that it was featured on the covers of major magazines. Now we live in a time when major magazines are gone, so many young people barely read, and art is assailed as a frivolous activity that should be removed from education in place of more practical matters. I know of the poets, the literary magazines, and the art of the time covered in this book but really have no idea if anything like that exists in this time. There well may be a similar movement now. So in the end when the last page was turned I felt sad,I wanted to story to continue and this great book to keep going. I am a voracious reader - I count this book as one of the truly great books I have read in my lifetime.

Here's an intimate portrait of 5 of the women who created art along side the men in the abstract expressionist movement. While most everyone has heard of Jackson Pollock, how many have heard of his wife Lee Krasner?Or Elaine De Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Grace Hartigan or Joan Mitchell? Yet these 5 women struggled, starved, sacrificed and studied along side the giants of the art industry. And they were recognized as artists in their own time.Today, they seem to have been lost along the way. This book shows them as holding their own and even influencing their male contemporaries.This book explains how,where and why they created the art that so many people would dismiss as "something my kid could do". And gives the reader a much better understanding of the reasons and thought processes behind their art.For anyone who wants to "understand Modern Art", this could be a primer. And although it is long, it reads like a juicy novel. There are photos of all the women, some of the men and the paintings mentioned in this book.As a former Art Museum docent , the hardest question for my guests to answer was "Name 5 women artists". After reading this book, YOU'll be able to name these 5 incredible artists and then some!

The book is disappointing. The illustrations are not keyed to the text as there are no internal citations. There is a wealth of social historical detail about the life of the Village, particularly Hoffman's 9th Street school. But there is virtually no description of the artistic method of each woman. The result is a high-level 800-page group biography. A better model is Andrew Hemingway's lavishly illustrated Artists on the Left or Bram Dijsktra's similarly impressive American Expressionism.

I’ve always had a difficult time understanding abstract expressionism. This is the first book I’ve found that provided insight into the makers, their driving ambition, their art practice, and their lifestyle. I may still not appreciate all the artworks but I do have an appreciation for the struggles and the sacrifices and struggles of the artists. While the focus is on the women, the story is much more comprehensive of the time, the places, and the personalities around the whole movement.

This is a fabulous read - a long-awaited account of some of the major female characters of the Ab Ex movement, replacing them in their rightful role at the heart of the movement. Mary Gabriel has produced a work that is remarkably well-documented and insightful, but also hugely fun to read; a prefect blend of historical context, artistic understanding and personal anecdotes...It's a doorstopper of a book, but I would have happily read the same length again. Also contains welcome photographic documentation.

A much needed documentation of the 1st and 2nd generation women pioneers of Abstract Expression. Beautifully placed in its historical context, a seamless chronological insight. Very happy to see their male counterparts have been included to accurately portray the sometimes tacit dialogue essential to a vital historical movement. Some gems of private correspondence and thoughts. I’ve never taken so many notes! Sorry to have finished it. 10/10!

Lovely book. Arrived in good condition.

Great history, herstory!

Several of the people who appear in that book were my friends and/or colleagues, I can personally vouch for the way this book brings them back to life. This is a period in the history of art during which painters were trying to connect with “the real” or “truth”, and desperately wanted to be true to the experience (whether it succeeded or failed), and most (not all) of those artists had no interest whatsoever in "chachkies-making” and/or careerism (times have changed drastically since).Highly recommended reading, with special attention to an immense artist far too little known, Joan Mitchell.