Blaine, Nell, 1922-1996

Nell Blaine (1922-1996) was a painter in New York, N.Y.

Nell Blaine was born in Richmond (Va.) July 10, 1922 and died from post-polio syndrome November 14, 1996, in New York (N.Y.). She attended the Richmond School of Art; studied with the artist Hans Hofmann in New York (N.Y.) from 1942-1944; studied etching and engraving at Atelier 17 with Stanley William Hayter in 1945; and attended the New School for Social Research from 1952-1953. She maintained a studio in Gloucester (Mass.) but also traveled and painted extensively in Austria, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, St. Lucia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and West Indies. Blaine married Robert Bass, a musician, in 1943; they divorced in 1949. She contracted polio on Mykonos Island (Greece) in the fall of 1959, spending months in a hospital in New York and in an iron lung, but proving the medical opinion wrong that she would not paint again, laboriously retraining her hands. She used a wheelchair the rest of her life. She was survived by her companion of 30 years, Carolyn Harris, also a painter. Blaine's painting began in realism, but at age 21 she was the youngest member of the group American Abstract Artists. She was a founding member of the Jane Street Gallery, an early artists' cooperative, and had her first solo show there in 1945. During a trip to Paris with Larry Rivers in 1950, she immersed herself in 19th-century European painting and from that point developed a vivid and colorful representational style for which she is best known. She exhibited solo at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in 1953 and was represented by the Poindexter Gallery and the Fischbach Gallery.

Artist.

Nell Blaine (1922-1996) was a prominent American painter. Blaine was born in Richmond, Virginia and attended the Richmond Professional Institute from 1939-42. She studied under prominent artists such as Theresa Pollak (1899-2002) and Worden Day (1915-1986). In 1942-43, she received a grant from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to study under the renowned abstract expressionist, Hans Hofmann (1880-1966). Her art grew out of the Abstract Expressionist Movement of the 1940s. Her vast array of work, which spans half a century, encompasses indoor scenes, landscapes, and still lifes. Her work appears in many major American collections including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among others. Even though Blaine relocated permanently to Manhattan, New York in the 1940s, she exhibited frequently in Richmond. The Richmond Times-Dispatch extolled her success throughout her career, recalling her roots as a Richmond native. Blaine traveled extensively in Europe, the Caribbean, and South America to paint and to find inspiration. While staying in Greece in 1959, she contracted spinal bulbar polio. The disease left her paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of her life. She continued painting and exhibiting until the 1990s. Not only does Blaine's art contribute to American painting but she leaves a legacy for the Richmond art community.

Blaine is a painter and printmaker; New York, N.Y.

Painter; New York, N.Y., Died 1996.

Blaine's early work was abstract, later evolving to figurative. She was a close friend of poet and art writer Howard Griffin, and illustrated a limited edition of his Four Poems.

Nell Blaine was born in Richmond (Va.) July 10, 1922. She attended the Richmond School of Art; studied with the artist Hans Hofmann in New York (N.Y.) from 1942-1944; studied etching and engraving at Atelier 17 with Stanley William Hayter in 1945; and attended the New School for Social Research from 1952-1953. She maintained a studio in Gloucester (Mass.) but also traveled and painted extensively in Austria, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, St. Lucia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and West Indies.

Blaine married Robert Bass, a musician, in 1943; they divorced in 1949. She contracted polio on Mykonos Island (Greece) in the fall of 1959, spending months in a hospital in New York and in an iron lung, but proving the medical opinion wrong that she would not paint again, laboriously retraining her hands. She used a wheelchair the rest of her life and suffered from post-polio syndrome from which she ultimately died November 14, 1996. She was survived by her companion of 30 years, Carolyn Harris, also a painter.

Blaine's painting began in realism, but at age 21 she was the youngest member of the group American Abstract Artists. She was a founding member of the Jane Street Gallery, an early artists' cooperative, and had her first solo show there in 1945. During a trip to Paris with Larry Rivers in 1950, she immersed herself in 19th-century European painting and from that point developed a vivid and colorful representational style for which she is best known. Her New York circle of artist and writer friends in the 1950's included John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, Kenneth Koch, Larry Rivers, Jane Freilicher, Leland Bell, Robert De Niro Sr. and Rudy Burckhardt. She exhibited solo at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in 1953 and was represented by the Poindexter Gallery and the Fischbach Gallery.

Painter; New York, N.Y.. Died 1996.