Ninth Street Women

Ninth Street Women

by Mary Gabriel

Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art

This book is much more than a collection of standard biographies. Gabriel fills in the pieces that art history neglected to tell — these talented women both contributed to and changed modern art as we knew it. She explains the behind-the-scenes stories: where they lived; where they hung out; their side jobs; their marriages and affairs; their poverty; their struggle for recognition. It’s organized chronologically from 1928 to 1959 and weaves in each artist’s story as they enter the art world (with a bit of back story). This book should be on the reading list of every twentieth-century art Art History course.

UPDATE: As of February 2020, I’m over half-way through reading it and will be so sad once I’m done.