1276 - Mary Lee Abbott (American, 1921-2019). Abstract expressionist watercolor on paper painting depicting intertwined bands of blue and orange interrupted by white pigment, possibly oil pastel, ca. 1990. Ink signed along the lower right. Provenance: Estate of Mary Abbott. Lot Essay: Mary Abbott was a leading figure in the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1940s and 1950s, celebrated for dynamic, emotive works that boldly explored color, form, and media. She was part of a pioneering group of women artists, including Jay DeFeo, Helen Frankenthaler, Sonia Gechtoff, Judith Godwin, Grace Hartigan, Elaine de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Deborah Remington, and Ethel Schwabacher, who played critical roles in shaping the movement. Alongside Elaine de Kooning and Joan Mitchell, Abbott was one of the few women invited to join 'The Club,' the group of artists dedicated to defining Abstract Expressionism. She pushed the boundaries of the movement and of painting itself, incorporating diverse materials and tools such as oil, oil stick, charcoal, pastel, collage, and even paw and handprints, while treating her own earlier work as source material for new pieces. She continued developing new modes of creative expression throughout her oeuvre, well into the early 2000s. Born and raised on New York's Upper East Side, Abbott studied as a young student under modernist George Grosz, but it was her early-career friendship with neighbor David Hare, a founding member of the experimental Subjects of the Artist school, that introduced her to the broader milieu of the New York School. After taking classes at the Corcoran Museum School of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Art Students League of New York, she settled into a studio in New York's East Village in the 1940s, studying under Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, and Barnett Newman. Working in dialogue with artists like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning during this period, Abbott forged a distinctive style marked by bold color, energetic brushwork, and a sense of spontaneity, reflecting a deep engagement with the emotional and psychological dimensions of abstraction and a recurring interest in movement and fluidity. She began exhibiting publicly in the 1950s, including in the Stable Gallery Annuals exhibitions later regarded as the public catalyst for Abstract Expressionism. Today, Abbott's work is held in numerous highly regarded public collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., the Denver Art Museum, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Parrish Art Museum, New York, and Femmes Artistes du Musee de Mougins, France. Sight; height: 5 in x width: 7 in. Framed; height: 12 1/4 in x width: 14 1/2 in x depth: 1 in.