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Emily Mason Art

American, 1932-2019

Emily Mason was born in New York City in 1932. She graduated from New York City’s High School of Music and Art and studied at Bennington College for two years before attending and graduating from the Cooper Union. She spent 1956–58 in Italy on a Fulbright grant for painting, where she studied at the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Venice. 

During Mason’s two-year stay in Italy she married the painter Wolf Kahn, whom she had met earlier in New York. Mason and Kahn’s daughter, Cecily Kahn, is also an abstract painter, as was Emily Mason’s mother, Alice Trumbull Mason, a founding member of the American Abstract Artists group in New York. 

Mason spent more than six decades exploring her distinctive vein of lyrical, luminous abstraction. Her paintings executed in oil are distinguished by a sense of intriguing intimacy combined with uncompromising, though gentle, intensity. They evince a sense of structure within open, luminous space and juxtapose robust color harmonies with vivid contrasts that create an engaging optical vibration.

Robert Berlind said of the artist in Art in America, “Mason works within the improvisational model of Abstract Expressionism, though notably without angst or bravado.” 

Mason exhibited steadily throughout her career since she emerged on the Tenth Street gallery scene with multiple exhibitions at the Area Gallery in New York City in the 1960s. In 1979, she was awarded the Ranger Fund Purchase Prize by the National Academy. She taught painting at Hunter College for more than thirty years. Her work has been included in numerous public and private collections. 

Emily Mason: The Fifth Element, a comprehensive treatment of her work by Art in America associate managing editor David Ebony, was published in 2006 by George Braziller publishers. A second monograph, Emily Mason: The Light in Spring, was published in 2015 by the University Press of New England.

Mason died in December of 2019 in Brattleboro, Vermont.

Find a collection of original Emily Mason paintings and other art on 1stDibs.

(Biography provided by Miles McEnery Gallery)

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Artist: Emily Mason
So Slight a Film ex-Lehman Brothers Art Collection unique signed painting Framed
By Emily Mason
Located in New York, NY
Emily Mason So Slight a Film (from the Lehman Brothers art collection), 1978 Oil on paper Abstract Expressionist painting Signed and dated 'Emily Mason '78' bottom right in pencil Fr...
Category

1970s Abstract Emily Mason Art

Materials

Oil, Graphite

Emily Mason The Fifth Element, HB Book, Hand signed and inscribed by Emily Mason
By Emily Mason
Located in New York, NY
Emily Mason The Fifth Element (Hand signed and inscribed by Emily Mason), 2009 Hardback monograph with dust jacket (Hand signed, dated and inscribed by Emily Mason) Hand signed in marker directly underneath the title; inscribed to Kevin and dated 2013 top right by Emily Mason 10 1/2 × 9 × 1 inches Provenance Signed for the present owner at the artist's opening at the David Findlay...
Category

Early 2000s Abstract Emily Mason Art

Materials

Paper, Ink, Mixed Media, Lithograph, Offset

Emily Mason, Heart monotype, signed & inscribed in artists frame, Wolf Kahn wife
By Emily Mason
Located in New York, NY
Emily Mason Untitled (For Douglas), 1990 Carborundum etching and monotype on paper Pencil signed, dated and inscribed "For Douglas" Vintage wood frame included This work was created ...
Category

1990s Contemporary Emily Mason Art

Materials

Mixed Media, Etching, Monotype

Asiatic Rain
By Emily Mason
Located in New York, NY
EMILY MASON Asiatic Rain, 1989 Oil on paper 29 x 23 inches 73.7 x 58.4 cm Signed (lower right recto) (MMG#32797)
Category

1980s Emily Mason Art

Materials

Paper, Oil

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I am interested in drawing and collaging multiple layers of information that refer abstractly to maps, architectural drawings and blueprints or patterns and structures found in such things as roller coasters, power lines and fences. I use gouache and collaged paper in a series of layers that are a visual and ideological response to the previous layer to define my pictorial space. For each piece I create a set of rules to follow about the use of a limited palette, a grid format, opacity of paper and whether a piece may include curving lines or maintain a rectilinear structure. Artist CV: EDUCATION Master of Fine Arts in Painting Bard College 1986 Bachelor of Science in Art History State University College at New Paltz 1977 Additional Study: New York Studio School (Drawing Marathons) Columbia University, School of Architecture Women’s Studio Workshop TEACHING Professor of Studio Art, Department of Art and Art History, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY Coordinator, Interior Design Program, Florence, Italy campus 1992-present AWARDS NYFA Fellowship in Painting 2018 Invitational Award for Outstanding Contemporary Talent, University of Bridgeport, CT 2000 Purchase Prize, “11th National Juried Exhibition” College of Notre Dame of Maryland, Baltimore 1999 First Prize, “Women in the Visual Arts ‘95” Erector Square Gallery, New Haven, CT 1995 Joseph A. Cain Memorial Purchase Award for Sculpture Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, TX 1994 Honorable Mention, “National Juried Exhibition” University of Bridgeport, CT 1993 Individual Artists Fellowship in Sculpture Dutchess Arts Fund 1992/93 Tallix, Morris, Singer Internship in Sculpture Tallix Foundry, Beacon, NY 1990/91 MEMBERSHIP Royal British Society of Sculptors SELECTED JURIED/INVITATIONAL EXHIBITIONS 2020 “edu: Art Faculty of the Hudson Valley”, Hudson Valley MOCA, Peekskill, NY 2019 “Contemporary Abstraction”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY “Mixed Media”, SITE Gallery, Brooklyn, NY 2018 “JuxtaPositions”, The Painting Center, New York, NY “Peculiar Rarities”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY 2017 “Interlock: Color and Contrast in Abstraction”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY “Donise English: Encaustics”, Catskill Art Society, Livingston Manor, NY 2016 “Let’s Stay in Touch”, Howard County Center for the Arts, Ellicott City, MD “Under, Over, After Over”, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY 2015 “Off the Grid”, Arts & Culture Program, Albany International Airport, Albany, NY “Gridspace”, KMOCA, Kingston, NY “Abstraction”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY “Assuming Identity”, NY Institute of Technology, New York, NY 2013 “Modern Artists”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY “Artists of the Mohawk-Hudson Region”, The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY Stone Canoe/Community Folk Art Center, Syracuse, NY 2012 New York Institute of Technology, New York, NY “Contemporary Painters (Who Just Happen To Be Women)”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY “Strange Glue: Collage at 100”, Cambridge School, Weston, MA “Dear Mother Nature”, Dorsky Museum, SUNY New Paltz, NY “Fresher Paint”, Rockland Center for the Arts, Nyack, NY Courthouse Gallery, Lake George Arts Project, Lake George, NY 2011 “Process+Content: Donise English”, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY “Donise English-Paintings”,Orange County Community College, Newburgh, NY “Gender Matters/Matters of Gender”, Freedman Gallery, Albright College, Reading, PA 2010 Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY “Encaustics: Wax and Image”, Westchester Community College, White Plains, NY “Dots, Lines and Figures”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY “Spring Awakening”, NY Institute of Technology, New York, NY “Clay City Dreams”, NY Institute of Technology, New York, NY “Texture,Pattern, Fragment”, Krause Gallery, Moses Brown School, Providence, RI 2009 “Collage”, NY Institute of Technology, New York, NY “Working in Wax”, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA “Encaustic 2009”, College of New Rochelle, NY “Three Artists”, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY “Convergence: The Human Experience”,Howard County Center for the Arts, MD 2008 “Suckers and Biters: Love, Lollipops, and Exquisite Corpse” Chashama Gallery, New York, NY Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson NY 2007 “Patterns and Light”, Blue Hill Gallery, Blue Hill, ME “Suckers and Biters”, AG Gallery, Brooklyn, NY 2006 “100 Artists, 100 Watercolors”, Jeannie Freilich Fine Art, New York, NY “On/Of Paper”,Kirkland Art Center, Clinton, NY “The Love Show”, Manchester Community College, Manchester, CT 2005 The Soap Factory, Minneapolis, MN “Small Tales”, Valdosta State University, Georgia National Juried Exhibition,Art Institute and Gallery Salisbury, MD, Juror: Stephen Haller “Greed, Envy, Jealousy, Fear”, TSL Warehouse, Hudson, NY 2004 “Women in the Middle: Borders, Barriers, Intersections” University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee “Girl Art Now”,Hera Gallery, Wakefield, RI 3 Person Exhibition, Monterey Peninsula College, Monterey, CA “The Feminine Eye”, Bradley University, Peoria, IL “Women Painting Women”, McNeese State University, Lake Charles, LA “Thought Patterns”, Kent Place Gallery, Summit, NJ “Surface, Matter and Artifice”, Dutchess Community College Art Gallery Poughkeepsie, NY 2003 “Beefcake/Cheesecake”,Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, CA,Juror: Jamie Wilson, Curator Halpert Bienniel, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC Juror: Jeff Fleming, Senior Curator, Des Moines Art Center “The Great White Oak”, Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY 2002 “Cat Calls”, Red Clay Arts, Brooklyn “Hudson Valley Regional”, SUNY New Paltz Juror: Sydney Jenkins, Director, Ramapo College Art Galleries 2001 One-Person Exhibition, Davis and Hall Gallery, Hudson, NY “Beyond the Surface”, Womanmade Gallery, Chicago One-Person Exhibition, Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY 2000 “Vision 2000...
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Previously Available Items
Untitled
By Emily Mason
Located in New York, NY
EMILY MASON Untitled, 1990 Oil on paper 29 x 23 inches 73.7 x 58.4 cm Signed and dated: "Emily Mason 1990 VT" (lower right recto) Formally, Emily Mason (1932-2019) is perhaps best k...
Category

1990s Abstract Expressionist Emily Mason Art

Materials

Oil, Paper

Untitled
By Emily Mason
Located in New York, NY
EMILY MASON Untitled, 1990 Oil on paper 29 x 23 inches 73.7 x 58.4 cm Signed and dated: "Emily Mason 1990" (lower left recto) Formally, Emily Mason (1932-2019) is perhaps best known...
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1990s Abstract Expressionist Emily Mason Art

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Oil, Paper

Transparent Slope
By Emily Mason
Located in New York, NY
EMILY MASON Transparent Slope, 1989 Oil on paper 29 x 23 inches 73.7 x 58.4 cm Signed (lower right recto) (MMG#32796)
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1980s Emily Mason Art

Materials

Paper, Oil

The Thunder Hurried Slow
By Emily Mason
Located in New York, NY
EMILY MASON The Thunder Hurried Slow, 1978 Oil on canvas 54 x 54 inches 137.2 x 137.2 cm -- Formally, Emily Mason (1932-2019) is perhaps best known for her vibrant pigments and her intuitive grasp of color theory, as well as her unusual painting method that she mastered over the course of her career: using cat food...
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1970s Emily Mason Art

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Untitled
By Emily Mason
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EMILY MASON Untitled, 1979 Oil on canvas 54 1/2 x 50 inches 138.4 x 127 cm -- Formally, Emily Mason (1932-2019) is perhaps best known for her vibrant pigments and her intuitive grasp of color theory, as well as her unusual painting method that she mastered over the course of her career: using cat...
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1970s Emily Mason Art

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Untitled
H 54.5 in W 50 in
Powder Blue
By Emily Mason
Located in New York, NY
EMILY MASON Powder Blue, 1979 Oil on canvas 34 x 46 inches 86.4 x 116.8 cm Signed and dated: "Emily Mason '79" (lower right recto) -- Formally, Emily Mason (1932-2019) is perhaps b...
Category

1970s Emily Mason Art

Materials

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Quiet Fog
By Emily Mason
Located in New York, NY
EMILY MASON Quiet Fog, 1976 Oil on canvas 22 x 18 inches 55.9 x 45.7 cm Signed and dated: "Emily Mason '76" (lower right recto) -- Formally, Emily Mason (1932-2019) is perhaps best...
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1970s Emily Mason Art

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Masonry
By Emily Mason
Located in New York, NY
EMILY MASON Masonry, 1978 Oil on canvas 52 x 44 inches 132.1 x 111.8 cm Signed and dated: "Emily Mason '78" (lower right recto) -- Formally, Emily Mason (1932-2019) is perhaps best...
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1970s Emily Mason Art

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Lists of Clay
By Emily Mason
Located in New York, NY
EMILY MASON Lists of Clay, 1978 Oil on canvas 50 x 30 inches 127 x 76.2 cm Signed and dated: "Emily Mason '78" (lower right recto) -- Formally, Emily Mason (1932-2019) is perhaps b...
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1970s Emily Mason Art

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Pleasure Garden
By Emily Mason
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EMILY MASON Pleasure Garden, 1970 Oil on canvas 52 x 44 inches 132.1 x 111.8 cm Signed and dated: "Emily Mason 1970" (lower right recto) -- Formally, Emily Mason (1932-2019) is per...
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EMILY MASON Like Some Old Fashioned Miracle, 1972-1974 Oil on canvas 24 x 24 inches 61 x 61 cm Signed and dated: "Emily Mason '72" (lower right recto) -- Formally, Emily Mason (193...
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EMILY MASON Defiant of a Road, 1972 Oil on canvas 52 1/4 x 40 1/4 inches 132.7 x 102.2 cm Signed and dated: "Emily Mason '72" (lower right recto) -- Formally, Emily Mason (1932-201...
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Emily Mason art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Emily Mason art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Emily Mason in oil paint, paint, etching and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the abstract style. Not every interior allows for large Emily Mason art, so small editions measuring 9 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Jay Rosenblum, Lowell Boyers, and Jylian Gustlin. Emily Mason art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $880 and tops out at $25,000, while the average work can sell for $7,500.

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