EXHIBITIONS

Lines of Influence: Artists Teaching Artists celebrates the longstanding tradition of artists educating and learning from one another. The exhibition illuminates diverse pedagogies of artmaking across generations, tracing networks of mentorship that include color theorist Josef Albers, plein air instructor William Merritt Chase, Abstract Expressionist pioneer Hans Hofmann, and feminist educators Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro.

Drawing from the Heckscher Museum’s collection, this exhibition brings together 54 works by 39 artists, including paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and ceramics that span the nineteenth century to the present. It showcases never-before-exhibited works such as drawings of plaster casts by Thomas Anshutz and a terra cotta sculpture by Mary Frank. Other key works include an early abstract painting that Elaine De Kooning created while studying with Albers at Black Mountain College, teaching sketches by George Grosz, and a luminous “mindscape” painting by Richard Mayhew. Lines of Influence highlights instances in which artists collaborated, apprenticed, and guided one another, revealing the vibrant exchanges that shaped their artistic legacies.

This exhibition was curated by Jessica Rosen, Curatorial Assistant.