Inside Looking out

The American painter Gina Knee (1898-1982) is an important, surprisingly unacclaimed artist, whose career spanned more than five decades and many locations; she worked in the Southwest, the South, California, and New York. Starting in the 1940s she had solo shows on both coasts, and her work found its way into major public and private collections. She knew and exhibited with some of the major artists of her day: Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Tobey, and her third husband, Alexander Brook. Yet, like many artists - especially women - working on the fringes of mainstream art movements, her achievements have been nearly forgotten in the rush to create art superstars. This book is an in-depth examination of the artist's life and work, from hesitant artistic beginnings to a culmination in highly original paintings reflecting her modernist and abstract vision. It reflects, too, the recent recognition in art history that art is as much a product of culture as it is the elusive, privileged activity of isolated "genius". Knee's efforts to find the delicate balance between marriage and her life's work is a central theme of the book, traced in her letters and in her conversations with friends. Knee's story gives new insight into American art and life at mid-century.