Louise Fishman
Louise Fishman (b. 1939, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; d. 2021, New York City) used scrapers, trowels, and traditional brushes to apply and remove dense layers of paint in loose, gestural scores across the canvas. This subtractive method of mark-making celebrates process and rejects the masculinist impulses of abstract expressionism. Rather, Fishman’s meticulous and energetic work often evokes the rigid, interlocking form of the grid. Her training as a sculptor was visible in the physicality of her paint, which was vigorously applied, indexing her movement about the canvas. “If good painting is what you want to do, then good painting is what you must look at,” the artist wrote in 1977. “Take what you want and leave the dreck.” Gilles Heno-Coe elaborates on this sentiment in Fishman’s work: “For Fishman, this meant taking the relevant bits from Paul Cézanne or Willem de Kooning, as much as from Agnes Martin or Eva Hesse. The pursuit of individual freedom and personal expression was and remains her primary motivation as an artist.”
Fishman recently held solo exhibitions at Karma, New York (2022, 2020); Krannert Art Museum, Illinois (2021–22); Vielmetter, Los Angeles (2021, 2019); Locks Gallery, Philadelphia (2019); Cheim & Read, New York (2017); and Goya Contemporary, Baltimore (2013). In 2016, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, and the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York, both hosted Fishman retrospective exhibitions. Her work is represented in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Jewish Museum, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, among others.
Born 1939, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died 2021, New York, NY
EDUCATION
1957
Philadelphia College of Art
1958
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia
1963
B.F.A. and B.S., Tyler School of Fine Arts, Elkins, Pennsylvania
1965
M.F.A., University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois
SELECTED SOLO AND TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2022
Karma, New York, 1960s: Darkness and Light
2021
Krannert Art Museum, Illinois, A Question of Emphasis: Louise Fishman Drawing
Vielmetter, Los Angeles, We’ll Meet Again
2020
Karma, New York, Ballin’ the Jack
2019
Vielmetter, Los Angeles, The Tumult in the Heart
Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, Louise Fishman: My City
2017
Cheim & Read, New York
2016
Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Philadelphia, Paper Louise Tiny Fishman Rock
Neuberger Museum of Art, SUNY Purchase, New York; Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, Louise Fishman: A Retrospective
2015
Cheim & Read, New York
2014
Gallery Nosco, London, Venice Watercolours 2011-2013
2013
Goya Contemporary Gallery, Baltimore, Louise Fishman: It’s Here-Elsewhere
2012
Cheim & Read, New York
Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, Louise Fishman: Five Decades
John Davis Gallery, Hudson, New York
2010
Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco
2009
The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, Louise Fishman: Among the Old Masters
Cheim & Read, New York
2008
Galerie Kienzle & Gmeiner, Berlin, Between Geometry and Gesture
2007
Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, The Tenacity of Painting
2006
Cheim & Read, New York
2005
Foster Gwin, San Francisco
2004
Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, Louise Fishman, Recent Work
Foster Gwin, San Francisco, New York, Abstract Painters George McNeil / Louise Fishman / 2004
2003
Cheim & Read, New York
2002
Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles
2001
Paule Anglim Gallery, San Francisco
2000
Cheim & Read, New York
1998
Cheim & Read, New York
Paule Anglim Gallery , San Francisco
1996
Robert Miller Gallery, New York
1995
Robert Miller Gallery, New York, Small Paintings
1994
Bianca Lanza Gallery, Miami, Small Paintings 1992–1994
1993
Robert Miller Gallery, New York
1992–93
Temple Gallery, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, Louise Fishman: Small Paintings, 1979–1992
Tyler Gallery, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, Drawings and Experimental Work, 1971–1992
Morris Gallery, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Louise Fishman: Paintings, 1986–1992
1992
Simon Watson, New York, Louise Fishman: Small Paintings, 1978–1992
Olin Art Gallery, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, Louise Fishman: Small Paintings
1991
Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., New York, Louise Fishman: New Paintings
1989
Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., New York, Louise Fishman: New Paintings 1987–1989
Simon Watson Gallery, New York, Remembrance and Renewal
1987
Winston Gallery, Washington, DC, Louise Fishman and Andy Spence: Two from the Corcoran
1986
Baskerville & Watson Gallery, New York
1985
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina, Fishman/Sanderson
1984
Baskerville & Watson Gallery, New York
1982
Oscarsson-Hood Gallery, New York
John Davis Gallery, Akron, Ohio
1980
The MacDowell Colony, New York, Louise Fishman: Small Paintings
Oscarsson-Hood Gallery, New York
1979
Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York
55 Mercer, New York, Louise Fishman: Five Years
1978
Diplomat’s Lobby, The Department of State, Washington DC
1977
Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York
1976
University of Rhode Island, Kingston
John Doyle Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
1974
Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York
1964
Philadelphia Art Alliance, Pennsylvania
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021
Thomas Erben Gallery, New York, Gestures of Affection: In Memory of Louise Fishman (Louise Fishman, Suzan Frecon, Harriet Korman, Carrie Moyer, Ulrike Müller, and Dona Nelson), curated by Melissa E. Feldman
Karma, New York, Get Lifted!, organized by Hilton Als
Anat Ebgi Gallery, Los Angeles, KICK ASS PAINTING: NEW YORK WOMEN, curated by Patricia Hamilton
2020
Nassau County Museum of Art, Long Island, New York, Heroines of Abstract Expressionism and FEM
2019
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London, Artists I Steal From
Jack Barrett Gallery, New York, Just Painting
Corbett vs. Dempsey Gallery, Chicago, Small Paintings
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus;Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, New York;Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Miami, Art After Stonewall 1969-1989
2018
Brennan & Griffin, New York, Carry the Bend
Team Gallery, New York
New York Studio School, New York, Known: Unknown
White Box, New York, White Anxieties
Victoria Miro Gallery, London, Surface Work
Frameless Gallery, London, The Humble Black Line
2017
Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz, Liechtenstein, Kienzle Collection
MAC Belfast, Belfast, Shonky: The Aesthetics of Awkwardness
Cheim & Read, New York, The Horizontal
2016
Skarstedt Gallery, New York, Nice Weather
2015
Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Painting 2.0: Expression in the Information Age
Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, New Jersey, Intimacy in Discourse: Reasonable and Unreasonable Sized Paintings
2014
Whitney Museum of American Art, Biennial Exhibition
Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., New York, A Few Days
2013
Cheim & Read, New York, Reinventing Abstraction, curated by Raphel Rubinstein
The American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, Exhibition of Work by Newly Elected Members and Recipients of Honors and Awards
2012
Brandenburgischer Kunstverein, Potsdam, Germany, Family Theater (I), Family Theater (II)
2011
The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, Seeing Gertrude Stein: Five Stories
The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Dance/Draw
The Tang Museum, Skidmore College, New York
Albert Merola Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, ABSTRACTION
Cheim & Read, New York, The Women in Our Life: A Fifteen Year Anniversary Exhibition
Rhodes Island School of Design, Providence, To the Venetians
2010
Lehman Maupin Gallery, New York, Painting & Sculpture: To Benefit the Foundation for Contemporary Arts
Chelsea Art Museum, New York, Abstraction Revisited
The Jewish Museum, New York, Shifting the Gaze: Painting and Feminism
Cheim & Read, New York, Le Tableau: French Abstraction and its Affinities, curated by Joe Fyfe
2009
Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., New York, Before Again: Joan Mitchell, Louise Fishman, Harriet Korman, Melissa Meyer, Jill Moser, Denyse Thomasos
McClain Gallery, Houston, Les Femmes
Cheim & Read, New York, Abstractions by Gallery Artists
Alexander Gray Associates, New York, Propose: Works on Paper from the 1970s
2008
Hudson D. Walker Gallery Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, Massachusetts, MassArt at the Fine Arts Work Center: Faculty and Visiting Artists
Maccarone Gallery, New York, Pretty Ugly
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Significant Form, The Persistence of Abstraction
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, Environments and Empires
2007
Maruani & Noirhomme Gallery, Knokke, Belgium, American Abstract
Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, The Fluid Fields: Abstraction and Reference
The Geffen Contemporary, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; National Women’s Museum, Washington DC
P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada, WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution
2006
Independent Curators International, New York; Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, North Carolina; American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC; National Academy Museum, New York; Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico; Neue Galerie Graz, Austria; ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany, High Times, Hard Times: New York Painting 1965–75
Cheim & Read, New York, The New Landscape/The New Still life: Soutine and Modern Art
Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, The Name of This Show is Not Gay Art Now
2005
Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, Looking at Words: The Formal Presence of Text in Modern and Contemporary Works on Paper
Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, Oregon, Paint
University Art Gallery, Indiana State University, Contemporary Women Artists: New York
2004
Nielsen Gallery, Boston, Summer Invitational
Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, Twelve From Cheim & Read
Galerie S 65, Cologne, Drawing Exhibition
2003
Snug Harbor Cultural Center, New York, The Invisible Thread : Buddhist Spirit in Contemporary Art
GFine Art, Washington DC, Women’s Lines
James Graham & Sons, New York, Grisaille
2002
Von Lintel Gallery, New York
Skoto Gallery, New York, Nocturne/Nocturnal
Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York, Personal and Political: The Woman’s Art Movement, 1969-1975
48 Wall Street, New York, Art Downtown: New York Painting and Sculpture
National Academy of Design, New York, 177th Annual Exhibition
The Painting Center, New York, Painting: A Passionate Response, Sixteen American Artists
Chambers Fine Art, New York, Nature Found and Made
2001
Lindsey Brown, New York, Four Painters
The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, New York; Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; Nina Freundenheim, Inc., Buffalo, New York;Ben Shahn Gallery, Williams Patterson University, Wayne, New Jersey, Watercolor: In The Abstract, curated by Pamela Auchincloss
Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, California, Seven Female Visionaries Before Feminism
The Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center, New York
Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Imaging Judaism / Mining History
American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York
2000
National Academy of Design, New York, 175th Annual Exhibition
New York Studio School, Painting Abstraction
Baltimore Museum of Contemporary Art, Baltimore, Snapshot
The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York, The Perpetual Well: Contemporary Art from the Collection of The Jewish Museum
1999
Hunter College Art Galleries, New York, Gestural Abstraction
Creiger-Dane Gallery, Boston, Severed Ear: The Poetry of Abstraction
Danese, New York, Walking
Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Abstraction: Realism, curated by Jonathan Van Dyke
Parsons School of Design, New York, Drawing in the Present Tense
1998
Cheim & Read, New York, Small Paintings
California College of Arts and Crafts Institute, Oakland, Undercurrents & Overtones: Contemporary Abstract Painting
Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, Paintings & Drawings
1997
The Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, Vermont;The Equitable Gallery, New York; Wichita Art Museum, Kansas;
Ft. Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana, Retreat and Renewall: The Painters and Sculptors of the MacDowell Colony
George Billis Gallery, New York, Convergence
Eighth Floor Gallery, New York, Voices: The Power of Abstraction
Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, New York, Abstract Painting, curated by Jeffrey Wasserman
Neuberger Museum, SUNY Purchase, New York, Basically Black & White
Robert Miller Gallery, New York, Affinities with the East
Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, New York, After the Fall: Aspects of Abstract Painting since 1970
1996
Robert Miller Gallery, New York
Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, Transforming the Social Order
Greene Naftali Inc., New York, Women’s Work
1995
Milwaukee Art Museum, 25 Americans: Painting the 90s
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Artist’s Choice: Elizabeth Murray
The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 1995 Carnegie International
Harvard University, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Cambridge, New Faculty
1994
Sweet Briar College, Virginia, Relatively Speaking: Mothers and Daughters in Art
Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, Consecrations: The Spiritual in Art in the Time of AIDS
Elga Wimmer, New York, Couples
Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, Small and Wet: Abstract painting and sculpture
American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York
Robert Miller Gallery, New York, Abstract Works on Paper
1993
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Drawing the Line Against AIDS
Robert Miller Gallery, New York, Abstract-Figurative
Cooperstown Art Association and Smithy-Pioneer Gallery, Cooperstown, New York, Art Discovery ’93
The Painting Center, New York, The Inaugural Show
Blondies Contemporary Art, New York, Singularities
Marisa del Re Gallery, New York, The Linear Image II
Castelli Gallery, New York, 30th Anniversary Exhibition of Drawings
1992
Robert Miller Gallery, New York, Paintings by Martha Diamond, Mary Heilmann, Harriet Korman, Louise Fishman and Bernard Piffaretti
The Jewish Museum, New York, The Jewish Museum’s Masked Ball in Celebration of Purim
1991
Simon Watson Gallery, New York, Something Pithier and More Psychological
Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., New York, Part One: Painters
Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles;Centro Cultural Arte Contemporaneo, Polonco, Mexico; Musèe d’art Moderne et d’art Contemporain, Nice, France, Twentieth-Century Collage
Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, Act-Up Benefit
1990
Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., New York
Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., New York
LedisFlam Gallery, New York, From Earth to Archetype
1989
Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., New York
Greenberg Wilson Gallery, New York, Towards Form
Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., New York, Works on Paper
Albany Museum of Art, Albany, Georgia, Fragments of History
Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles, A Decade of American Drawing 1980–
Usdan Gallery, Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont, Belief in Paint: Eleven Contemporary Artists
1988
The Jewish Museum, New York, Golem: Danger, Deliverance and Art
Davis-McClain Gallery, Houston, Selections from the Edward R. Downe, Jr. Collection, curated by Klaus Kertess
Barbara Toil Gallery, Houston, Louise Fishman, David Reed, Joan Mitchell
1987
The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC, 40th Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Biennial Exhibition
The Jewish Museum, New York, Jewish Themes
1986
Nexus Gallery, Philadelphia, Artists for Pride
Hofstra University, New York, Louise Fishman, Hermine Ford and Arthur Cohen
The Jewish Museum, New York, Jewish Themes–Contemporary American Artists II
Heland Thorden Wetterling Galleries, Stockholm
Pratt Manhattan Center Gallery, New York, Spirit Tracks–Big Abstract Drawings
Baskerville & Watson Gallery, New York
1985
Barbara Toll Fine Arts, New York, Drawings 1975–1985
Baskerville & Watson Gallery, New York
Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York, Painting as Landscape, curated by Klaus Kertess
Condeso/Lawler, New York, An Invitational, curated by Tiffany Bell
Pam Adler Gallery, New York, Paintings 1985
Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, Twelve Painters and Six Sculptors
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, Fishman / Sanderson
1984
Summit Art Center, Summit, New Jersey, Relief Prints Since 1980
Proctor Art Center, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, Second Nature: Abstract Drawings and Paintings, curated by John Lee and Tom Wolf
Cable Gallery, New York
Phillip Johnson Center, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania, New Prints Since 1980
1983
The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York, Six Painters
Baskerville & Watson, New York, Drawing In and Out
Hillwood Art Gallery, Long Island University, Greenvale, New York, Painting from the Mind’s Eye
1982
Washburn Gallery, New York
Neuberger Museum, State University of New York at Purchase, New York, Abstraction
Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago, Mixing Art and Politics
New York Chapter of the Women’s Caucus for Art, New York, Abstract Painting: Substance and Meaning–Painting by Woman Artists
Susanne Hilberry Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan
Bennington College, Vermont, Five New York Artists
Fort Wayne Museum, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Painterly Abstraction
1981
Rush Rhees Fine Arts Gallery, University of Rochester, New York
Oscarsson-Hood Gallery, New York, Painting Invitational
Brooklyn Museum, New York, CAPS Grantees from Brooklyn
Proctor Art Center, Bard College and Munson Williams Proctor Museum, Utica, New York, CAPS Award Winners in Painting 1980–1981
1980
Mary Boone Gallery, New York, Work on Paper
Oscarsson-Hood Gallery, New York, Inaugural Exhibit
1979
Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York, Major New Works
1977
Lowe Gallery, Syracuse University, Ithaca, New York, Critic’s Choice
Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York, Fifth Anniversary Show
Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York, Major New Works
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, Paintings That Reveal the Wall, curated by Tom Wolf
80 Washington Square East Galleries, New York University, New York, Preparatory Notes–Thinking Drawings, Part II
1976
Grand Palais, Paris International Art Fair
Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, Artist ’76, A Celebration
University of Rhode Island, Kingston
1975
John Doyle Gallery, Chicago
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, New York Faculty Exhibition
1973
Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York, A Woman’s Group
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Biennial Exhibition
1972
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York A.I.R. Gallery, New York, Open A.I.R.
1963
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, National Watercolor and Drawing Exhibition
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
The American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York
The Art Institute of Chicago
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Denver Art Museum
High Museum of Art, Atlanta
The Jewish Museum, New York City
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C.
Tucson Museum of Art, Arizona
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City
Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia
AWARDS
2002
Adolph & Clara Obrig Prize for Painting, National Academy of Design, 177th Annual Exhibition, 5/1st, 2002
1994
National Endowment for the Arts, Painting
1986
New York Foundation for the Arts, Fellowship in Painting
Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation, General Support Grant
1983–84
National Endowment for the Arts, Painting
1981
CAPS Fellowship in Painting
1980
Fellow, MacDowell Colony, New Hampshire
1979
Guggenheim Fellowship in Painting
1975
Change, Inc., New York
National Endowment for the Arts, Painting
1963
Tyler School of Fine Arts, Philadelphia. First Painting Prize, Student Exhibit
Tyler School of Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Bertha Lowenburg Prize for the Senior Woman to Excel in Art
PUBLICATIONS
2020
Louise Fishman
Texts by Debra Singer, Josephine Halvorson, Suzan Frecon, Aruna D’Souza, Andrew Suggs, Bertha Harris, John Yau, and Louise Fishman
Karma, New York, 2020
544 pages, hardcover
7 1⁄2 × 9 1⁄4 inches
Louise Fishman (Special Edition)
Texts by Debra Singer, Josephine Halvorson, Suzan Frecon, Aruna D’Souza, Andrew Suggs, Bertha Harris, John Yau, and Louise Fishman
Karma, New York, 2020
544 pages, hardcover
7 1⁄2 × 9 1⁄4 inches
Edition of 50
2019
My City
Text by Andrew Suggs
Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, 2019
60 pages
10 1⁄2 × 8 3⁄4 inches
2018
Louise Fishman
Text by Aruna D’Souza
Cheim & Read, 2018
134 pages, hardcover
10 1⁄2 × 10 1⁄2 inches
2016
Louise Fishman
Text by Carrie Moyer, Helaine Posner, Nancy Princenthal
Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase/Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia/DelMonico Books|Prestel, New York, 2016
224 pages, hardcover
11 1⁄4 × 9 1⁄4 inches
2015
Louise Fishman
Text by Alex Greenberger
Cheim & Read, New York, 2015
120 pages, hardcover
10 3⁄4 × 10 3⁄4 inches
2006
Louise Fishman
Text by David Deitcher
Cheim & Read, New York, 2006
70 pages
11 3⁄4 × 9 inches
2000
Louise Fishman
Text by John Yau
Cheim & Read, New York, 2000
54 pages, hardcover
11 3⁄4 × 9 1⁄4 inches
1989
Paintings 1987-1989
Text by Jill Weinberg, Bernard Lennon
Lennon, Weinberg, INC., New York, 1989
40 pages
12 × 9 inches
