I deeply appreciated the opportunity to read and review this book. I'll be using it's contents in my teaching and will make sure to keep an eye out for more works from this author/publisher.

Gabriel somehow manages to make her somewhat academic, extraordinarily well-researched book incredibly readable and fascinating on almost every page.

Ninth Street Women sucked me in from the first page. And as I read, I began to feel like I was on a first-name basis with each of the artists Mary Gabriel writes about. In fact, my husband kept asking -- "Wait, Elaine did what? Lee who? Helen?" -- because I wanted to recount so many things to him. But Mary Gabriel not only gives us a look at these incredible artists, but she puts them into the context of their time. Which only serves to illuminate today. A powerful book that should not be skipped.

I think I've been dreaming of this book since college.

As a former Art History Major, I feel like I have to defend Abstract Expressionism, one of my favorite periods. While the paintings of Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Mitchell and Frankenthaler, as well as their male compatriots, may seem simple, they are deceptively complex. No, you could not have painted this Jackson Pollock, and even if you could, you didn't, he did.

While the book focuses on these amazing female artists, it is a great depiction of the emergence of America as the leader in contemporary art. The New Deal saw an increase in government sponsored art projects, mostly murals and then later, war propaganda. These projects allowed artists to make a living from their art. In addition, many famous artists and art dealers were forced to flee from Europe at the beginning of the Nazi Occupation. All of these influences converged to create a flourishing art world in NYC.

While this world was more egalitarian than the old European world, women were often shunted to the side. This book goes into why the talented artists Lee Krasner and Elaine de Kooning largely gave up their careers to help their more famous husbands. It was interesting to learn that Krasner's career burned very bright before meeting Pollock, and she was considered the more well known artist at the beginning of the relationship.

While this is a very long book, Mary Gabriel keeps it interesting, peppering the narrative with quotes from the subject's contemporaries. This is a subject that really deserves the in-depth look that Gabriel achieves.

Ninth Street Women is an expertly researched journey into the lives of of true artists during an important turn in American art. While many readers will be familiar with names like Willem de Kooning or Jackson Pollock, this biography focuses on the women of abstract expressionism, making room for five stories that are just as meaningful as any that a male artist at that time could tell. Mary Gabriel begins her biography with the lives of two of the more famous women in the abstract art community: Lee Krasner and Elaine de Kooning. Pigeonholed as “wives who also paint”, these women lived lives in the limelight, but it was not their own art that often caused them to be there. Their stories are very different and yet much of the same: the struggle of the artist, the struggle of being a free-thinking women, and the struggle to be anything other than “wife”. Gabriel returns to their stories throughout the book, but moves towards the future with artists like Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler. The balance between typical and traditional women and the avant-garde artist is a returning theme for Gabriel, as she allows the reader to grapple with the struggles these women endured in the name of their work.

The work of these women -- all five -- remains excellent, held in the most prestigious collections in the U.S., where they are shown alongside the men of their generation, as examples of the best and brightest. But that end-goal was hard-won, and rare. Gabriel describes the avant-garde nature of abstract art in general, and dives deeply and thoughtfully into the realm of art criticism and commentary. Gabriel holds her own. Lovers of art and art history will find Gabriel’s description of these works to be expertly done, easy to understand for those new to art appreciation and heavy enough to engage those well-versed in aesthetics. Gabriel deals with issues of aesthetics and gallery politics; all the while engaging all five women in more personal endeavors.
For instance, in the chapter “Bridal Lace and Widow’s Weeds”, Gabriel spends a lot of time with heavy topics -- balancing a career in the face of a new marriage; living without someone who haunted your life, but you cannot live without. Gabriel manages to flesh out these heavy topics with moments of lightness and air: I was particularly touched by the story Gabriel describes of Helen Frankenthaler and Bob Motherwell’s honeymoon, where they spent time in a cave in Altamira, taking in ancient art:
“Though they shared no language with those who had created that work, in the flickering flame those anonymous artists felt like brothers and sisters, speaking to them from the place where it all began.”
Gabriel merges historical context with artistic knowledge, making for an easy read, albeit a long one. It is a length that the reader doesn’t notice much, because they are having so much fun. Why worry about the length of a chapter when you’re following along the adventures of Grace Hartigan and Frank O’Hara? Gabriel creates a vision of these women that is stunning, and not always flattering. These are imperfect women and dedicated artists, all at once. Each chapter is a portrait of an artist and a women, existing all at once and sometimes in contradiction. Each woman's story is their own, and leaves a distinct understanding of the artist in its’ wake. In considering Elaine de Kooning:
“Elaine believed in freedom. Freedom of gesture, risk in everything she touched. She showed me that abandon long practiced becomes skill.”
For lovers of abstract art, both in the beginning of their art appreciation or experts of the movement. The journeys of Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell, and Grace Hartigan provide a fresh lens with which to experience abstract expressionism in the fifties and sixties.
Review copy provided by Little, Brown and Company in exchange for an honest review.

An important period of history told in a cohesive and easily accessible manner. Especially important given the current climate. A neglected period in both women history and art history. Not just for artists and art aficionados but anyone interested in women history.