Janet Sobel, a Ukrainian artist who made a significant impact on the Abstract Expressionist movement in mid-century New York, is finally receiving the recognition she deserves at the Menil Collection in Houston. The exhibition, titled 'Janet Sobel: All-Over,' showcases Sobel's innovative techniques that predated the more well-known Abstract Expressionists like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.
Despite her brief but meteoric rise to prominence in the art world, Sobel's contributions were largely overlooked due to her gender and her departure from New York at the height of her success. The exhibition at the Menil Collection aims to correct this historical oversight by featuring around thirty of Sobel's paintings and drawings, including her groundbreaking 'Milky Way' from 1945.
Janet Sobel, who only began painting in the early 1940s, quickly caught the attention of art dealers and collectors in New York. Her work was championed by Peggy Guggenheim, who described Sobel as the best woman painter in America at the time. Sobel's technique of 'all-over' painting, where the composition extends from corner to corner on a canvas with no apparent center, was ahead of its time and influenced artists like Pollock.
After moving to Plainfield, New Jersey, Sobel's career took a different trajectory, and she gradually faded from the New York art scene. The Menil Collection's exhibition seeks to shed light on Sobel's significant role in the emergence of Abstract Expressionism and her pioneering work in all-over abstraction.
The exhibition features loans from prestigious institutions like the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, bringing together six of Sobel's famous 'all-over' paintings for the first time in sixty years. 'Janet Sobel: All-Over' offers a rare opportunity to appreciate the work of a remarkable artist who has been overlooked in art history for too long.
Admission to the Menil Collection and its exhibitions is always free, allowing art enthusiasts to explore and rediscover the groundbreaking contributions of artists like Janet Sobel.
