August 2020
Everyday Enchantments: A Collection of Artist Nell Blaine
We are pleased to offer an important archive of the New York artist Nell Blaine and her circle. As Jed Perl notes in his introduction: “The material gathered here sheds new light on Blaine’s art and life, and in doing so deepens our understanding of the forces that shaped art in mid-twentieth-century America. The beautifully organized scrapbooks, notebooks, and sketchbooks that Blaine kept document everything from the writings and drawings she produced as a child in Virginia through the career she pursued as a graphic designer in her early years in New York and her ever growing success as a painter in the 1940s, ‘50s, and ‘60s. We see Blaine as a girl on the art staff of her high school paper. And we see her mature draftsmanship in a small notebook, probably from around 1950, with details of figures and interiors rendered in dramatic calligraphic strokes. There are also some unusual books and periodicals. These are the fascinating souvenirs of an extraordinary woman and an extraordinary life.”
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