“Grand Street Brides” - Grace Hartigan

Grace Hartigan - Grand Street Brides - 1954 - Oil on canvas - 72 9/16 × 102 3/8 in. (184.3 × 260 cm) - Whitney Museum of American Art , New York (Click Photo for Larger Image)American New York School painter Grace Hartigan (1922-2008) began her career as an Abstract Expressionist. “Grand Street Brides” is one of Hartigan's best-known pieces—and illustrates her  decision to abandon total abstraction in favor of adding recognizable elements into her compositions. Her experiments in this vein, as well as her investigation of the old masters, both set her apart from, and irritated, other Abstract Expressionists.

Depicted here are mannequins from a bridal shop window in Hartigan’s Lower East Side neighborhood. “At this time in Europe, aristocratic women were seen as commodities to exchange among powerful families in order to forge financial or political unions between them.” Hartigan’s brides emphasize that reality. She also appreciated how shop windows frame the scene and "provide a shallow space, and define the back plane." Complexity is achieved through the layering of shapes and rendered objects.