Gertrude Abercrombie

It’s been 66 years since Gertrude Abercrombie (1909–1977) last exhibited in NYC, so it’s been awhile since New Yorkers have been able to acquaint themselves with the work of this midcentury Surrealist painter, who was born in Texas, and spent most of her life living in Chicago’s Hyde Park. Modest in scale, Abercrombie’s compositions—typically done in oils on masonite—feature cryptic landscapes and interiors that serve as backdrops for the artist’s personal iconography of doors, cats, owls and ladders, which she often combines with her own self making mysterious appearances fraught with psychological drama.