Betty Bierne Pierson Parsons (NY, CA, 1900 - 1982)

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Fine Art, Mid Century Modern and Antiques

By Helmuth Stone Gallery

Nov 2, 2025

Set Reminder 2025-11-02 13:00:00 2025-11-02 13:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Fine Art, Mid Century Modern and Antiques https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/helmuth-stone-gallery/fine-art-mid-century-modern-and-antiques-21018
Multiple lifetime collections of 18th/19th C. American/European Fine Art. Mid Century Modern Furniture, along with contemporary and modern fine art. Collection of Highwayman artworks. Helmuth Stone Gallery helmuthstone@gmail.com

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• Lot Description
  Betty Bierne Pierson Parsons (New York, California, 1900 - 1982)
  Abstract acrylic on paper painting. Signed and dated lower right "Betty Parsons / 1980".
  
  Provenance: Private Collection, Connecticut.
  
  Sight Size: 19 x 35.75 in.
  
  Better known as an art dealer than an artist, Betty Parsons had a self-named gallery that significantly promoted the careers of numerous abstract artists of the 1940s. In fact, by some critics, she was called the "midwife" of the New York School. Enrolling at the Acad?mie de La Grand Chaumi?re, she studied with Bourdelle, Alexander Archipenko, and the sculptor and painter Ossip Zadkine. One of her classmates was the Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti and her circle of friends included Man Ray and the American sculptor Alexander Calder. At her gallery on 57th Street Betty Parsons held groundbreaking shows for Jackson Pollock, Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko, Ad Reinhardt, and Barnett Newman, which were instrumental in gaining Abstract Expressionism its first important foothold in the postwar art scene and for establishing these artists as the movement's leaders. When some members of the art world had doubts about this group, Parson's considered them "great innovators" She gave many contemporary artists their first solo shows in New York, including Robert Rauschenberg, Agnes Martin, Richard Tuttle, and Ellsworth Kelly. Parsons died in New York City in 1982. Her work may be found in numerous public collections, including the Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York; The High Museum, Altanta, Georgia; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

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