BETTY PARSONS
‘ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISTS: THE WOMEN’, SPEED ART MUSEUM, LOUISVILLE, US: UNTIL 30 AUGUST
16 May – 30 August 2026
Betty Parsons, Untitled, 1956. © The Betty Parsons and William P. Rayner Foundation.
Bringing renewed attention to the women who shaped Abstract Expressionism, Abstract Expressionists: The Women at Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, traces the radical experimentation of artists working in post-war America and into the 1970s.
Among the more than 30 artists presented is Betty Parsons, whose contribution to the movement extended far beyond her influential role as a gallerist. While Parsons is widely recognised for championing artists including Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Clyfford Still, she maintained a lifelong artistic practice, producing paintings, constructions and works on paper that explored colour, rhythm, gesture and spatial experimentation.
Kentucky’s first exhibition devoted to Abstract Expressionism, the presentation brings together major works by artists including Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell, Vivian Springford, Grace Hartigan and Lee Krasner. The exhibition foregrounds the women artists whose bold approaches to scale, colour and process helped define one of the most significant movements in 20th-century American art through painting.
Organised by the American Federation of Arts from the Christian Levett Collection and FAMM, France, Abstract Expressionists: The Women is curated by Dr. Ellen G. Landau.