Mary Heilmann, the influential American artist whose colorful, unconventional work challenged the conventions of abstract painting, died on August 14 after suffering complications from a fall. She was 86.
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Heilmann died on Long Island, New York. Her studio manager, Liane Thatcher, confirmed per passing, per The New York Times. The announcement did not provide further details about the fall.
Born in San Francisco on Jan. 3, 1940, Heilmann initially pursued ceramics before moving into sculpture and, eventually, painting. She studied at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of California, Berkeley, where she worked with influential ceramic artist Peter Voulkos.
Mary Heilmann Used Imperfection As An Art Form
Heilmann moved to New York in 1968 and became part of the city’s art community. Her early work often resisted the strict geometry and formal precision associated with Minimalism. Instead, she embraced bright colors, irregular forms, humor and deliberately imperfect lines.
Her paintings frequently incorporated references to popular culture, the beach and the counterculture of the 1960s. She also blurred the boundary between painting, sculpture and furniture. Her brightly painted wooden chairs became an important part of her practice, and she encouraged visitors to use them in some exhibitions.
Heilmann faced a long wait for major institutional recognition. She received her first New York museum retrospective at the New Museum in 2008-09, when she was in her late 60s. The exhibition helped bring wider attention to a career that had already spanned decades.
Her reputation continued to grow internationally. Museums and galleries presented her work in exhibitions in the United States and Europe, including a 2016 retrospective at London’s Whitechapel Gallery. The Whitney Museum of American Art also devoted a solo exhibition to her work, and her paintings entered major museum collections.
Critics and younger artists increasingly recognized Heilmann as an important figure in postwar American art.
Heilmann spent her later years in Bridgehampton on Long Island. She continued to work and exhibit into her 80s.
She is survived by her nieces Ann Jaime and Chris Heilmann and her nephew John Heilmann Jr.