Five Female Abstract Expressionists and Their World
W 2021

Gabriel focuses on five of the female abstract expressionist painters who helped introduce a revolutionary international school of painting located in New York City.  Immersing them in their milieu, limning a vivid cultural history, Gabriel reminds us that male superiority infected every aspect of the post-World War II United States.  Determined to be painters in their own right, Krasner, De Kooning, Hartigan, Mitchell, and Frankenthaler refused to play second fiddle to their husbands and lovers, and they fought tenaciously for their identities as artists.  In doing so, they altered art and society.  Gabriel's in-depth look at these women and their struggles provides a wonderful new look at the United States, 1928-59.

1.  Introduction, Prologue, and "Lee" (chapters 1-3)

2.  "Elaine" (chapters 4-5) and "Art in War" (chapters 6-8)

3.  "Art in War" (chapters 9-12)

4.  "The Turning Point" (chapters 13-18)

5.  "The Turning Point" (chapter 19) and "Grace" (chapters 20-23)

6.  "Grace" (chapters 24-25) and "Helen" (chapters 26-27)

7.  "Helen" (chapter 28) and "Joan" (chapters 29-31)

8.  "Oh, to Leave a Trace" (chapters (32-35)

9.  "Discoveries of Heart and Hand" (chapters 36-39)

10.  "Discoveries of Heart and Hand" (chapters 40-42)

11.  "Five Women"{ (chapters 43-45)

12.  "The Rise and the Unraveling" (chapters 46-48)

13.  "The Rise and Unraveling" (chapters 49-51)

14.  "The Rise and Unraveling" (chapters 52-53) and Epilogue

Mary Gabriel, Ninth Street Women --  Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement that Changed Modern Art