Jump In! | DaCosta Ahern + Frankenthaler, Galerie d’Orsay

JUMP IN!

ELIZABETH DACOSTA AHERN + HELEN FRANKENTHALER

C E L E B R AT I N G T H E T H R E A D B E T W E E N S T U D E N T + M E N TO R

NOVEMBER 2021 GALERIE D’ORSAY, BOSTON

To understand Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern’s painting is to understand memory: something half-forgotten and hazy, but that fills you with warmth and the sense of being made whole.

Think: the landscape of your childhood home, the joy of a spring day, an old favorite song whose lyrics escape you, but whose tune you can still hum. Her paintings are the landscape, are the joy, are the song—and her skill was in sharing those fragments of her remembered moments. ­­­­–Ben Flythe

(Left to Right) Helen Frankenthaler, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, and Bobbie Thomas (Director, Santa Fe Institute of Fine Arts) at an exhibition of Elizabeth’s work, Santa Fe, NM, c. 1990-91

I N T RO D U C T I O N E L I Z A B E T H DAC O S TA A H E R N , 19 3 8 – 2 0 2 0 In March of 2020, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern shared news of a special series of paintings she had created in 1990-91 in Santa Fe while studying under her instructor, the master abstract expressionist Helen Frankenthaler. Frankenthaler ever loomed large in Elizabeth’s painting. The outstanding female artist of the 1950s and 1960s, Frankenthaler pioneered a new technique of “staining” her canvases and was recognized early and often for her achievements with major retrospectives at the Whitney, Guggenheim, MoMA, and others by the time she was sixty years old. Elizabeth shared a special connection with Frankenthaler and traveled extensively to study with her.

One moment that stands out as particularly influential for Elizabeth serves as the title of our exhibition. Elizabeth encountered a moment of hesitation during one of her many sessions with Frankenthaler, but the mentor seemed to recognize a capacity in the artist even before she herself did. Encouraging the student to trust herself, Frankenthaler surprised Elizabeth and wrote the words “JUMP IN!” directly onto a small canvas Elizabeth was painting! That encouragement brought forth a wave of inspiration.

Although we had seen the treasured “JUMP IN!” canvas on visits to Elizabeth’s studio— she hung it prominently and spoke of it often—we only learned of the group of paintings made with Frankenthaler a month before her passing; at age 81, Elizabeth was finally ready to share this collection. All of us at Galerie d’Orsay were thrilled and honored to help bring to light these never-before-seen paintings. Unfortunately, things shifted quickly as just a few weeks later Elizabeth was stricken with COVID-19 and passed away shortly thereafter in April 2020.

Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern sketching, Portugal

For those of us who knew her well, Elizabeth was a great light. She was a gifted painter, teacher, wife, mother, grandmother, and friend. She would ask fondly of our families and private lives as well as what we were reading and what was sitting on our nightstands waiting to be consumed next.

Elizabeth earned her degrees from Boston University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as well as invitational masterclasses with Helen Frankenthaler at the Santa Fe Institute of Fine Arts. She was a sought-after painting instructor at Lesley University and the DeCordova Museum School, and an active collaborator with the prestigious Art in Embassies program.

Elizabeth, you are sorely missed and it is an honor to celebrate you with “JUMP IN!” –Kristine Feeks Hammond + Martha S. Folsom Co-Directors, Galerie d’Orsay

EAND L IGALERIE Z A BD‘ORSAY ETH

Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, “Women in Art” exhibition at Galerie d’Orsay, Boston, MA, 2017 (Photo by Ben Flythe)

Galerie d’Orsay Fine Art Consultant Ben Flythe photographing Tom and Caitlin Ahern in Elizabeth’s studio, 2020 (Photo by Martha S. Folsom)

Galerie d’Orsay would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern’s family—husband, Tom; daughter, Caitlin; and son, Greg—for their support in mounting this beautiful and significant exhibition celebrating the life and career of Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern.

Santa Fe Series #2, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 44.5” x 53”, c. 1990-91

S A N TA F E S E R I E S

Santa Fe Series #4, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 57” x 42.5”, c. 1990-91

Santa Fe Series #5, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 44.5” x 44.5”, c. 1990-91

Santa Fe Series #8, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 45” x 69.5”, c. 1990-91

Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern and Helen Frankenthaler at an exhibition of Elizabeth’s paintings in Santa Fe, NM, c. 1990-91

Untitled (Santa Fe Series - Rust red triangle), Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 58” x 45.5”, c. 1990-91

Rio Chama II, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 25” x 79”, 2010

Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern (front row, right), Helen Frankenthaler (back row, second from right), and students at Georgia O’Keeffe’s home, Abiquiu, NM, c. 1990-91

I N S P I R E D BY S A N TA F E

Georgie O’Keeffe’s Red Hills, Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, NM, 2021 Photo by Ben Flythe

New Mexico—made famous by Geogia O’Keefe, Alfred Steiglitz, Ansel Adams and others—has long been a respite for creatives seeking inspiration. Both Frankenthaler and Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern were lured by its stark colors and organic lines. 199091 brought a swift inspiration to Elizabeth after an intense period of study with Frankenthaler in the desert near Santa Fe. It was not until 2020 at age 81 that DaCosta Ahern began talks of exhibiting these exclusive works that had been reserved in the artist’s personal collection.

Bandelier, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 43” x 56”

“‘Trust the intuitive.’ That’s what I learned from Helen Frankenthaler.”

–Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, March 2008

Causeway, Helen Frankenthaler, Original etching and aquatint printed in colors on wove paper, 28.25” x 37.75”, 2001

Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011), whose career spanned six decades, is one of the great American artists of the last century. Credited with the development of her signature “staining” technique, she is recognized for her role in in the transition from Abstract Expressionism to Color Field painting. She experimented tirelessly throughout her long career and came to be known not only for her work on canvas, but also for her innovative printmaking techniques. Her artworks can be found in Tate Modern (London), the Centre Pompidou (Paris), MoMA (New York), and the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston) among many others.

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FRANKENTHALER

HELEN FRANKENTHALER

Aerie, Helen Frankenthaler, Original screenprint in 93 colors on wove paper, 29” x 38”, 2009

Reflections X, Helen Frankenthaler, Original lithograph printed in five colors on Lana White mould-made wove paper, 19” x 16”, 1995

BOTTOM: A Page from a Book I, Helen Frankenthaler, Original etching, aquatint, mezzotint, and stencil printed in colors on handmade TGL wove paper, 10.25” x 24.75”, 1997

HELEN FRANKENTHALER + RO B E R T M OT H E RW E L L

After a brief courtship in 1958, Frankenthaler married fellow painter Robert Motherwell (1915–1991).

The two were together for thirteen years, which coincided with one of the most productive periods of Frankenthaler’s life. During the ‘60s, Motherwell had reached his most mature period and enjoyed much success as well.

LEFT: Black Cathedral, Robert Motherwell, Original lithograph printed in seven colors, 54.375” x 34”, 1991 RIGHT: Untitled, Robert Motherwell, Monotype in purple and black acrylic on paper, 30.25” x 22.5”, 1975

Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern in her studio, Saxonville Mills, Framingham, MA, 2018 (Photo by Martha S. Folsom)

LEFT (top to bottom): Joyful Noise II, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 36” x 36”, 2009 My Clementine, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 36” x 36”, 2009 RIGHT: Lime Fizz, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 40” x 36”, 2009

Mirage, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 36.5” x 56”, 2009

Untitled (Blue sea), Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 30.5” x 26.5”

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ELIZABETH DAC O S TA A H E R N

Canyon, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 37” x 15”

Claret Red + Green + Peach, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 22” x 21”

Minha Viagem IX, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 30” x 30”

LEFT: Vermillion Sea, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 30” x 30” RIGHT (top to bottom): Sunset with Purple, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 24” x 30” After the Rain, Angola Series, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 45” x 42”

Midnight Blue, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 56.25” x 71”, 1977

LEFT (top to bottom): Wind Song II, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 36” x 36”, 2020; Wind Song I, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 36” x 36”, 2020 RIGHT: Stone Series, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 56.25” x 20.5”

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LEFT: Homage to Olitski, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 41.5” x 14.25” RIGHT: Untitled (Santa Fe Series - Peach, grey, maroon), Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 37.5” x 25.5”

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IN THE STUDIO

­Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern in her studio, Saxonville Mills, Framingham, MA, 2018 (This photo and facing page by Martha S. Folsom)

“I paint to embrace the essence of a moment, a memory, a recollection of ephemeral aspects of nature, culture, music and poetry. Painting for me is as necessary as breathing; as much an instinct as a delight.

Contemplation, imagination and time may alter the memory of the experience. The process of painting in layers gives me the opportunity to deepen, to abstract or to embellish the image as it plays in my mind.

The paintings become the distillation of the light and color of the remembered experience.” ­­–Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern

­Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern and former Galerie d’Orsay Fine Art Consultant, Camille Super, 2018

A V I S UA L P O E T

“Elizabeth would start class by reading us one poem. She would then give us each a copy of the poem & we were given an hour to express our feelings about what meaning or emotion the poem brought to us. We usually made small paintings that were assembled and talked about. Sometimes a small canvas became an important painting and sometimes it was more of a warming up exercise.” ­­ –Laura Lester

COINS OF TIME

Coins of Time #4615, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Oil and Wax on Paper, 6” x 16” Coins of Time - Untitled (Blue, Red), Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Oil and Wax on Paper, 6” x 16”

FORGET ABOUT ME*

BY PABLO NERUDA

Among the things the sea throws up, let us hunt for the most petrified, violet claws of crabs, little skulls of dead fish, smooth syllables of wood, small countries of mother-of-pearl; let us look for what the sea undid insistently, carelessly, what it broke up and abandoned, and left behind for us.

Petals crimped up, cotton from the tidewash, useless sea-jewels, and sweet bones of birds still in the poise of flight.

The sea washed up its tidewrack, the air played with the sea-things; when there was sun, it embraced them, and time lives close to the sea, counting and touching what exists.

I know all the algae, the white eyes of the sand, the tiny merchandise of the tides in autumn, and I walk with the plump pelican, building its soaking nests, sponges that worship the wind, shelves of undersea shadow, but nothing more moving than the vestiges of shipwrecks — the smooth abandoned beams gnawed by the waves and disdained by death.

Let us look for secret things somewhere in the world, on the blue shore of silence or where the storm has passed, rampaging like a train.

There the faint signs are left, COINS OF TIME and water, debris, celestial ash and the irreplaceable rapture of sharing in the labour of solitude and the sand.

*Excerpt from On the Blue Shore of Silence by Pablo Neruda that inspired Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern’s Coins of Time Series.

Coins of Time #712, Coins of Time #714, Coins of Time #718, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Oil and Wax on Paper, 6” x 16”

Eventide, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 36” x 48”

(Left to Right & Top to Botton) Coins of Time #3938, Coins of Time #4433, Coins of Time #209, Coins of Time #4850, Coins of Time #4595, Coins of Time #4431, Coins of Time #5712, Coins of Time #721, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Oil and Wax on Paper, 6” x 16” (each)

AHERN + HER STUDENTS

Virgo, Kathy DeFlice-Secor, Acrylic, Graphite, and Prismacolor on Paper, 29.5” x 37.75”, 2018

CONTINUING THE THREAD: A renowned artist herself, Elizabeth was also a gifted instructor who taught students both locally and abroad. It is our pleasure to celebrate that thread between mentor and student by exhibiting a curated selection of work by Helen Frankenthaler and paintings from the estate of Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, both shown alongside artwork by Elizabeth’s own pupils.

LEFT (top to bottom): It Is Well, Nancy Thompson, Acrylic on Canvas, 30” x 40”, 2017 Splash, Annie LeMonde, Oil and Cold Wax on Arches Oil Paper, 4.5” x 4.5”, 2015 RIGHT: Pieces of Time, Laura Lester, Acrylic on Board, 40” x 30”, 2020

LEFT: In the Wind, Gloria Ross, Acrylic, Oil Stick, and Collage on Canvas, 42” x 42”, 2019 RIGHT: Go for Broke, Rena Shear, Acrylic on Canvas, 24” x 24”, 2015; Patience, Bredt Handy, Acrylic on Canvas, 24” x 24”, 2020; Mind Games, Yildiz Grodowski, Acrylic & Mixed Media on Canvas, 20” x 20”, 2018

U. S . E M BA S S Y

Ambassador Robert A. Sherman and Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern in the American Embassy, Lisbon, Portugal, October 2014

Elizabeth was an active collaborator with Art in Embassies, a prestigious program first created by the Museum of Modern Art (NY) and John F. Kennedy to encourage diplomatic relations between nations. Elizabeth traveled to Lisbon, Angola, Poland, and many other locales for exhibitions and teaching residences.

“Another child of Massachusetts, diplomat and politician John Adams observed, ‘I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy… in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.”

–Ambassador Robert A. Sherman and Kim Sawyer Lisbon, October 2014

“THIS IS HOW I PLAY!”

Lightning, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 44” x 36”, 2012

“I paint to embrace the essence of a moment, a memory, a lembrança,* a recollection of an experience in nature, culture, music and poetry.

My lembranças of Portugal are the haunting sounds of the guitarra portuguesa, the fado, reading (Fernando) Pessoa, the light strafing across terraced vineyards, the aged color and texture of village walls, and the ever changing colors of the sea and sky.

These paintings are my continued attempt to express the distilled essence of memory over time and the experiences of travel in Portugal, the Azores, Madeira, and Angola.

I celebrate the sights, sounds and textures of my Portuguese heritage with this work.” ­­–Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern * Lembrança in Portuguese means a remembrance or a memory.

Ó Mar Salgado, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 67.25” x 56” (­Opposite Page) Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern in her studio (Photo by Martha S. Folsom)

Martha S. Folsom (top) and Caitlin Ahern (bottom) documenting Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern’s estate, 2020 (Photo by Ben Flythe)

“It’s taken nearly two years to bring this show to fruition. Ben & I helped inventory Elizabeth’s estate of paintings through Ben’s insanely great photography, often from his perch atop the highest teetering ladder. With Caitlin & Tom, we measured, photographed, edited, digitized, documented, titled & noted, unrolled, re-rolled, unwrapped & rewrapped, laughed, cried, ate, drank and recounted stories together—all while honoring each of Elizabeth’s cherished works we discovered. A labor of love and Elizabeth’s been with us the whole way.

–Martha S. Folsom Co-Director, Galerie d’Orsay

Ben Flythe (left) and Caitlin Ahern (right) documenting Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern’s estate, 2020 (Photo by Martha S. Folsom)

Sol e Mar, Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern, Acrylic on Canvas, 42” x 55.5”, 2009

Elizabeth DaCosta Ahern’s studio, Saxonville Mills, Framingham, MA, 2020 (Photo by Martha S. Folsom)

CONTRIBUTORS: MADELINE DE MICHELE | BEN FLYTHE MARTHA S. FOLSOM | KRISTINE FEEKS HAMMOND | DEVON ENGLE

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