Mala Breuer (December 21, 1927 in Oakland, California – January 1, 2017 in Santa Fe, New Mexico) was an American

Abstract Expressionist Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

. Her work is in the collections of the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...

Albright Knox Art Gallery The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum located adjacent to Delaware Park, Buffalo, New York, United States. The museum shows modern art and contemporary art. It is directly opposite Buffa ...

Buffalo Buffalo most commonly refers to: * True buffalo or Bubalina, a subtribe of wild cattle, including most "Old World" buffalo, such as water buffalo * Bison, a genus of wild cattle, including the American buffalo * Buffalo, New York, a city in the n ...

, and the

Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe The New Mexico Museum of Art is an art museum in Santa Fe governed by the state of New Mexico, United States. It is one of four state-run museums in Santa Fe that are part of the Museum of New Mexico. It is located one block off the historic Sa ...

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

Early life and education

Born in Oakland, California, Mala Breuer grew up attending courses in painting and drawing at the

California College of Arts and Crafts The California College of the Arts (CCA) is a Private university, private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996, it opened ...

. Upon graduating from high school she was accepted to the, now,

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a Private college, private art school, college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mis ...

with a scholarship. There, she studied under many notable artists and faculty members, including

Richard Diebenkorn Richard Diebenkorn (April 22, 1922 – March 30, 1993) was an American painter and printmaker. His early work is associated with abstract expressionism and the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1960s he began ...

Clyfford Still Clyfford Still (November 30, 1904 – June 23, 1980) was an American Painting, painter, and one of the leading figures in the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, who developed a new, powerful approach to painting in the years immediat ...

, David Park, and

Mark Rothko Mark Rothko ( ; Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz until 1940; September 25, 1903February 25, 1970) was an American abstract art, abstract painter. He is best known for his color field paintings that depicted irregular and painterly rectangular reg ...

. Breuer matured as an artist in the era of

Abstract Expressionism Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

, a movement known for its focus on material and application, rather than representation. She recalls a split between realists and abstractionists in the student body at San Francisco Art Institute. “A student really had to make the choice,” Breuer explained. “I was a beginning student, but by the second or third semester I made a strong decision that it was abstract painting that I wanted to do. From the beginning it felt less materialistic and more spiritual.” During her second year Clyfford Still offered her a small studio space at the school. Breuer left school after her second year; marrying and having two children with a fellow artist. She supported her family by working part-time at the UC Berkeley Library. However, all the while she maintained a studio practice, consisting of

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting metho ...

s and drawings. She returned to school and received her

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students pursuing a professional education in the visual arts, Fine art, or performing arts. In some instances, it is also called a Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA). Background ...

in 1966 from the

, and in 1970 received her

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

in Painting from

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...

. Upon graduation there were no openings in California for painting instructors, and she was placed on a long waiting list of applicants at various institutions. For the time being, she substitute taught in the Oakland and Berkeley schools, where she was offered a permanent position teaching art courses in 1973, she remained there for four years.

Artistic practice

By the late 1960s, Breuer was pouring water thinned washes of brightly colored acrylic paint onto large, wet, stretched, vertical canvases in her Bay Area studio. During a 1974 exhibition of those works at Zara Gallery in San Francisco, local gallerist Hank Baum suggested that she head to New York, where Abstract Expressionism,

Minimalism In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-mi ...

, and Conceptual Art were continuing to gain traction. Breuer listened to this advice and set out to New York soon after with intentions of staying only one year, she stayed for eight. Upon settling in New York in 1976, she rented a studio space from

Julian Schnabel Julian Schnabel (born October 26, 1951) is an American painter and filmmaker. In the 1980s, he received international attention for his "plate paintings"—with broken ceramic plates set onto large-scale paintings. Since the 1990s, he has been a ...

. Her quiet studio routine was often interrupted by Julian Schnabel smashing ceramic plates for his, now, famous “plate paintings”. It was in that studio that she began working with a palette knife, making direct, abstract marks with dark color, weight, and density in continuous patterned bands across the canvas. During her time in New York she regularly participated in solo and group exhibitions at various galleries, including James Yu, Davis and Long Co., Salander/O'Reilly, SoHo Center for Visual Artists, Hadler Rodriguez, and Craig Cornelius. Breuer relocated to New Mexico in 1984. The southwest landscape influenced her use of color, light, and Minimalist aesthetics. While her compositional strategy of placing marks within vertical bands remained consistent, her palette of pale colored brushstrokes of paint and beeswax sparingly spread across white or off-white grounds became standard in her work for the rest of her career. Breuer completed countless watercolors and works paper throughout her practice, each on preceded every large work on canvas. Through watercolor, Breuer could quickly work out her color palette, use of pattern, and composition before translating it to larger scale. In the last decade of her painting practice she was recognized with awards from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

, SITE Santa Fe, and the

Pollock-Krasner Foundation The Pollock-Krasner Foundation was established in 1985 for the purpose of providing funding to visual artists internationally to further their artistic practices. It was established at the bequest of Lee Krasner, who was an American abstract expr ...

. Breuer lived in New Mexico where she painted for over thirty years then retired from her studio.

Critical reception

Mary Stofflet of ''ArtWeek'' stated, “Breuer…studied under Rothko and Diebenkorn. The relationship to Rothko is obvious – large flatly colored areas, which blend at the edges, pink-to-maroon and red-to-maroon color range. But the pigments in her works are stronger, and the effect is one of deep glowing pools invaded by irregularly shaped fingers of contrasting, crisp colors or washes of paler tones.” Dean Balsamo of ''

The New Mexican file:Santa Fe New Mexican 1868-11-24.jpg, alt=front page of a broadsheet newspaper, front page of ''The Daily New Mexican'' for 24 November 1868 ''The Santa Fe New Mexican'' or simply ''The New Mexican'' is a daily newspaper published in Sant ...

'' stated, “In selecting New Mexico residents Agnes Martin, Florence Pierce, and Mala Breuer, guest curator Elizabeth Dunham chooses to feature mature visions of artists with decades-long commitments to their individual creative expressions.” Grant Vetter of ''The Arts Beacon'' stated, “For having maintained this rare balance, and for the amazing strength to have gone it alone, not necessarily against the tide, but surfing the tunnel of the wave from the inside, Breuer’s work deserves not just a second look, but genuine recognition. There are few rare authentic voices such as Mala Breuer and it’s worth the opportunity to see this selective look back at what she achieved, not online in New York, but here in the Southwest, a place that Breuer still calls home.” Jo Ann Lewis of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' stated, “A protégé of Clyfford Still in her native San Francisco, Breuer shines here in a pair of untitled paintings built from short, curving brushstrokes that climb the canvas like espaliered vines. They take their power from the intensity of their calligraphy and the surprising passages of layered color, which read as half-hidden, witty messages to each other. At 66, after years of working as a teacher and a librarian, Breuer appears to be going full throttle.” Kathleen Shields of ''Parallaxis: Fifty-Five Points of View'' stated, "Breuer's paintings are like pages in a visual diary that records, however distilled, her physical surroundings and the very process of mark-making as a means of articulating for herself and others a sense of being in the world".

Selected awards and honors

Source: * 1996 Visual Arts Fellowship, Western States Art Federation, National Endowment for the Arts * 1995 SITE Santa Fe Award * 1991 Pollock-Krasner Award

Selected solo exhibitions

Source: * 2015 Mala Breuer, From New York to Santa Fe, Bentley Gallery, Phoenix, AZ * 2008 Mala Breuer: Early Works 1970–1980, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM * 1998 Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM * 1996 Thomas Blackman Associates, Chicago, Illinois * 1995 Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM * 1993–94 Laura Carpenter Fine Art Gallery, Santa Fe, NM * 1988–90 Graham Gallery, Albuquerque, NM * 1983 Craig Cornelius Gallery, New York, NY * 1981 Hadler/Rodriguez Gallery, New York, NY * 1980 SoHo Center for Visual Arts, New York, NY * 1976 Source Gallery, San Francisco, CA * 1975 Icehouse, San Francisco, CA * 1974 Susan Rush Associates, San Francisco, CA * 1974 Zara Gallery, San Francisco, CA * 1965–67 Labaudt Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Selected group exhibitions

Source: * 2005 Back to Basics: A Group Show, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM * 2005 The Natalie and Irving Forman Collection, Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY * 2002–04 Emi Winter, Mala Breuer, Roger Walker, James Kelly Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM * 2002 Galerie Albrecht, Munich, Germany * 2002 Farm Art Space, Missoula, MT * 1998 Artscrawl Summer Group Show I and II, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM * 1998 San Francisco International Exposition, San Francisco, CA * 1996 Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM * 1995–96 Award Recipient Exhibition – SITE Santa Fe Honors New Mexico Artists, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM * 1994–96 Still Working, National Artists Opening, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC * 1993 Three Women – Agnes Martin, Mala Breuer, Florence Pierce, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM * 1989 Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM * 1988 Keats Gallery, Santa Fe, NM * 1988 Marilyn Butler Gallery Invitational, Santa Fe, NM * 1979 New Work, Nieuw Amsterdam, New York, NY * 1978–81 Hank Baum Gallery Invitational, San Francisco, CA * 1977 Davis and Long Gallery, New York, NY * 1977 James Yu Invitational, New York, NY * 1975 New Works by West Coast Artists, Susan Rush Gallery, San Francisco, CA * 1958 San Francisco Museum of Art Annual, San Francisco, CA

Selected public collections

Sources: * San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA * Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY * Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM * Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM * Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM * FIAC, Paris, France * Capital Group, Los Angeles, CA * Laura Carpenter Fine Art Gallery, Santa Fe, NM * James Kelly Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM

Selected reviews and articles

Sources: * 2015 "From New York to Santa Fe, Mala Breuer Channels her Environment in Abstract Paintings," K Sundberg, Artsy Editorial, Article * 2015 "Mala Breuer at Bentley Gallery: A Retrospective in Four Parts," Grant Vetter, The Arts Beacon, Review * 2008 "Charlotte Jackson Fine Art Presents Mala Breuer: Early Works 1970–1980," Artnet, Article * 1998 "The crowning importance of coruscant color: Mala Breuer paints possibilities," Craig Smith, The New Mexican, Review * 1996 "Patterns of Life," Fred Camper, Chicago Reader, Review * 1994 "Still Working: Late Bloomers in Full Flower," Jo Ann Lewis, The Washington Post, Review * 1993 "Three Women," Dean Balsamo, The New Mexican, Review * 1974 "Walsh's Ceramics, Breuer's Paintings," Mary Stofflet, ArtWeek, Review

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Breuer, Mala 1927 births Artists from Oakland, California San Francisco Art Institute alumni 2017 deaths Abstract expressionist artists American women artists 21st-century American women