Georgina Klitgaard achieved great success in her lifetime but since then her art has been swept under the currents of post-war art trends. When faced with this flood of new ideas and styles, the instinct of many is to categorize and divide, to assign “isms” and schools. Unfortunately for her posthumous reputation but fortunately for those with an eye for the uncommon, Klitgaard defied easy characterization. Klitgaard was born in Spuyten Duyvil, New York (now part of the Bronx) in 1893.
After graduating from Barnard College, she studied art at the National Academy of Design. Her life took a decisive turn after visiting Woodstock, New York in 1920 with her husband Kaj Klitgaard and the couple fell in love with the scenic views of the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson Valley. Although rooted to the Upstate region, this exhibition displays her travels to all corners of the United States, including Florida, Georgia, California, New Mexico, and the coast of New England.
Though her reputation lay with the landscape genre, Klitgaard also excelled in still life, portrait, flower studies, and cityscapes of New York. She found her footing on the ever unsteady ground between twentieth-century realism and expressionism. From 1927 to 1944, she regularly contributed to Whitney Museum and Carnegie International annuals. Klitgaard’s main New York dealer was the prestigious Frank Rehn Galleries who also represented Edward Hopper, Reginald Marsh, and Charles Burchfield. Despite her midlife success, Klitgaard slipped into obscurity after her death. In recent years, however, Klitgaard’s legacy is reemerging with a widely renewed interest in prominent female modernists who prospered during the interwar years.
Lincoln Glenn is proud to host Georgina Klitgaard’s first solo exhibition in New York in nearly 70 years and shine the spotlight on her contributions to American modernism. Lincoln Glenn’s exhibition will run October 10th – November 23rd at 17 East 67th Street and the gallery space will be open to visitors from 10 am – 6 pm on Tuesdays-Saturdays. The exhibition will be accompanied by a complimentary exhibition catalogue with essays by art historians Janis Staggs and Tom Wolf and there will be an opening reception on Thursday, October 10th from 5:30-7:30pm.
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