Fritzie Abadi (1915 – 2001)

Untitled, 1971, mixed media collage with painted and printed elements on paper, signed and dated lower right, 9 x 10 5/8 inches, exhibited Phoenix Gallery, New York, NY, unknown date (label verso)

$500

Fritzi Abadi was a New York-based artist, who was best known for her collages, such as the present example, which combined painted, drawn, and printed elements that were disassembled and reconstructed by the artist. She often borrowed from Middle Eastern and North African elements, as well as from North American colonial histories. Untitled is typical of what she characterized as her “small environments.”

Born in Aleppo, Syria, Abadi lived in Jerusalem as a child. After immigrating to the United States with her family, Abadi lived in Brooklyn before moving as a young woman to Oklahoma, where she started a family. In 1945, she returned to New York and studied at the Art Students League and with Nahum Tschacbasov.  Abadi was an active and prize-winning member of the National Association of Women Artists, American Society of Contemporary Artists, where she served as President, Brooklyn Society of Artists, Art Students League, and Hudson River Contemporary Artists. She was honored with solo exhibitions at Argent Gallery and Van Dieman-Lilienfeld Gallery, both in New York. Her work was also selected for group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, Carnegie Institute, and Library of Congress. Abadi’s work is in the collection of the Butler Institute of American Art and other public institutions and private collections. She is listed in Who Was Who in American Art and other standard references.