Queen
Queen, 1975
Audrey Flack (American, born 1931)
#1985.0011.0006
Contemporary artist Audrey Flack is well known as one of the first Photorealist painters. Her work functions as a self-aware pastiche of kitschy pop culture themes and classical allusions. A student of Josef Albers, Flack received her BFA from Yale University in 1952, and was awarded an honorary degree from Cooper Union. Flack’s early works were in an Abstract Expressionist mode, but she later became interested in Photorealism, becoming one of the pioneering artists in the genre. Flack has the distinction of being the only Photorealist artist whose work is represented in the collections of New York’s four major museums.
Flack also works in monumental sculpture, with permanent installations across the United States. In her book Art and Soul: Notes on Creating, Flack writes: "Art is a calling. Artists are not discovered in school. Artists do not just paint for themselves, and they don't simply paint for an audience. They paint because they have to. There is something within the artist that has to be expressed. Every creation reveals something more about the universe and about the artist." From 1993–1998, Flack was a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
