(Kappel, Carinthia, 1919–2014 Vienna)
“This is Terry Quimby”, signed with the monogram, dated
ML NY 1976 and titled This is Terry Quimby, oil on canvas, 96 x 80 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private Collection, Vienna aquired directly from the artist

Terry Quimby, a former fashion industry advertising executive and director of an art
Gallery, died of heart failure Friday (amended to Saturday 20 March 1990) at her home in Manhattan.
She was 86 years old. Mrs. Quimby was born in Manhattan. After graduating from New York University, she began working in the fashion industry, eventually directing the advertising departments of the Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubenstein cosmetics companies.
After her retirement in the 1960's, she directed an art gallery, the Capricorn Gallery, in Manhattan…
The New York Times, March 19, 1990

Maria Lassnig: Portrait of Terry Quimby, New York, 1976
The slender, seventy-year-old woman looks out of the picture with a sceptical look and folded arms. Only the hint of a smile can be identified. We understand immediately: she is self-confident, knows how to assert herself and has achieved something with her life. Maria Lassnig’s portraits not only capture a person’s appearance, but bring her character to life: “I want to look at people for a long time, to look brazenly into their eyes, and the longer I look, the more I see what comes out. Happiness and unhappiness are banished there by dignity, fearfulness, hope. I can follow that with my own eyes and divine everything as I wield the pen or brush.”
This expressive painting depicts Terry Quimby, born in 1906, a New York fashion designer who ran the Capricorn Gallery in New York. She started the gallery during her retirement in the 1960s and predominantly exhibited female artists. The portrait was painted in 1976, while Maria Lassnig was living in New York (1968 to 1980). Lassnig met Quimby through Inga Kelbert, a top manager and millionaire friend, whom she also painted. Portraiture was an important source of income for the artist, who was chronically short of money.
Later, she would combine these works into a series: The New York Portraits. She painted gallery owners, collectors and numerous friends, similar to the then little-known artist Alice Neel (1900 – 1984). Today, Neel’s unsparing portraits hang in all the major American museums. Lassnig met the artist in New York and visited her in her studio. At that time, she also drew inspiration from Pop Art, but used this – as here – in her own unmistakable way and in conjunction with her unique approach to colour. In contrast to the other New York portraits, she places Terry Quimby not in front of a turquoise background but a white one. A good decision, because it brings out the contrast between her pink turtleneck and her blue-green hair particularly well: Maria Lassnig is a master of colour.

Natalie Lettner