With Darkness Came Stars

An artist, mother, teacher, and rebel, Audrey Flack is counted among the most important American artists of the twentieth century. In With Darkness Came Stars, she recounts and reflects upon a life fully lived.

Flack came up in the New York art scene when the city was fast becoming a world arts center. She had a studio in the Bowery and frequented the Cedar Tavern, where she rubbed elbows with Jackson Pollock, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, and other giants of the Abstract Expressionist movement. After leaving that scene and starting a family, she spearheaded Photorealist painting, alongside the likes of Chuck Close and Richard Estes.

Flack has lived a remarkable life, successfully navigating a vibrant and virulently sexist art world, escaping an abusive marriage, and reshaping the rules of art creation in the middle of the twentieth century—all while raising two children, one with severe autism. Her story is full of strife and striving, but as an artist, Flack has always been able to find the beauty in it.

“A vivid, gossipy chronicle. . . . Something to savor.”—New York Times Book Review

“Vividly traces the artist’s early beginnings, mid-century success, and mature staying power.”—Meg Daly, American Art Collector

“I've long admired Audrey Flack's work, her persistence, and the inspiring way in which she has carved out her own path.”—Judy Chicago

“Anchored by art’s power to nourish and heal, Audrey Flack’s account of a turbulent life committed to creative work despite personal and professional adversities is at once heartbreaking and inspiring. I know of no one who more profoundly embodies the French term à rebours or makes going against the grain seem such an enviable attribute.”—Helen A. Harrison, Director, Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center

Audrey Flack is an internationally acclaimed artist. Her work is featured in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, San Fransisco Mueseum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and National Gallery of Australia, among many others. Flack resides in New York City.

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

1. On Becoming an Artist

2. The New York Art Scene (1949–1959)

3. Galleries, Studios, and Other Players

4. Family Stories

5. On Being an Artist

Epilogue: Facing Death at Ninety-Two

Index

Download a PDF sample chapter here: Introduction

Art History & Architecture

           Modern and Contemporary

Biography & Memoir

Photography & Art