Gala 2025 Auction Lot 15: Lorna Blaine Halper

Lorna Blaine Halper
Boston,
MA 1924–2012 Pawling, NY
Poseidon’s Response,1972
Screenprint on Strathmore paper, 23 × 29 inches

Edition 41/50 Signed and editioned | Printer: Sheila Marbain

Value: $3,200

Courtesy of Lorna Blaine Halper Estate

Framing courtesy of Frugal Framer

Lorna Blaine Halper was a painter, sculptor, and printmaker. She studied at Barnard College in New York before enrolling at Black Mountain College for the 1945 Summer Art Institute. She returned to the college in the winter of 1946 as a regular student, studying with Josef Albers, Fannie Hillsmith, Robert Motherwell, Max Dehn and Ilya Bolotowsky ,among others. During her time at BMC, she worked alongside and became friends with students Ruth Asawa, Ray Johnson, Elaine Schmitt Urbain, Oli Sihvonen and others. Halper developed an approach that combined the principles of Albers’s teachings with her own individualized use of line. Her India ink drawings demonstrate an exceptional mastery of the medium, and of line, and include complex compositions that explore the relation between figure and ground. She went on to work for America House, an outlet for crafts. Halper’s paintings, drawings, and sculptures were exhibited at the Bodley II and Cisneros Galleries in New York and are housed in many private and public collections, including the Asheville Art Museum.