Naturalistic Dreams: Understanding landscape through the lens of abstraction in “Vertical Horizon #3” (1963) by Hedda Sterne
Written by Nínive Vargas de la Peña for Sotheby’s Contemporary Curated. March 2022.
After arriving to the United States from a war-torn Europe in 1941, Hedda Sterne became associated with the newly emerging generation of American painters. Famously portrayed in Nina Leen’s 1951 Life Magazine photograph of “The Irascible 18”, Hedda Stern—the only woman in the picture—described herself as “the feather on top” of the abstract expressionists. Often understood as a leading transitional figure in art, Sterne’s surrealistic tendencies and dream-like imagery quickly evolved into the realm of abstraction once she left the old continent. Captivated by the reality of a nation that exceeded the imagery of surrealism, the artist felt a fascination towards the representation of her immediate surroundings through the lens of abstraction.
“I have a feeling that in art the need to understand and the need to communicate are one.”
Hedda Sterne
Hedda Sterne. Vertical Horizon #3 (1963). Private Collection.“And then, when I came to the United States, I was struck that this country was more Surrealistic than anything anybody imagined… That kind of freedom, that romanticism about the future, was utterly delightful to me.”
—Hedda Sterne
