Florine Stettheimer: A Biography
Barbara Bloemink
During her first 40 years in Europe, Florine Stettheimer studied academic painting and was aware of all the earliest modernist styles prior to most American artists. Returning to New York, she and her sisters led an acclaimed Salon for major avant-garde cultural figures including Duchamp, the Stieglitz circle, poets, dancers, writers, etc. During her life she showed her innovative paintings in over 46 of the most important museum exhibits and Salons, wrote poetry, designed unique furniture and gained international fame for her sets and costumes for the avant-garde opera, 4 Saints in 3 Acts.
Considered the expert scholar on Florine Stettheimer’s work, Barbara Bloemink has written extensively on her and co-curated the artist’s 1995 Whitney Museum Retrospective. Formerly the director and chief of five art museums including the Smithsonian’s National Design Museum and Guggenheim Hermitage Museum, she has curated over 70 exhibitions, published extensively, lectured and taught internationally on art and design. She received a Ph.D. from Yale University.