MINT MUSEUM ACQUIRES MAJOR DRAWING BY BIALA

JANICE BIALA, Study for "Blue Kitchen," c.1965, oil pastel on paper, 25 1/4 x 19 in (64.1 x 48.3 cm) [CR 476]

The Estate of Janice Biala announces the acquisition of a major drawing by Janice Biala by The Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC. This acquisition strengthens the museum’s holdings of work by noted women associated with postwar American art. 

“Biala’s work reflects a life and practice shaped by transatlantic exchange, moving fluidly between New York and Paris. Her sustained engagement with modernism, figuration, and abstraction situates her as a vital yet often under-recognized voice of her generation. This acquisition celebrates Biala’s artistic legacy while reinforcing the Mint’s commitment to diversifying the narratives of postwar American art.”

– Todd Herman, President & CEO of the Mint

Capturing a snapshot of a very active daily life, this drawing is quintessential Biala depicting an intimate interior cluttered with objects and the casual furnishings of a life well lived. The drawing features the view from Biala’s living room into the black and white tiled floor of her kitchen. Of note, is a vase of freshly cut flowers on the mantel and the record player lower left, which often played Mozart’s operas.

Her tiny home, located at 8 rue de Général Bertrand in Paris’ seventh arrondissement, was actually a converted stable reached through a courtyard. “This wonderful, magical, strange little house just reeked of all of her history and genuineness,” recalled the art advisor and close friend Nancy Rosen in a 2006 article for Vogue Magazine. “Every inch of the house, from a pot of flowers on the table to the dishes in a breakfront, found its way into the intimate and lyric works Biala painted there.”

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