Denise Green facts for kids

Denise Green (born in 1946) is an Australian artist. She is a painter who lives and works in New York City. Denise is famous for her part in a style called New Image Painting. This art style started in the late 1970s. Her paintings are usually abstract. This means they show an idea or feeling instead of a real object. Her art uses clear structures but also bright colors and free brushstrokes.

Early Life and Learning

Denise Green was born in Australia in 1946. She grew up in Brisbane. When she was young, she became very interested in Aboriginal art. The art made by these native Australian artists inspired her throughout her long career.

In 1966, Green left Australia. She went to Europe to live and study. There, she started to like abstract art. She studied in Paris at places like the College de France and the Sorbonne. She also briefly studied architecture. These architecture studies influenced her early paintings.

After three years in Paris, Green moved to New York City. She went to graduate school at Hunter College. There, she met famous artists Mark Rothko and Robert Motherwell. They became her teachers and mentors. They taught her about important art movements. These included abstract expressionism, minimalism, and conceptual art. She learned a lot about Western modern art from them.

In the 1970s, Green traveled to India. She also visited other countries in the East. These included Burma, Japan, and Indonesia. She was inspired to travel after visiting a sacred Aboriginal site in Australia. Seeing non-Western art changed her own artwork. It made her want to mix ideas from Eastern and Western thinking in her art. She talks about this a lot in her book, Metonymy in Art: a New Paradigm.

In 2007, Denise Green received a special award. She was made a Member of the Order of Australia. This is one of the highest honors for Australian citizens. It recognizes great achievements and service.

Her Artworks

Denise Green first became known for her paintings in 1978. This was at an exhibition called New Image Painting. It was held at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her art is now in major museums. These include the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. also has her work.

The Guggenheim Museum owns two of her paintings. They are To Draw On (1977) and Taxes (1993). To Draw On was shown in a 1987 exhibition. It is a good example of her "New Image Painting" style.

Green's early paintings often showed city scenes. An example is Laight St., View No. 1 (1975). The paintings she made when she first moved to New York often focused on buildings. This was likely inspired by her architecture studies in Paris.

In the mid to late 1970s, her art became more abstract. She started to focus on single objects in space. In the 1980s, her work became even more abstract. For example, in Summer Heat (1981), she used unclear, flowing marks. These marks looked a bit like written language. During this time, Green used strong colors and simple shapes. She often used circles and fan shapes.

The early 1990s brought another change in her art style. In 1992, she had an exhibition in Sydney, Australia. She showed eight large paintings there. These works were mostly black and white. Paintings like Cinderella What? (1992) and Snow White? (1992) were very different from her earlier colorful art. Green said these black and white paintings were a way to express her feelings after her father passed away. These works show how her art is connected to her own life story.

In 2013, Green and her husband, Dr. Francis X. Claps, gave a big gift. They donated 80 works on paper and 36 paintings by Green. This art was worth over one million Australian dollars. They gave it to the University of Queensland Art Museum.

Since she started her career, Green has had over 130 solo shows. Her work has also been featured in nine museum retrospectives since 1999. These shows were held at places like MoMA PS1 in New York and the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. Denise Green continues to create art today. She paints, takes photos, and makes collages.

Books by Denise Green

Denise Green has written two books:

• Metonymy in Art: a New Paradigm (2005)
• An Artist's Odyssey (2012)

Both books were published by the University of Minnesota Press and Macmillan Art Publishers (Australia).