Selina Trieff facts for kids

Selina Trieff (1934 – January 14, 2015) was an American artist. She painted and showed her artwork for more than fifty years.

Her Life and Education

Selina Trieff was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1934. She loved art from a young age.

She studied at several famous art schools:

• The Art Students League in New York City (1951–1953). Here, she learned from artist Morris Kantor.
• Brooklyn College (1953–1955). She studied with well-known artists Ad Reinhardt and Mark Rothko.
• She also learned from Hans Hofmann in New York and Provincetown (1954–1956).

Selina Trieff also taught art at different schools. These included the New York Institute of Technology, Pratt Institute, and the New York Studio School. She was married to another painter named Robert Henry. Selina Trieff spent her time living in both New York City and Wellfleet, Massachusetts. She passed away in Wellfleet on January 14, 2015.

Her Unique Artwork

Selina Trieff created a very special style of painting. She often painted figures that looked like ancient symbols or characters. These figures were flat and had strong outlines. They were like self-portraits, but they also showed ideas about what it means to be human.

How Her Style Developed

Trieff started with a strong background in abstract art. This means art that doesn't try to show things exactly as they look. She used this background to create her unique figures. Even though she painted people and animals, she still thought of herself as an abstract artist.

Animals in Her Art

Selina Trieff often included animals in her paintings. Some of her famous animal paintings include:

• Green Goat with Moon (1983)
• Two Figures with Goat (1997)
• Three Figures with Green Goat (1992)
• Connected (1996)

Figures and Their Meanings

Trieff's paintings of human figures often used gold leaf and oil paints. These figures, like those in Three Graces (2005), seemed to be characters on a modern stage. They were not clearly male or female. They seemed to represent the soul and invited the viewer to think deeply.

Her characters were often androgynous, meaning they had both male and female qualities. They wore clothes that seemed to come from another time. This made them look mysterious. Trieff changed her characters so that her paintings felt like they were from no specific time or place.

Sometimes, her serious figures were joined by other things, like skeletons or animals. Often, they were placed on a stage, sometimes in pairs or groups of three. They might be holding hands or whispering, as seen in Dancers (1991) and Sweet (2008). Art critics said her work created a strong sense of mystery and old stories being told.

Influences on Her Art

The famous art critic John Russell from The New York Times called Selina Trieff a "peculiar painter" and an "American original." Her artwork showed her deep thinking and excellent craftsmanship.

Many people believe that the thoughtful and spiritual nature of Trieff's work was influenced by the abstract painter Mark Rothko. But she had many other influences too:

• The direct style of Watteau's character Pierrot.
• The structure of Velazquez's Infanta paintings.
• The isolated, wise fools from Shakespeare's plays.
• The flat style of Medieval painting.
• The mysterious feeling of Ingmar Bergman's film The Seventh Seal.

All these different ideas helped shape her artwork from the very beginning.

Exhibitions and Collections

Selina Trieff's artwork has been shown in many places. She had solo exhibitions (shows just for her art) at:

• The Riverside Art Museum in Riverside, California.
• The Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, New York.
• The Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York.

Her work has been shown all over the United States and in Europe. You can find her art in important public collections, including:

• The Brooklyn Museum.
• The New York Public Library.
• The Provincetown Art Association and Museum.