Elaine Wesley
American, 1923–2007
Elaine Wesley is known for her intricate, minimalist, pointillist works. Her work bears an affinity to the work of Japanese painter Yayoi Kusama and to Georgia O'Keefe in their often intense femininity. She often cut her canvases, introducing a second or even third underlayer of canvas. Although she lived and worked in Greenwich Village and Soho most of her career, she rarely showed and died in relative obscurity.
Miss Wesley began her studies at the Art Students League in 1946 under Harry Sternberg and Nahum Tschacbasov. Further courses at Pratt Institute prepared her for as career at one of New York’s advertising agencies, which she found suffocating and far from an appropriate use of her talent. She quit her graphic arts job to paint full time.
Elaine Wesley showed at the Pennsylvania Academy on Fine Arts, The Brooklyn Museum, Artists Equity (NYC), Terrain Gallery and the Waverly Gallery, gaining only brief exposure for her work.
Submitted by Lawrence Fine Art


