Emily Mason
EMILY MASON | RIZZOLI
Reception and Conversation
13 NOVEMBER 2025
UPCOMING EVENT | THURSDAY 13 NOVEMBER, 6:30PM | 520 WEST 21ST STREET
Miles McEnery Gallery is pleased to host an evening of conversation and celebration for the release of Emily Mason: Unknown to Possibility, published this fall by Rizzoli Electa.
The event will feature a poetry reading by contributing author Morgan English and a conversation with Elisa Wouk Almino, editor of the volume and Editor in Chief of Image magazine at the Los Angeles Times; Dr. Barbara Stehle, contributing author, art historian, and faculty member at the Rhode Island School of Design; and Steven Rose, President of the Emily Mason and Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation.
Guests will also have the opportunity to spend time with a curated selection of Emily Mason’s works, highlighting her mastery across multiple media.
This event is open to the public with limited seating.
Rizzoli will be present for all who would like to purchase a book.
You may also purchase it online via the link here.
ABOUT THE MONOGRAPH:
This 262-page volume delves into Emily Mason’s artistic evolution, spanning from her education at the Cooper Union to her unique and dedicated approach that transcended conventional art movements. Alongside over 175 exacting reproductions, the essays explore her significant works on paper, prints, and clay boards, highlighting her technical mastery and adaptability. Personal writings provide insights into Mason’s reflections and experiences, enriching our understanding of her lasting legacy.
Emily Mason: Unknown to Possibility is edited by Elisa Wouk Almino with the main essay by Dr. Barbara Stehle, and contains contributions by Naz Cuguoğlu, David Ebony, Morgan English, Carrie Moyer, Steven R. Rose, Jenni Sorkin, and Nari Ward.
Emily Mason: Unknown to Possibility is mentioned by The Art Newspaper in their recent “September Book Bag” roundup, Hyperallergic in “Emily Mason’s Quest for Color and Truth,” Literary Hub in “Painting Outside the Lines: On the Life and Work of Abstract Artist Emily Mason," and Momus in “What a Book Can Do: On Editing Emily Mason and Alice Trumbull Mason’s Monographs."
Photograph of Emily Mason: Unknown to Possibility.
© 2025 Emily Mason | Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation/ARS.
THE ART NEWSPAPER
Our round-up of the latest art publications
"The first major monograph on Emily Mason (1932–2019), an underrated post–New York School abstract painter, includes newly commissioned essays and a roundtable conversation with Nari Ward, a former student of Mason’s. 'Mason works within the improvisational model of Abstract Expressionism, though notably without angst or bravado,' painter Robert Berlind wrote in Art in America (2003)."
Gareth Harris —
Mason working in her Vermont studio on the painting
Midnight Slant, 1986, photography by Jean E. Davis.
© 2025 Emily Mason | Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation/ARS.
THE LITERARY HUB
Painting Outside the Lines: On the Life and Work of Abstract Artist Emily Mason
"The art critic David Ebony, who was close with Mason and produced the first book on her art in 2006, says he spoke about this often with the artist—how she 'didn’t really fit into' any category, and how she 'was very much content with that.'
This is one of many special anecdotes that Ebony shares in a roundtable conversation published in Emily Mason: Unknown to Possibility with artists Nari Ward (a former student of Mason’s), Carrie Moyer, and Steven Rose, who is also the director of the Emily Mason and Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation. Over the course of this lively exchange, we hear them reflect on Mason’s legacy and reminisce on what she was like as a person, colleague, and teacher—she became an important fixture at Hunter College, where she taught for over thirty years, and was known for inspiring her students to experiment."
Elisa Wouk Almino —
Mason standing behind one of her works in progress alongside
Wolf Kahn (left) and Martin Ackerman (right),
ca. late 1970s/early 1980s.
© 2025 Emily Mason | Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation/ARS.
HYPERALLERGIC
Emily Mason’s Quest for Color and Truth
"Mason would start flat and end up on the wall. She would pour paint and tilt the surface to direct its flow. The movements could gain speed or be slowed down. A dialogue back and forth with the painting would begin. While you can see the influence of Abstract Expressionist techniques in Mason’s work, she had none of the hubris of the male protagonists she saw as giants on the scene. Her quest for color expression and structure was more in tune with the sensitivity and unimposing sincerity of a Mark Rothko. For both of them, painting was not about an experience, it was an experience."
Barbara Stehle —
Mason working in her studio in Brattleboro, Vermont,
2018, photography by Joshua Farr.
© 2025 Emily Mason | Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation/ARS.
MOMUS
What a Book Can Do: On Editing Emily Mason and
Alice Trumbull Mason’s Monographs
"In 2023, Stehle curated a show of Emily’s works at Miles McEnery Gallery, and I remember her showing me around, making revelatory associations with other artists—including Matisse, Degas, Willem de Kooning, John Cage, and Zao Wou-Ki—that we hadn’t previously picked up on. In her essay for the monograph, Barbara expands upon such connections and shows how Emily’s influences were far more diverse and unexpected than those of her contemporaries. In Stehle’s words, 'She took American art in an unexpected direction.'"
Elisa Wouk Almino —