Eleanor Himmelfarb

Eleanor Gorecki Himmelfarb (August 16, 1910 – June 16, 2009) was an American artist, teacher and conservationist known for semi-abstract paintings that reference the landscape and human figure, and for her work protecting woodlands in DuPage County, Illinois.

[4][28][29] Himmelfarb's painting ranges along a continuum between stylized representation and abstraction that is nonetheless rooted in objective sources, such as the landscape, human figure, and architectural forms.

[30][5][19] Critics position her work in the modernist tradition of Picasso, Miró, Matisse and Hans Hofmann in terms of its commitment to formal structure and the play between figure and ground.

[6][7][30] Dialogue editor John Brunetti links her to contemporaries such as second-generation Abstract Expressionists Grace Hartigan and George McNeil, noting in their shared use of bold color, painterly surfaces and spatial ambiguity an interest in exploring "the metaphorical potential of the figure and landscape as seen through Modernism's distortions.

"[11][31] Himmelfarb's earlier work often referenced experiences of daily existence and drew comparisons to medieval tapestries[21] with its patterns of flattened forms, which some writers suggest were influenced by her studio view of woodlands through the frames of flat window planes.

[33][11] She introduced metaphors of passage with her "Gate" and "Fence" series (1998–2003),[32] relating these barriers which physically invite or restrain to memories that arise and fade, and in formal terms, to shapes and colors that advance, retreat, ascend or descend.

[5][31] Critics noted in this work the emergence of color as an emotional force, capable suggesting the otherworldly glow of twilight or the hazy light of Indian summer in paintings such as Inside or Out?

[5] In late works (e.g., Daily Bread and Riviera, 2007), Himmelfarb developed a synthesis of earlier strategies and references, employing calligraphic and flat forms, stylized imagery, and outline in some of the most complex compositions of her career.

[12][17] The design of the modernist, Usonian-influenced Samuel and Eleanor Himmelfarb Home and Studio (built in 1942) is influenced by the Bauhaus and architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

[37][12][13] Eleanor provided input to Sam's design on the floor-to-ceiling studio windows facing the DuPage River and woodlands as well as on the scale of the house's various interior spaces.

[12][2][17] The house often hosted conservation and arts gatherings—including such guests as author-broadcaster Studs Terkel, sculptor Ruth Duckworth, film actor Lou Gilbert, and the touring cast of Thornton Wilder's original 1943 production of The Skin of Our Teeth.