Helene Herzbrun (1921–1984) was an American artist who lived and worked within the art community in Washington, D.C. A student and friend of Jack Tworkov, she was a second-generation abstract expressionist who developed a personal style that set her apart from the Color School movement of her time.

[11] In the early 1950s, now living in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, she studied at American University under Jack Tworkov, Robert Gates, and Joe Summerford, all of whom became colleagues and friends during her subsequent career.

[22][23] In 1954 she showed a small group of paintings in a suburban movie theater, an exhibition that was notable only in the review it drew from a local critic who called Herzbrun an outstanding artist.

[note 7] At the time, Herzbrun wrote Tworkov that the venture was an "honorable" place to exhibit: a gallery run by artists among the city's bookshops, espresso cafés, and jewelry stores.

[11] A year later the Poindexter Gallery gave her a solo show that resulted in the sale of a big painting to Lila Wallace for the Reader's Digest art collection.

"[12] The following year one of Herzbrun's paintings was included in a Baltimore Museum of Art exhibition that was intended to give a comprehensive overview of the Washington scene over the previous two decades.

"[34] Two years later the Corcoran chose Herzbrun along with John Robinson and Alma Thomas for a show called "Contemporary Washington Art" that was sponsored by the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration.

[42] Posthumous exhibitions include a retrospective at the Watkins Gallery and a 2019 presentation called "Grace Hartigan and Helene Herzbrun: Reframing Abstract Expressionism" at the American University Art Museum.

While earlier ones had possessed "a quality of light and sunshine, with flickering, rapidly moving patters," she said the more recent ones were looser and more expressionist, having bolder patterns and stronger color.

"[11] A year later a critic for The New York Times saw an "innate refinement" in her work despite an obvious affinity for the loose organization and casual brushwork of the abstract expressionists.

[28] Her early painting, "Landscape (Rising from Purple)," shows both the freedom of her gestural brushwork and her ability to convey the illusion of depth (shown at left).

[12][note 12] Regarding a two-person exhibition at Jefferson Place Gallery, held two years later, the critic for The Washington Post said Herzbrun's work showed integrity and was "unchanged and uninfluenced by the new little 'isms' that sweep the art world each season."

She stressed the confidence with which Herzbrun remained committed to her painterly approach with its fresh, clear color and "strong slashing brush strokes" and noted her ability to "create a world of her own" and make it work.

[44] Regarding a solo show a few years later a critic for the Washington Star admired the joyful spirit of Herzbrun's abstract landscapes and saw in them "the broad strokes of totally confident painting echoing the ancient simplicities of fold, fallow and field.

"[45] Commenting on this show, another critic stressed her technique, saying that Herzbrun produced a fresh surface of bright colors using "matte finish, glazes, impasto areas and delicate lines" all on the same canvas without sacrificing unity.

[42] In 1958, after completing her studies and ending her service as head of the Watkins Gallery, Herzbrun joined faculty of American University as an art instructor.