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Annette Nancarrow

Annette Nancarrow was born in NYC on Oct. 13, 1907. She was an Art major at Hunter College and later received her Masters in Fine Arts from Columbia University.¬Ý She was awarded a scholarship to the National Academy of Design. She married young to an attorney and had a daughter named Cherry. While in New York she became friendly with the ’ÄúBig Three’Äù Mexican painters: Diego Rivera, who was working at Rockefeller Center, Jose Clemente Orozco who was exhibiting at the Delphic Studios and David Alfaro Siqueiros who was lecturing on the use of industrial paints for wall murals. They encouraged her to visit Mexico, which she did after her exhibition at the Modern Age Gallery. She then moved there permanently a year later. As a painter there she continued her art studies at the Academia de San Carlos and befriended all the important artist of the day. She became Orozco’Äôs assistant in one of his fresco ceiling murals, ’ÄúThe Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’Äù in the Templo de Jesus, the oldest Catholic Chapel on the continent. He then painted her portrait. Jesus Guerrero Galvan, Federico Cantu and Pedro Friedeberg also painted portraits of her. Diego Rivera painted a portrait of her second husband, Louis Stephens, with whom she had two boys, Charles and Luis. Frida Kahlo dedicated a lithograph to her with the words: "Anita ’Äì Life has brought us together and I love you. Frida." ¬Ý Annette had her first one woman show at the prominent Galeria de Arte Mexicano directed by Inez Amor. Orozco wrote the introduction to her invitation for this show. In a competition entitled ’ÄúA Wall to Paint On,’Äù she won second prize for a mural, ’ÄúBoy’Äôs Dream to Become a Bull Fighter.’Äù Nancarrow was also a jewelry designer.¬Ý She had studied archeology, which became an inspiration for her designs. Her jewelry was exhibited at MoMA in a show that featured painters and jewelry designers including Calder and Dali. Her jewelry was collected and worn by Frida Kahlo, Elena Rubenstein, Peggy Guggenheim, Elizabeth Arden, AnaˆØs Nin, Dorothy Miller, Mrs. Harry Abrams, and Helen O’ÄôGorman, and sold at Henri Bendel in New York City.¬Ý In 1948 she married her third husband, Conlon Nancarrow, the famous composer of contemporary music. She worked and exhibited for many years both in Mexico and in the U.S. She died in New York City in 1991. Her paintings have been sold at Sotheby’Äôs and other auction houses. A retrospective of her paintings and jewelry was recently exhibited at the Milk Gallery in New York City.
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