One of the most resilient and admired female artists of her generation, as well as the muse of the New York School Poets, Jane Freilicher holds her own special place in the history of Postwar Art. At her Memorial service in 2014 Alex Katz stated “No one painted flowers or their color the way Jane did.”

Jane Niederhoffer was born in Brooklyn in 1924.  In the 1940s she eloped with musician Jack Freilicher, through whom she met Larry Rivers. She met Louisa Matthíasdóttir and Nell Blaine. In 1947 Blaine encouraged her to study with Hans Hoffman. Later she received her M.A. from Columbia University. Freilicher met and became life long friends with John Ashbery, when he rented Kenneth Koch’s apartment for the summer. She also became friends with Frank O’Hara. Jane married Joe Hazan in the 1950’s. They spent their summers on Long Island with artist and poet friends such as Fairfield Porter and Jimmy Schuyler. She and Joe built a home in Water Mill.

Jane enjoyed a prolific and accomplished career until her death in 2014, in the company of her poet friends from the New York School as well as artists from the Second Generation New York School.

Jane Freilicher’s career began with her first solo show at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in 1952. She has had over fifty solo exhibitions across the United States and hundreds of group exhibitions nationwide. Her works are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.