Biala

Tibor de Nagy Gallery is pleased to present its sixth exhibition of paintings by Biala [1903 – 2000]. This exhibition focuses on a series of later works of her beloved Paris and her home there.  Included will be everyday things she saw from floral still-lifes and intimate interiors to courtyards and panoramic cityscapes.

Over more than half a century of artistic development, Biala synthetized characteristic components of the School of Paris and Abstract Expressionism. This synthesis materialized in a uniquely personal style of work which often teetered on the blurred lines that define representation and abstraction.  She took her immediate surroundings as the source for her artistic subject matter translating it with bold mark-making often capturing a sensitive light in an instance of time.

Biala was born in Poland in 1903 and immigrated to the United States in 1913 with her mother and brother Jack Tworkov, the noted Abstract Expressionist. She studied with Edwin Dickinson at the National Academy of Design, and later, at the Art Students League. During her first visit to France in 1930 she met and became the companion of the influential British novelist Ford Madox Ford until his death in 1939. During World War II she returned to New York and immersed herself in the art scene and in 1942 married the Alsatian-born painter Daniel Brustlein. They returned to live and work in Paris in 1947.

Biala’s paintings have been the subject of numerous gallery exhibitions in New York and Paris, and were included in major museum exhibitions including five Whitney Annuals. She had seven solo shows with the legendary Stable Gallery, and during her time in New York was at the center of a group of Abstract Expressionists, including Willem de Kooning. Her work is in many museum collections in the United States and France, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC; and the Centre Pompidou, Paris. Berry Campbell hosted a solo exhibition of Biala’s work in 2024 and now represents the Estate. We thank them and the Estate for their cooperation.