NEW YORK, NY.- Galerie Lelong, New York, announced exclusive representation of Alice Trumbull Mason (1904–1971), in partnership with the Emily Mason and Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation. Mason was a trailblazing figure in American abstraction and a founding member of the American Abstract Artists group. This collaboration furthers the gallery’s commitment to amplifying the work of women artists whose pioneering contributions to modern and contemporary art have yet to be universally recognized. The gallery will present work by Mason at Art Basel in Switzerland this June.

Born in Litchfield, Connecticut, and a direct descendant of the famed Revolutionary-era painter John Trumbull, Mason studied painting at the British Academy in Rome as a teenager before continuing her education at the National Academy of Art with Charles Hawthorne. It was after she enrolled at the Grand Central School of Art that Mason was influenced by encounters with European modernism and the teachings of Arshile Gorky. In 1929, she began non-objective painting, developing a singular visual language that positioned her among the earliest American artists to fully embrace geometric abstraction.

Mason’s mature style is distinguished by its precise, architectonic structures, rhythmic patterning, and keen sensitivity to line and color. Working primarily in oil on canvas and panel, she constructed compositions that balance restraint with lyricism—often interlocking angular forms or layering fine, calligraphic marks to create a sense of internal movement through their delicate tension. Her use of limited palettes and subtle tonal variation underscores her interest in harmony and visual tension, while the underlying geometry of her works reveals an intuitive rigor aligned with Constructivism and Cubism. Her assurance in her singular artistic vision is evident when considering the prevalence of Abstract Expressionism as the defining movement of Mason’s generation, a movement from which her careful geometric compositions diverge.

In addition to her contributions as a painter, Mason was also an accomplished printmaker. Beginning in 1945, she worked at the influential Atelier 17 in New York, the experimental printmaking studio founded by Stanley William Hayter, where she engaged with intaglio techniques alongside other leading artists of the time. These early prints display a meticulous attention to structure, rhythm, and abstraction, extending her formal vocabulary into graphic media. Mason’s woodcuts, which she began in 1952, marked a formal shift, distilling her compositions into sharp, interlocking forms and dynamic rhythms. The woodcut medium allowed her to explore contrast, symmetry, and spatial tension with heightened clarity, often producing works that feel architectural in their precision yet expressive in their variation of line, color, and texture.

“We are deeply honored to have the confidence of the Board of the Emily Mason and Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation,” says Mary Sabbatino, Vice President and Partner at Galerie Lelong. “A visionary and one of the earliest forerunners of geometric abstraction in the United States, Mason carved out a singular path as a woman artist in a field then dominated by men. We look forward to the conversations her works will inspire within our contemporary program.”

“Our Foundation is delighted to partner with Galerie Lelong in advancing the work and artistic legacy of Alice Trumbull Mason,” says Steven R. Rose, President and Executive Director of the Emily Mason and Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation. “A vanguard of American abstract art, Mason is increasingly being recognized for her lasting contribution on artists both past and present. This collaboration marks a pivotal moment in honoring her place in art history. We are proud to have a distinguished partner known for its commitment to bold artists to help bring Mason’s legacy to a wider public.”

The only institutional solo exhibition of Mason’s work during her lifetime was at the Museum of Living Art in New York in 1942. In 1973, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, presented a posthumous retrospective. Other institutions that have exhibited Mason’s work include the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas. Mason’s work is held in the collections of numerous institutions, including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.