FALMOUTH, ME.- Moss Galleries is presenting Beate Wheeler’s Abstract Rhythms: 1960s on 10th Street, a vibrant retrospective of the expressionistic color painter Beate Wheeler (1932–2017), on view from June 13 to August 9 at the Falmouth gallery.

A painter of melodic, lyrical abstraction, Wheeler’s work from the 1960s through the 1990s radiates with teeming color and emotional vitality. Though long overlooked by the mainstream art market, Wheeler was deeply embedded in the avant-garde circles of her era, sharing creative space with titans of 20th-century American art.


Beate Wheeler, Untitled, 1969. Oil on canvas, 26 x 22 in © Beate Wheeler Estate


“Beate Wheeler’s work feels like a revelation—vivid, emotionally charged, and visually expansive,” said Elizabeth Moss, owner and director of Moss Galleries. “She represents the best of what Abstract Expressionism could offer: freedom, depth, and deeply personal innovation. We’re honored to bring her work into the light where it belongs.”


Beate Wheeler, Untitled, 1971. Oil on canvas, 28 x 28 in © Beate Wheeler Estate


Born in Berlin, Wheeler fled Nazi Germany with her family in 1938 and went on to study at Syracuse University and the University of California, Berkeley, where she came under the influence of Milton Resnick. In New York, she became a founding member of the influential March Gallery along with Pat Passlof, Elaine de Kooning, and Robert Beauchamp. She was part of the Tenth Street cooperative scene that included Lois Dodd, Lynne Drexler, and Alex Katz. Despite being immersed in this heady world of experimentation and exchange, Wheeler remained committed to a uniquely introspective practice.


Beate Wheeler, Untitled, 1980s. Oil on canvas, 50 x 40 in © Beate Wheeler Estate


The effortless melding of colors in Wheeler’s paintings—evocative of seamless choral harmonies, natural beats, inner melodies of the mind, and intuition—earned her praise at the National Arts Club, Downing Street Gallery, and beyond. Nelson Rockefeller collected her work, and ARTnews dubbed her an “artists’ artist.” Wheeler lived for decades at the Westbeth Artists Housing in New York’s West Village with her husband, the writer Spencer Holst.


Beate Wheeler, Untitled, 1990s. Oil on canvas. 36 x 32 in © Beate Wheeler Estate


With paintings that shift from dense fields of deep, saturated color to lighter, more impressionistic strokes in the 1970s, Wheeler’s canvases reveal a deft command of color theory and composition. Her works were spontaneous in spirit, yet crafted with a precision that reflects both formal training and fearless intuition.

Beate Wheeler’s Abstract Rhythms: 1960s on 10th Street is on view June 13 through August 9 at Moss Galleries in Falmouth.