Audrey Flack, a pioneer of photorealism who became known for oversize still lifes crowded with color and detail, died on June 28 in Southampton, NY. She was 93.
In the early 1960s, Ms. Flack began painting from photographs. She went on paint directly over projections. She also bought a square-format Hasselblad camera, turned her bathroom into a darkroom, and learned to paint with an airbrush. In the early 1980s, she switched to sculpture.
Her “Leonardo’s Lady” (1974) was the first photorealist painting acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, and her work has been collected by numerous other museums. She and Mary Cassatt were the first two women to be included in the comprehensive textbook Janson’s History of Art.
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