Deborah Remington (1930-2010) was an American abstract painter known for her illusory hard-edge abstraction as well as being an important contributor to the Bay Area Beat scene of the 1950's.

Remington was a descendant of famed American painter Frederic Remington (1861-1909), who was renowned for his portrayals of the American West.

As a teenager Remington began taking art classes, eventually moving to California to study at the San Fransisco Art Institute, where she studied under Clyfford Still. Upon graduating with a BFA in 1955, Remington was closely associated with the Bay Area Beat scene of the 50's.

Along with five other poets and painters, she started the legendary Gallery Six in San Francisco. The gallery was a trailblazing public manifestation of the Beat Generation movement, and lives on in American history as the gallery where Beatnik icon and writer Allen Ginsberg debuted his legendary poem "Howl" in 1955.

Post-graduation Remington travelled through Asia for a few years where she studied calligraphy and ink wash painting techniques while acting in B-movies on the side.

During the 1960's and 70's Remington developed her unique visual style and created many of her best known works. Like many artists embracing abstraction at the time, Remington eschewed traditional subject matters and iconography. Instead, she developed her own hard-edge visual language using machine-like precision in her execution.

This lithograph encapsulates Remington's practice, containing many of her visual signatures. Like the best of her works, this lithograph features a dark background with an abstract shape containing near-bilateral symmetry in the centre. At the heart of the shape is a glowing red oval, one of Remington's most frequently employed shapes. The vibrant oval is ensconced within, or framed by, flaming orange outlines and a blue hard-edge shapes.

While Remington has a broader palette than Louise Nevelson and Lee Bontecou, she shares a certain aesthetic sensibility with both artists. All three artists presented forms and textures that seemed otherworldly, sculptural and void of any "feminine" characteristics.

Remington often created dark green backgrounds with abstracted shapes completed in vibrant hues of red, blue, and orange. The fields of color are expertly executed gradients, another trademark of Remington's. The dark background graduates vertically from charcoal to forest green; while the oval shifts in tone from dark garnet into flaming ruby. Ensconcing the oval are the blue shapes which mirror the same tonal shift, but instead shift from cobalt into bright sapphire.

This work from Remington's most renowned era showcases her singular, kaleidoscopic vision.

To read more about Remington's development and style as an artist check out this Art Forum article here.

Remington's works can be found within the permanent collections of many of the most prestigious art institutions in the world including; the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY), the Pompidou Centre (Paris), the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa), the Whitney Museum (NY), and the Smithsonian (NY).