DETAILED BIOGRAPHY
This biography chronicles the life of American artist Renée Radell (1929-2023), from her early childhood in Alabama, through her active career in Michigan and New York, to retirement in Pennsylvania. Using a timeline format, it juxtaposes details of her personal life with some of her contemporaneous artworks.
EARLY YEARS
Radell was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1929 and moved to Detroit eight years later. She became an award-winning watercolorist while attending the prestigious art school of Detroit Society of Arts & Crafts.
1950s
For Radell, life in the 1950s meant beginning a family in rural Michigan while attracting critical acclaim for her move to social commentary figurative oil painting on the path to New York.
1960s
The turbulent 1960s brought international recognition and mainstream New York gallery representation for Radell’s insightful themes of American family life amid the angst of a war-torn global environment.
1970s
For Radell, the 1970s featured a journey into painting societal confusion and search for meaning, while maintaining positive elements of hope for the progress of humanity.
1980s
Success in the New York contemporary art scene prompted Radell to move to Greenwhich Village, where she created new allegorical paintings while teaching at Parsons School of Design and Pratt Institute. She also rediscovered plein-air painting of street scenes and landscapes during her travels to southern France.
1990s
For Radell, the 1990s were a time of tremendous productivity, and she created multiple series of ‘visual morality plays’ using myth, symbol and allegory in an East Village studio.
2000s
Her move to a larger studio in the vibrant Manhattan Chelsea art community in the new millennium allowed Radell to expand her allegorical and surrealistic imagery to murals and triptychs.
2010s
In the 2010s, Radell often expressed her vision of life and purpose in new ways, including heightened use of mixed media and sculpture and addressing the purity of color, form, and composition in several series of abstract oil paintings.
