The Rediscovery of an Overlooked American Modernist

For the 2018 Frieze Masters Spotlight, Inman Gallery is honored to present the UK debut of the work of American modernist Dorothy Antoinette (Toni) LaSelle (1901–2002). Overlooked by art historical canons due largely to her gender, LaSelle’s work is now gaining long-overdue recognition as a vital contribution to mid-century non-objective painting. Co-curated by Carrie Scott, this exhibition shines a light on LaSelle’s rigorous explorations of space, movement, and color, placing her within the broader narrative of Post-War abstraction.

A Life Dedicated to Modernism

Born in Beatrice, Nebraska, LaSelle was a voracious and intuitive student of modernist thought. She earned an MA in Art History from the University of Chicago in 1926, with her thesis examining the influence of New Guinea masks on the development of Cubism in Paris. A keen observer of artistic evolution, she spent six months studying in England, Italy, and France, before returning to the U.S.

From 1928 to 1972, LaSelle lived in Texas, where she taught art and design at what is now Texas Woman’s University. Despite working far from the recognized centers of modernism, she actively sought out influential mentors, most notably Hans Hofmann and László Moholy-Nagy, both of whom profoundly shaped her artistic approach.

A recognized expert on emerging trends in art, LaSelle lectured extensively on European modernism and played a key role in introducing these concepts to Texas. She personally facilitated Hans Hofmann’s 1947 exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art and hosted Moholy-Nagy’s workshops at North Texas.

A Career Marked by Quiet Innovation

Although she remained outside the dominant art world circuits, LaSelle’s work did not go unnoticed.

In 1948, the Dallas Museum of Art mounted a solo exhibition of her charcoal drawings.
In 1950, her first New York solo show was met with critical acclaim.
In 1959, the Fort Worth Art Center staged a major retrospective of her work, with Hans Hofmann himself writing the exhibition’s foreword, praising her artistic sensibilities.

Despite these successes, LaSelle’s contributions were largely sidelined in the broader narrative of American modernism.

A Study in Space, Movement, and Abstraction

For Frieze Masters, Inman Gallery presents works from the 1940s–1960s, a period of significant artistic transformation for LaSelle. This selection highlights her exploration of spatial relationships, color harmonies, and the abstraction of movement.

The Prodigal (1948) showcases LaSelle’s deep engagement with Hofmann’s theories of push-pull composition, balancing geometric and biomorphic forms with lyrical color interplay.
Figure, Space Planes (1946), a charcoal drawing from a Hofmann workshop, experiments with erasure as a form of drawing, collapsing positive and negative space into a singular pictorial plane.
Untitled (Red Triangle) (1953) maintains a sense of vertical gravity, yet edges toward a more aerial, weightless perspective.

Climate of the Heart #7 (1956) fully abandons the figure-ground relationship, achieving a fractured, floating composition that anticipates later developments in abstract painting.

Dorothy Antoinette LaSelle: Frieze Masters Spotlight

Curated By Carrie Scott

LaSelle on Space and Perception

Her writings provide further insight into her approach. In a 1948 interview, she described her work as:

"Space and Movement Compositions. They can also be called Space-Time drawings. The plane of the paper, the planes in the drawings, and the space in the drawings are all one thing. They cannot be separated. It takes all three together to create a plastic unit out of a flat piece of paper. They look abstract but they are concrete."
— Dallas Morning News, 1948

In an essay titled “Are We Conscious?”, she expands on the psychological experience of space, writing:

"Many people say that feeling space is one of the most pleasant sensations they can have. They like a view from a hilltop, they enjoy looking out over a town from a high building. From a high place, everything between the horizon and one’s feet is set against a background. The space between things becomes as important as the things themselves."

A Legacy Reclaimed

LaSelle continued working until her passing in 2002, just shy of her 101st birthday. Though largely unrecognized during her lifetime, her work has since been acquired by major institutions, including:

Dallas Museum of Art
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
San Antonio Museum of Art
The Menil Collection, Houston
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

A Long-Overdue Recognition

Dorothy Antoinette LaSelle’s work stands as a testament to the depth and vitality of mid-century abstraction. At a time when women artists were frequently sidelined, she pursued her vision with intellectual rigor and unwavering dedication.

With this exhibition, Frieze Masters Spotlight seeks to reclaim LaSelle’s rightful place among the great abstract artists of the Post-War period, acknowledging her contributions to modernist painting, spatial theory, and the evolving dialogue of abstraction.