Patricia Nix: American Baroque

Patricia Nix has produced a body of work on a scale that is quite staggering. Just as Nix can be seen as an heir to American master collagist Joseph Cornell, she belongs among a group of women artists of Surrealism who included, in its founding generation, Jacqueline Lamba Breton, Remedios Varo, Leonor Fini, and Meret Oppenheim.

The range of her artistic expression and development from the early 1950s onward continues to look for the magic in the object. She finds ironic and psychological interpretations in the material she collects – sometimes tawdry, often strange, and occasionally making reference to her native Texas. From these she creates elaborate constructions and boldly colorful paintings.

Patricia Nix studied at the Art Students League in New York and resided for years in both New York City and Paris, before settling and working from her studio in Palm Beach.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website