Amaranth Ehrenhalt

Amaranth Ehrenhalt was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1928 to a middle-class, Jewish family. She loved painting at an early age and was placed in the Saturday Morning program at Philadelphia Art Museum. Amaranth Ehrenhalt's studies at the University of Pennsylvania paled in comparison to her exposure to modern art at the Barnes Foundation, which laid the foundation for a practice steeped in colorful abstraction. From Philadelphia to Greenwich Village, Ehrenhalt was no stranger to the famed Cedar Tavern, brushing off dinner invites from Willem de Kooning and listening in on Jackson Pollock's boastful statements. When New York lost its luster, Ehrenhalt set sail for Paris, where a three-week planned stay turned into forty years of struggle for her painting passion. Ehrenhalt shared clothes with Joan Mitchell, food with Beauford Delaney and supplies with Sonia Delaunay. She was also friendly with Alberto Giacometti, Shirley Jaffe, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, and Sam Francis. Her works are the collections of Hirshorn Museum, Downey Museum, and National Foundation of Contemporary Art.