
Daphne Mumford (b. 1935, Connecticut) studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting in 1952; the Chelsea School of Art, London in 1952-53; and the Brooklyn Museum School of Art in 1953-54.
She was a member of the Tenth Street cooperative, the Area Gallery, where she had two solo exhibitions in 1958 and 1959. In the 1970s she was a founding member of the Landmark Gallery in SoHo, where she was the subject of five solo exhibitions, and participated in several group shows.
Mumford lived in Manhattan before moving with her family to Brooklyn Heights and spending summers in mid-coast Maine. Her earliest work, often portraits of those closest to her, was distinguished by symbolist overtones and subtle, "primitive" drama. By the early 1970s, she turned to a greater degree of naturalism in her depiction of figures, although the environments and interiors were often imagined: a response to either the subjects or intuitive mark-making.
Mumford's work -- with its clear silhouettes, simplified planar areas, patterns of textiles, and the mimimalist geometries of interiors and exteriors -- bears a relationship to contemporaries such as Alex Katz and Will Barnet. Mumford tended to focus her gaze on her family: her two daughters (one of whom was a dancer) and their friends.
Daphne Mumford
Young Violinist, 1973
oil on canvas
72h x 60w in
182.88h x 152.40w cm
DMUM001
Daphne Mumford
Red Room, 1978
oil on canvas
65 1/4h x 95 1/2w in
165.74h x 242.57w cm
DMUM003
Daphne Mumford
Rehearsal Schedule, 1976
oil on canvas
72 1/2h x 142w in
184.15h x 360.68w cm
DMUM004
Daphne Mumford
Solitude, 1974
oil on canvas
44h x 51w in
111.76h x 129.54w cm
DMUM005
Daphne Mumford
Shadows, 1978
oil on canvas
72h x 60w in
182.88h x 152.40w cm
DMUM006
Daphne Mumford
Cora in Purple, 1971
oil on canvas
45h x 31w in
114.30h x 78.74w cm
DMUM007
Daphne Mumford
Dancer Stretching (Vickie in a Split), 1977
oil on canvas
50h x 60w in
127h x 152.40w cm
DMUM008
Daphne Mumford
Vickie Resting, 1978
oil on canvas
60 1/4h x 60w in
153.04h x 152.40w cm
DMUM009
Daphne Mumford
Hide and Seek, 1975
oil on canvas
65 1/2h x 90 3/4w in
166.37h x 230.51w cm
DMUM010