Suzy Frelinghuysen

Suzy Frelinghuysen (May 7, 1911 – March 19, 1988), also known as Suzy Morris, was an American abstract painter and opera singer.

Early and personal life Frelinghuysen was born in Newark, New Jersey, to Frederick Frelinghuysen and his wife Estelle B. Kinney, who were married in 1902. She was descended from various politicians, including her grandfather Frederick T. Frelinghuysen—Secretary of State under Chester A. Arthur—and her great-great-uncle, New Jersey Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen. She was educated at Miss Fine's School in Princeton, and later studied voice. She displayed an early interest in painting and drawing but never undertook formal art studies; she was separately tutored in art and music, all the time making childhood trips to Europe.

On January 30, 1935, she married George L. K. Morris, an abstract painter and collector who encouraged her to pursue an artistic career. Their Lenox, Massachusetts home and studio, constructed in 1930–1941, is now a museum.

Career

Painting Frelinghuysen's paintings were done in a realist style until the time of her marriage to Morris in 1935. Morris introduced her to the work of European modernists such as Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, Georges Braque, and Juan Gris, which inspired her to explore a more abstract Cubist manner.

Opera As Suzy Morris, the dramatic soprano appeared with the New York City Opera from 1947 to 1950, in Ariadne auf Naxos (in the title role, opposite Virginia MacWatters as Zerbinetta), Cavalleria rusticana (as Santuzza, conducted by Julius Rudel), Tosca (as Floria Tosca), Aïda (as Amneris, with Camilla Williams, Ramón Vinay, and Lawrence Winters, directed by Theodore Komisarjevsky), and Les contes d'Hoffmann (as Giulietta).

Following that last appearance with the City Opera, she debuted in 1950 with the New Orleans Opera Association, as Amelia in Un ballo in maschera. That performance, which was broadcast, also featured Jussi Björling, Marko Rothmüller, Martha Larrimore, the young Norman Treigle (as Samuele), as well as Audrey Schuh (as Oscar, her first major role). In 1998, VAI released this performance on compact disc.

After a 1951 bout of bronchitis, she retired from the stage, and once more became a full-time painter.

Death and legacy

Frelinghuysen died of a stroke on March 19, 1988 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts

Exhibitions 1937–1947, American Abstract Artists Annual Exhibitions, New York City, New York 1937, Park Avenue Cubist Show at Paul Reinhardt Galleries with Morris, A.E. Gallatin, and Charles G. Shaw 1940, Park Avenue Cubist Show: Tours Chicago, San Francisco, Honolulu 1940, Peggy Guggenheim show: 31 contemporary women artists 1944, Annual Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art 1945, Eight by Eight: American Abstract Painting since 1940, Philadelphia Museum of Art 1986, American Abstract Artists 50th Anniversary Exhibition

Collections Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Whitney Museum of Art, New York City, New York