Barbara Schwartz

Painter and sculptor Barbara Schwartz worked in the 1970s to enliven abstract art, drawing on balanced organic and geometric forms as well as Islamic influences to revitalize the genre. Her abstract painted plaster reliefs were loosely associated with the Pattern and Decoration art movement of the '70s and '80s, in which artists sought to advance the art world's estimation of "decorative" art by reviving intricate and deliberate patterning. Schwartz was represented in the 1979 Whitney Biennial, and her work is included in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the New York Public Library. She taught at the New York School of Visual Arts from 1978 until her death in 2006.