Mildred Lucile Crooks


Mildred Lucile Crooks was an American abstract expressionist painter. She studied in Paris, France and exhibited at many group and solo shows including at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Salon des Tuileries, Salon d'Automne, the Brooklyn Museum, Arts Club Washington, D.C., and at many galleries in New York City.

Personal life

Crooks was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Henry David Crooks. She graduated from Oak Park High School in Chicago, before moving to New York City and Paris. Crooks studied in France, residing with her brother, Harold Crooks. She married Pinckney Gibson Daves on June 21, 1929, at the First Presbyterian Church, New York. The couple lived in the Sutton Place neighborhood, but also frequented the East Hampton area often staying at the Conklin House or at their residence in the Georgica Settlement. In the early 1930s, they were cited as guests at Francophile events in Cincinnati, Ohio. When Crooks died in May 1972, her death was recorded using her married name, Mildred Daves.

Life in France

Crooks studied in Paris for several years, reportedly having studios in Paris and Cannes. Her work was exhibited in the early 1930s at various salons including Salon D'Automne and Salon des Tuileries.
Crooks was the subject of a painting by Ary Stillman, a Russian American artist, who also spent time in Paris. His painting, Portrait of Mrs. Pinckney Daves, was exhibited in late 1931 at the "L'exposition Artistique la Plus Originale de L'Annee" at Salon des Echanges. A featuring the painting is rare glimpse of her likeness.

Critical reception

A number critics wrote about Crooks's work, including one featured article in The New York Times in 1932, where she is called a "painter's painter." The review of her still-life was deemed to have been "worked out with really fine detail," although the critic worries about her "forays into surrealist territory," a territory she embraced later in her career with her paintings becoming more abstract.
Another reviewer at The New Yorker can't decide if Crooks's nudes were the high-spot of the show, but claims to like them immensely. The art critic C. Adolph Glassgold reviewing her exhibition at the Morton Gallery states that Crooks's work shows "Impeccable color sense.."

Exhibitions

Mildred Crooks had a thirty-five-year-long exhibition record. This list of known exhibitions of Crook's work uses sources from exhibition records, news accounts in The New York Times, the Washington Post, The New Yorker, and The New York Sun, Crooks's biography entry in , as well as entries in various arts magazines such as The Arts and Creative Art.

Exhibitions by year

  • 1928: Anderson Galleries, New York, Third annual exhibition of NY Society of Women Artists.
  • 1929: G.R.D. Studio, New York, New York,, four artists show featuring Mildred Crooks, Adelaide J. Lawson, Doris Rosenthal, and Agnes Weinrich.
  • 1929: Anderson Galleries, New York, exhibition of NY Society of Women Artists.
  • 1931: Salon D'Automne, Paris, France. Fleurs.
  • 1932: Salon des Tuileries, 10th Exposition, Paris, France. Deux enfants, Nature morte.
  • 1932: Morton Gallery, New York, New York.
  • 1932: Gallery of the NY Society of Women Painters and Sculptors, Squibb Building, New York.
  • 1933: Salon des Tuileries, 11th Exposition, Paris, France. Composition, Nature morte, Nature morte.
  • 1933: Gallerie Zak – Group show.
  • 1934: Gallerie de Paris – Group show
  • 1934: Salon des Tuileries, 12th Exposition, Paris, France. Composition, Nature morte, Nature morte.
  • 1936: NY Society of Women Artist Exhibition.
  • 1938: Arts Club, Washington D.C.,.
  • 1939: New York World's Fair: Two murals on glass combined with photographs executed for Paul Lester Weiner, architect, for the Brazilian pavilion; eight dioramas for the Ecuadorian pavilion.
  • 1940: Semi-private Exhibition Studio of Paul Lester Wiener, Architect.
  • 1941: Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
  • 1946: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Annual Exhibition 1946, January 26 – March 3; entry #285; Revelation XII:II
  • 1953: Pachita Crespi Gallery of Creative Art, New York, New York – solo exhibition
  • 1957: Solo exhibition, Ruth White Gallery, New York, New York, March 5–30, 1957.
  • 1957: Group show, Ruth White Gallery, New York, New York, May 1957.
  • 1957: Holiday group show, Ruth White Gallery, New York, New York, December 1957.
  • 1957: Willard Gallery, New York, New York,
  • 1957: Emmerich Gallery, New York, New York
  • 1959: Pioneer Museum and Haggin Galleries, Stockton, California
  • 1960: Ruth White Galleries, New York, New York
  • 1963: Ruth White Galleries, New York, New York,.