| Frances Kornbluth | |
| Birth Date: | 26 July 1920 |
| Birth Place: | New York City, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Dayville, CT |
| Field: | Painter |
| Training: | Reuben Tam William Kienbusch Robert Richenburg |
| Alma Mater: | Brooklyn College Brooklyn Museum Art School Pratt Institute |
| Movement: | Abstract Expressionism |
| Website: | https://www.franceskornbluth.com |
Frances Kornbluth (July 26, 1920 – May 26, 2014) was an American abstract expressionist painter who spent 57 summers painting on Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine.
Frances Kornbluth was born in New York City on July 26, 1920.[1] Originally intent on becoming a composer, Kornbluth graduated from Brooklyn College in 1940 with a degree in music; however, in the 1950s she focused her creative energies on painting. Kornbluth studied at the Brooklyn Museum Art School from 1955 to 1959, where she first met Reuben Tam, and went on to receive a master's degree from the Pratt Institute in 1962. It was Tam who first introduced Kornbluth to Monhegan Island and helped define her as an artist.[2] Beginning in 1957, Kornbluth started spending her summers on Monhegan Island, where her friends and contemporaries included Lynne Mapp Drexler and Elena Jahn. Kornbluth died on May 26, 2014, at the age of 93.[3] During her lifetime, she was a member of the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA), a charter member of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) and a founding member of Women Artists of Monhegan Island (WAMI).
The natural environment was the primary source of Kornbluth's inspiration, particularly that of Monhegan Island where she summered and painted from 1957 to 2013.[4] Kornbluth painted at her studio in Lobster Cove on Monhegan and at her studio in Northeastern Connecticut. She worked in oil, pastel, acrylic, watercolor, ink and mixed media collage.