Flora Crockett Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1892 - d. 1979

Flora Crockett (1892–1979) was an American painter whose non-objective abstractions were said by New York Times critic, Roberta Smith, to be "elegant, knowing and at ease, made by a practiced hand." Known for dynamic compositions having layered design elements in exuberant color, she worked independently, without reference to the popular art movements of her time. She did not repeat herself so that, as one critic said, "everything feels discovered." Soon after her marriage in 1918, Crockett traveled to France with her sculptor husband Edmond Quattrocchi. There, she studied at Académie Moderne in Paris and in 1929 was appointed its director. In 1937, newly divorced, she returned from Paris. Three years later she rented an apartment on 14th Street at 8th Avenue in New York where she lived and painted the rest of her life. Throughout her career she supported herself by taking a variety of jobs, including work for the Federal Art Project and in war industries. In her free time both during her working years and after retirement, she produced a body of work which was recognized for its excellence after her death.