Shirley Jaffe Foundation launches to preserve the legacy of a major voice in Postwar Abstraction

Newly established Foundation announces mission dedicated to preservation, research, publication, and the Catalogue Raisonné of Shirley Jaffe's work

Paris / New York - The Shirley Jaffe Foundation officially announces its establishment as a new nonprofit initiative dedicated to preserving, researching, publishing, and expanding public understanding of the life and work of Shirley Jaffe (1923-2016), one of the most distinctive artistic voices in postwar abstraction.

Founded by the descendants of the artist, the Shirley Jaffe Foundation has been created to support long-term scholarship and institutional engagement surrounding Jaffe's artistic legacy while fostering greater international awareness of her contribution to twentieth-century art history.

Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1923, Shirley Jaffe emerged as a singular figure whose career bridged American and European artistic developments. After relocating to Paris in 1949, she became associated with an influential international circle of postwar artists while developing an increasingly independent visual language. Although her early work reflected gestural abstraction, Jaffe later transformed her practice into a bold and highly original compositional approach defined by vivid color, fragmented geometry, and dynamic spatial relationships.

Over the course of her career, Jaffe's work entered major institutional collections and has been recognized through significant exhibitions in Europe and the United States, including renewed international attention in recent years through museum retrospectives and scholarly reassessment. Her practice is widely regarded as a unique contribution to postwar abstraction, transcending conventional distinctions between American Abstract Expressionism and European modernist traditions.

At the center of the Foundation's mission is the development of a comprehensive Catalogue Raisonné Project, which will document, preserve, and contextualize Shirley Jaffe's body of work for scholars, curators, collectors, and future generations. This initiative represents a major step toward consolidating archival resources and supporting rigorous academic research on the artist's oeuvre.

In addition to preservation and publication efforts, the Foundation seeks to serve as a resource for museums, researchers, collectors, and institutions by facilitating access to scholarly information and promoting broader dialogue around Jaffe's enduring significance within global art history.

Through its activities, the Shirley Jaffe Foundation aims not only to protect the integrity of the artist's work, but also to ensure that Shirley Jaffe's place within the history of postwar and contemporary art continues to be explored, understood, and expanded.

Collectors, institutions, and individuals with relevant works or archival materials are encouraged to engage with the Foundation as part of its ongoing research and documentation initiatives.

For more information, visit:
https://www.shirleyjaffefoundation.org/

Shirley Jaffe Foundation

10 Rockledge Place
Mahopac, NY 10541

info@shirleyjaffefoundation.org

The Shirley Jaffe Foundation is dedicated to the preservation, research, publication, and dissemination of the work of Shirley Jaffe (1923-2016). Through scholarly initiatives including the Catalogue Raisonné Project, the Foundation supports the continued study and public understanding of one of postwar abstraction's most original artistic voices.

This release was published on openPR.