1933-2015
June Harwood was a California abstract artist known for her hard edge paintings of geometric forms. She was the last remaining major artist associated with the hard edge group on the West Coast. Many of her early paintings consisted of shapes that were more or less rectangular, painted in silver, gray and black. She defined her shapes with crisp lines and edges to produce a flat, geometric look.
Harwood grew up in Middletown, New York and received her B.F.A. from Syracuse University. She moved to Los Angeles where she taught at Hollywood High School. She received her M.A. in art from Cal State LosAngeles.
Harwood painted abstract art often using acrylics, uncommon at that time, whose lines and edges were made crisp by her use of tape. Her work evolved to include loops and circles along with the application of metallic paint. Her later interest in kinetics and motion can be seen in her “Loop Series” in the 1960s.
In the 1990s and in the next decade she veered away from hard edge and used painterly effects in simple landscapes, such as “Siege” 2002 and “Black Rock, Red Rock” 2003. Harwood taught in Los Angeles and was a professor and chairperson of Los Angeles Valley College Art Department. She was included in hard edge exhibitions in Southern California, and her work can be found in numerous college and university collections in California.
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