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Jane Haskell
Jane Haskell (1923-2013) was an American artist best known for her Window Series, neon installations, and Alphabet paintings.



“Light has been the leitmotif of my work for many years, beginning with paint on canvas or paper, and ultimately becoming the medium that defines the work itself. Walls have become my canvas, colored lamps in my paint. Artists whom I admire and whose work has influenced me, are Joseph [sic] Albers, with his theories of color, Paul Klee, whose Pedagogical Sketchbook taught me so much about line, and Dan Flavin, the minimalist of light. Recent discoveries in outer space have also been an influence. Black holes, an absence of matter and of light, contrast with the wonderful images of the Hubble telescope, showing the exploding lights of stars and galaxies.” Jane Haskell, 2000

Life
Haskell was an artist who made paintings, drawings and sculptures considered to be abstract. She focused on exploring ways that color, form, pattern and light interact. She lived by the mantra “without light there is no life.”

Born Jane Zirinsky in Cedarhurst, NY, to Louis and Bertha Zirinsky, Haskell attended Lawrence High School, Cedarhurst, NY in 1940. She graduated from Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, with a bachelor of fine arts degree in 1944. She married Edward Haskell in August 1945. The Haskell’s moved to Pittsburgh in January 1949. She earned her master’s degree in art history at the University of Pittsburgh in 1961. Haskell’s first solo museum exhibit was at Carnegie Museum of Art, 1964. She had a solo exhibit at Pittsburgh Plan for Art in 1979, where she showed fluorescent sculpture for the first time. She joined Carnegie Museum of Art Board in 1999.

A career shifting development, she began studying with Samuel Rosenberg in 1953 at the Young Men and Women’s Hebrew Association, referred to as the Y Workshop, and remained a student until his 1964 retirement. Rosenberg was a key Pittsburgh pedagogical figure, fostering budding artists while teaching at Carnegie Tech, and guiding the artistic ambitions of adult students at the Y. The Y Workshop, in particular, was considered to be a creative haven for women like Haskell, who were juggling domestic obligations with artistic aspirations and felt encouraged by his guidance.

As a result of her studies with Rosenberg her interest in lights’ aspects intensified and became a focus throughout her career. Her Window Series paintings and drawings, organized in grid-like patterns, show how the quality of color alters depending on the saturation or absence of light. She was particularly curious about how these variations influence viewers’ perception. She also made sculptures made out of neon. These show her exploration with the way light physically reacts with the space of a room. In an artist statement she said, “It is an exciting challenge to paint—literally—with light, to work with neon or fluorescent light as it interacts with line, texture and canvas. I wish to create an enveloping environment of color and light…. Walls have become my canvas, colored lamps my paint.” Her statement explains that she valued light as a medium like paint or pencil.

Notable Commissions
•	Awarded commission Rivers of Light at Steel Plaza Subway Station, Pittsburgh, 1982. Completed in 1985.

Selected Exhibitions
•	Paintings, Collage and Sculpture at Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 1964. •	Paintings with Neon at Pittsburgh Plan for Art, 1981. •	Construction with Light at Associated Artists of Pittsburgh Gallery, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, 1987. •	Symposium on Light: 2006 Artist of the Year at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, 2006. •	Pittsburgh Biennial includes in the Valley of the Shadow at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, 2014. •	Jane Haskell: Drawing in Light at the American Jewish Museum. 2016.