Called a second-generation Abstract Expressionist, Grace Hartigan has created work that strikes a balance between abstract and figurative. Typically her figures are boldly outlined in black, and she fills them in with blocks of coloration. Of her painting she said: "I do not wish to describe my subject matter, or to reflect upon it---I want to distill it until I have its essence. Then the rawness must be resolved into form and unity; with the 'rage for order' how can there be art?" ((Herskovic 162)

In her book, American Women Artists, Charlotte Rubinstein described Hartigan's painting as "gutsy, slashing compositions that incorporated fragments of city imagery---store windows, pushcarts, glimpses of figures---with ...