# June Leaf > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/June_Leaf > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/June_Leaf.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Leaf > Source revision: 1357291832 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|American artist (1929–2024)}} {{Infobox person | name = June Leaf | image = June Leaf (visual artist).webp | caption = Leaf in the early 1990s | alt = June Leaf | birth_date = {{birth date|1929|8|4}} | birth_place = [Chicago](/source/Chicago), Illinois, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2024|7|1|1929|8|4}} | death_place = [New York City](/source/New_York_City), [New York](/source/New_York_(state)), U.S. | education = [Roosevelt University](/source/Roosevelt_University) ([BA](/source/Bachelor_of_Arts))
[Illinois Institute of Technology](/source/Illinois_Institute_of_Technology) ([MA](/source/Master_of_Arts)) | years_active = 1949–2024 | spouse = {{marriage|Joel Press|end=div}}
{{marriage|[Robert Frank](/source/Robert_Frank)|1975|2019|end=d}} }} '''June Leaf''' (August 4, 1929 – July 1, 2024) was an American visual artist known for her [abstract](/source/Abstract_art) [allegorical](/source/Allegory) paintings and drawings; she also worked in [modernist](/source/Modernism) [kinetic sculpture](/source/Kinetic_art). She was based in New York City, on [Bleecker Street](/source/Bleecker_Street) in [NoHo](/source/NoHo%2C_Manhattan), and [Mabou, Nova Scotia](/source/Mabou%2C_Nova_Scotia). == Biography == June Leaf was born on August 4, 1929, in [Chicago](/source/Chicago), Illinois, to Ruth (Ettleson) Leaf and Phillip Leaf.{{Cite web|url=https://americanart.si.edu/artist/june-leaf-2845|title=June Leaf|website=Smithsonian American Art Museum|language=en|access-date=2018-01-04}} She studied ballet and created sculptures, then was enrolled for three months between 1947 and 1948 at the [Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology](/source/Institute_of_Design_at_the_Illinois_Institute_of_Technology) (formerly known as the New Bauhaus),{{Cite news|url=https://hyperallergic.com/293089/beer-with-a-painter-june-leaf/|title=Beer with a Painter: June Leaf|date=2016-04-23|work=Hyperallergic|access-date=2018-01-04|language=en-US|archive-date=2018-01-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180104192706/https://hyperallergic.com/293089/beer-with-a-painter-june-leaf/|url-status=live}} taking classes with artist [Hugo Weber](/source/Hugo_Weber).{{Cite web|url=https://whitney.org/Exhibitions/JuneLeaf|title=June Leaf: Thought Is Infinite|date=2016-04-01|website=Whitney Museum of American Art|language=en|access-date=2018-01-04|archive-date=2018-01-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180105070117/https://whitney.org/Exhibitions/JuneLeaf|url-status=live}} She left school and traveled to [Paris](/source/Paris) in 1948, focusing on creating and identifying abstraction and patterns in her work. In 1954, she returned to the school for her B.A. degree in [Art Education](/source/Visual_arts_education) from [Roosevelt University](/source/Roosevelt_University) and the same year her M.A. degree in Art Education at Institute of Design.{{Cite web|url=http://www.artnet.com/artists/june-leaf/biography|title=June Leaf Biography|website=artnet|access-date=2018-01-04|archive-date=2018-01-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180107233020/http://www.artnet.com/artists/june-leaf/biography|url-status=live}} Leaf returned to Paris in 1958–1959 with a [Fulbright Grant](/source/Fulbright_Program) for painting. When she returned, she moved to New York City in 1960. In 1970, Leaf purchased a home on [Cape Breton](/source/Cape_Breton_Island)'s western coast in [Mabou](/source/Mabou%2C_Nova_Scotia), where she also built a studio.{{Cite journal |last=Cronin |first=Ray |title=June Leaf in Mabou Since 1969 |journal=Border Crossings |volume=41 |issue=3 |via=EBSCOhost Art & Architecture Source}} She married filmmaker and photographer, [Robert Frank](/source/Robert_Frank) in 1975.{{Cite news|url=http://wwd.com/eye/people/june-leaf-art-whitney-show-and-living-with-photographer-robert-frank-10459211/|title=June Leaf Discusses Art, Whitney Show and Living With Photographer Robert Frank|last=Feitelberg|first=Rosemary|date=2016-06-17|work=WWD|access-date=2018-01-04|language=en-US|archive-date=2017-11-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171122211819/http://wwd.com/eye/people/june-leaf-art-whitney-show-and-living-with-photographer-robert-frank-10459211/|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/05/magazine/robert-franks-america.html|title=The Man Who Saw America|last=Dawidoff|first=Nicholas|date=2015-07-02|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-01-04|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=2015-09-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905190846/http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/05/magazine/robert-franks-america.html|url-status=live}} In 2016, the [Whitney Museum of American Art](/source/Whitney_Museum_of_American_Art) held the retrospective exhibition "June Leaf: Thought Is Infinite." In the same year, another retrospective was held at the Edward Thorp Gallery in New York, entitled "June Leaf: A Survey, 1949-Present". Her work is included in many permanent art collections, including the [Smithsonian American Art Museum](/source/Smithsonian_American_Art_Museum), the [Art Institute of Chicago](/source/Art_Institute_of_Chicago),{{Cite news|url=http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/artist/Leaf,+June|title=Leaf, June|website=The Art Institute of Chicago|language=en|access-date=2018-01-04|archive-date=2018-01-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180104192700/http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/artist/Leaf,+June|url-status=live}} [Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago](/source/Museum_of_Contemporary_Art%2C_Chicago),{{Cite web|url=https://mcachicago.org/Collection/Items/June-Leaf-Arcade-Women-1956|title=MCA Collection: June Leaf, Arcade Women, 1956|website=Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago|language=en|access-date=2018-01-04|archive-date=2018-01-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180105070114/https://mcachicago.org/Collection/Items/June-Leaf-Arcade-Women-1956|url-status=live}} [Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)](/source/Museum_of_Modern_Art),{{Cite web|url=https://www.moma.org/artists/3438|title=June Leaf|website=The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)|language=en|access-date=2018-01-04|archive-date=2018-01-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180104192537/https://www.moma.org/artists/3438|url-status=live}} and the [Minneapolis Institute of Art](/source/Minneapolis_Institute_of_Art).{{Cite web|url=https://collections.artsmia.org/art/125787/the-salon-june-leaf|title=The Salon by June Leaf|website=Minneapolis Institute of Art|access-date=2018-01-04|archive-date=2018-01-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180104192441/https://collections.artsmia.org/art/125787/the-salon-june-leaf|url-status=live}} June Leaf died from [gastric cancer](/source/Stomach_cancer) in Manhattan, on July 1, 2024, at the age of 94.{{cite web |last=Grimes |first=William |date=July 3, 2024 |title=June Leaf, Artist Who Explored the Female Form, Dies at 94 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/01/arts/june-leaf-dead.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240702024928/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/01/arts/june-leaf-dead.html |archive-date=July 2, 2024 |access-date=July 1, 2024 |work=The New York Times |page=B12 |issn=0362-4331}} == Works == === ''Coney Island'' (1968) === Executed in pen and ink and colored pencil on paper, the work measures {{convert|14|x|16+7/8|in|cm}}. The drawing depicts a middle-aged couple looking at an amusement park carousel. Unlike some of Leaf's other works, it does not include surreal or fantastical imagery and instead presents a scene grounded in everyday subject matter. {{Cite web|url=https://whitney.org/Essays/JuneLeaf|title=June Leaf: Thought Is Infinite|website=whitney.org|language=en|access-date=2019-03-29|archive-date=2019-03-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190329192033/https://whitney.org/Essays/JuneLeaf|url-status=live}} ===''The Girl with the Hoop'' (1980)=== Created with [acrylic](/source/acrylic_paint) and fiber-tipped pen on paper, {{Fraction|8|1|2}} × 11 in (21.6 × 27.9 cm). A relatively simple [graphite](/source/graphite) and ink drawing from 2013 of the artist "threading" her eyes with her fingers found Leaf literally drawing a line out of her brain/vision. The sheet revisits a motif developed in Threading the Story through the Eye of a Needle from 1974, in which a hand encapsulates an imagined scene seemingly pulled forth—threaded through—the eye of its creator. The hand joins the head explicitly in these images. Leaf's representations and interpretations of thought as "infinite" seem to be her meditations on imagination's expression in the physical world through the artist's corporeality: ruminations on the creative process. The subject of how the mind's contents become manifest through the artist's hand is addressed further in a series of works representing substances that issue forth from the brain in various ways. ===''Making # 2'' (2014–2015)=== Artist made sewing treadle, wire, copper, thread, {{convert|11+1/2|x|22|x|19+1/2|in|cm}}. Making #2 includes the sewing machine base. It is entirely fabricated and features a dancing figure, delicately rendered as a wire line drawing within a circular arc that vibrates when the treadle is worked or the wheel connected to it is turned. Leaf possessed made many devices with triggers or other parts that activate little figures. These evoked the mechanics of 19th-century hands-on mechanical animations.{{Cite web|url=https://brooklynrail.org/2015/06/artseen/june-leaf-2015|title=June Leaf|last=Berlind|first=Robert|date=2015-06-03|website=The Brooklyn Rail|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-29}} == Awards == Leaf was awarded an [Honorary Doctorate](/source/Honorary_degree), Humane Letters in 1984 from [DePaul University](/source/DePaul_University) and in 1996 from [Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD)](/source/NSCAD_University). She received many awards including the Distinguished Artists Awards from the [Canadian Council](/source/Canada_Council) in 1984 and a [National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant](/source/National_Endowment_for_the_Arts) in painting in 1989. == Bibliography == * Enright, Robert, ''June Leaf''. Benteli, 2006. {{ISBN|3716513733}} * Leaf, June, ''Record 1974/1975.'' Göttingen: [Steidl](/source/Steidl), 2010. {{ISBN|9783869300511}}.{{Cite web|url=https://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/1974-1975-critical-communities-rite/2093|title=July 2010: Book Review: June Leaf, Record 1974/1975 and Critical Communities, RITE|last=Hunter|first=Becky|date=2010-07-01|website=WhiteHot Magazine|language=en|access-date=2018-01-04|archive-date=2016-05-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160529220931/http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/1974-1975-critical-communities-rite/2093|url-status=live}} * Leaf, June, ''Thought Is Infinite''. Göttingen: Steidl, 2016. {{ISBN|3958291023}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DILvjwEACAAJ|title=Thought Is Infinite|last=Leaf|first=June|date=2016|publisher=Steidl|isbn=9783958291027|language=en|format=Google Books}} == References == {{reflist}} == External links == * [https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-june-leaf-15848 Oral history interview with June Leaf (2009 Nov. 16 – 2010 May 17)], from [Archives of American Art](/source/Archives_of_American_Art), [Smithsonian Institution](/source/Smithsonian_Institution) * [https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/01/t-magazine/june-leaf-ortuzar-projects.html The Visual Artist Who Thinks of Herself as a Dancer or an Aviator] interview in the New York Times Nov. 1, 2022 * {{IMDb name|7822684}} * {{Discogs artist|June Leaf}} * [https://addison.andover.edu/exhibition/june-leaf-shooting-from-the-heart/# June Leaf: Shooting from the Heart] exhibit organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art (March 15–July 31, 2025); traveled to [https://greyartmuseum.nyu.edu/exhibition/june-leaf-shooting-from-the-heartseptember-9-december-13-2025/ Grey Art Museum], New York University (September 9–December 13, 2025) and the [https://amam.oberlin.edu/exhibitions-events/exhibitions/2026/01/27/june-leaf-shooting-from-the-heart Allen Memorial Art Museum], Oberlin College (January 27–May 24, 2026). Catalog {{ISBN|978-0-8478-4353-4}} {{authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Leaf, June}} Category:1929 births Category:2024 deaths Category:National Endowment for the Arts Fellows Category:Illinois Institute of Technology alumni Category:Artists from Chicago Category:Roosevelt University alumni Category:American contemporary painters Category:21st-century American women painters Category:21st-century American painters Category:20th-century American women painters Category:20th-century American painters Category:Deaths from stomach cancer in New York (state) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [June Leaf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Leaf) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_Leaf?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.