Then and Now: Interview with Artist Frances Hynes

4 min readOct 3, 2020

“Then and Now: The Shape and Line of Home” is a new exhibition by artist Frances Hynes which will be on display from October 2nd to 25th at the Garage Art Center in Bayside, New York. The event will include a Watercolor Workshop on Sunday, October 25, 2020 from 3pm to 4pm. This exhibition is comprised of ten pieces by Frances Hynes — four of which are new — and each one minimally and abstractedly symbolizes buildings that the artist passed on a daily basis while living in Queens, NY, in the 1970s and 1980s. These paintings represent concepts of duality and transition such as here/there, past/present, entry/exit, and inside/outside.

“My work over the years emphasizes form and structure,” Frances recently stated via an exclusive interview. “It begins with an image but becomes more abstract over a span of time and as I work on any one painting. I have found that simplifying and leaving out visual information allows me to arrive at some valid essence. Something basic and essential needs to be discovered in a painting. I think curiosity and change keeps the work fresh and interesting. Painting is a very flexible medium and allows an artist to be expressive in countless ways. There is such an enormous history of painting beginning with cave paintings that date back to perhaps 30,000 and 40,000 B.C. or B.C.E. Cultures all over the world have a vast history of art. I think this history of art is the best teacher for any artist and here in NY we have so many great Museums: beginning with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As a student I loved to visit the Museum of Modern Art, which has gone through a few transformations since the time I first visited. Then it was a smaller more intimate institution. I liked studying the work of Paul Klee, Matisse, and Miro. And I loved looking at the work of Jackson Pollock and Rothko. I also liked the American wing of the Metropolitan Museum and looking at the work of: Ryder, Winslow Homer, Hartley, Marin, and other great American Painters. More recently I study Chinese recluse painters that I see in the Chinese section at the Met; and the room of Buddas there is always a wonderful resting and meditation place for me.”

Frances noted that it is wonderful to have the new venue of GAC in the Bayside neighborhood. Stephanie Lee, founder and director of GAC became aware of Frances’ work when Springfield Museum of Art in Ohio sent her to Frances’ studio to pack some work that was going to them. At that time, Stephanie was just beginning to think and plan for this new project, the GAC. That day she saw a lot of work in Frances’ studio and then made another more in-depth studio visit a few months later. Ms. Lee made all the choices for the show, work done between 1979 and 1988. More recently, Stephanie and Frances decided to include four current paintings.

When asked what else is coming up for her, Frances stated: “Right now, there is a show of my Constellations at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers. And a conversation between myself and Mark Taylor, about that show is on YouTube. At the moment three of my larger paintings, 50 X 60” and larger are traveling to Belgrade to be shown at the American Embassy there. And this summer I was interviewed by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation regarding my participation as a student in Outskirts a performance choreographed by Rauschenberg that took place in the student center at New York University. I’m happy that I have always been represented by good NYC galleries and have had over 40 exhibitions at galleries and Museums. I’ve also travelled as a visiting artist professor and doing so, have lived in Ireland, Finland, Michigan, Illinois and Savannah Georgia, etc.”