Margaret Mullin 1910–1980
Born in 1910 in New Rochelle, New York, Margaret Mullin exhibited artistic talent early on and studied at Cooper Union in the late 1920s, later working as a shoe designer. At the age of 25, she married Joseph Meert, a painter-in-training, and moved to Kansas City with him in 1936 when he was offered a job as an assistant for Thomas Hart Benton. There, she began showcasing her work in various exhibitions hosted by Thomas Hart and Rita Benton’s Midwestern Artists’ Gallery as well as the Kansas City Art Institute.
Returning to New York in the early 1940s, Mullin taught costume history at the Traphagen School of Fashion and co-founded an abstract art group called Spiral in 1946. She was active in the New York abstract art scene, befriending artists like Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner.
In the late 1960s, she and Meert settled in Lanesville, New York, where she gained recognition for her fashion-inspired chess sets and egg tempera paintings. They opened their home as a gallery for public exhibitions.
Over the course of her career, Mullin explored various artistic styles in the ever-changing world of art in the mid-20th century, from Surrealism to Abstract Expressionism. Mullin’s work was exhibited at many prestigious institutions such as Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, Guggenheim Museum in New York, and Vanguard Gallery in Carmel, California. Two solo exhibitions were held in 1970 (Phoenicia Library, Phoenicia, New York) and 1971 (Rexmere Hotel, Stamford, New York) to honor her artistic legacy. She passed away in 1980.
