Fay Lansner was an American painter known for her figurative paintings and her strong use of color, depicting idealized images of emboldened and liberated women. Fay’s first foray into the professional art world was as a student of fashion design at Wannamaker’s Institute in Philadelphia. Her extant illustrations for fashion advertisements are both precise and charming. Fay was thrust into the height of the Abstract Expressionist movement in New York during the early 1950s. Armed with her exposure to European art history and Hofmann’s lessons, Fay quickly became affiliated with her American peers, including Willem DeKooning, Joan Mitchell, and Franz Kline. She was briefly a member of the Artists’ Club, but felt relegated by the founding male leaders. Soon she joined Hansa, one of the first cooperative galleries that had begun to proliferate in Greenwich Village and the lower midtown area. Fay’s first American exhibition was held at Hansa in 1954. Other Hansa members included Allan Kaprow, Jane Wilson, and Wolf Kahn.