Betty Parsons (1900–1982) opened her gallery on 57th Street in 1946 and within a few years was representing Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, and Jackson Pollock—essentially the first generation of Abstract Expressionism. Most of them left Parsons when they became famous, frustrated by her indifference to the market. She replaced them with Agnes Martin, Robert Rauschenberg, and Ellsworth Kelly. What almost no one knew was that she was making her own paintings and sculptures the whole time. CCS Bard is now staging the first major retrospective devoted to that work, with 80 pieces spanning 1922 to 1982. —Elena Clavarino