Suzy FRELINGHUYSEN (born May 7, 1911, Newark, New Jersey–died March 19, 1988, Lenox, Massachusetts) displayed an early interest in painting and drawing but never had formal art studies. She painted in a realist style until the time of her marriage to George L. K. Morris in 1935. Morris, an abstract painter and collector, introduced her to the work of European modernists such as Pablo Picasso, Fernand Leger, and Georges Braque, which inspired Frelinghuysen to work in an abstract Cubist manner. Frelinghuysen was initially attracted to Synthetic Cubism, but unlike him, she opted for a more intuitive approach and richer surfaces in her oil and collage paintings of the 1940s.
In 1937 Frelinghuysen joined the American Abstract Artists group and exhibited her work in most of the organization's shows in the following years. She and her husband, with artists Charles Shaw and Albert Gallatin, were sometimes referred to as the "Park Avenue Cubists." Although she retained a strong commitment to painting, Frelinghuysen embarked on a second career in the 1930s. After training as a professional singer, she earned critical praise for her performances in operas and concerts from the late 1940s to the early 1950s.