Grace Hartigan was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1922, into the industrial urban landscape of the American Northeast. A citizen of the United States, she received her education at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, laying early technical foundations for what would become a career of sustained engagement with painting, illustration, and teaching.

Her work placed her firmly within the abstract expressionist movement and the broader constellation of artists associated with the New York School. She moved through circles that included Jackson Pollock, Larry Rivers, Helen Frankenthaler, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, and the poet Frank O'Hara — a community whose energy shaped the postwar American art world. Her paintings entered the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, a concrete measure of the standing her work achieved within that milieu. She worked not only as a painter but also as an illustrator, bringing a versatile visual sensibility to her practice.

Later in her career, Hartigan turned significantly toward education. She served as director of the Hoffberger School of Painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, a role that placed her at the center of training successive generations of painters. That position reflected both her commitment to the craft and her sustained presence in the institutional life of American art. In recognition of her contributions across decades of work, she received the Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award.

Hartigan died in Baltimore in 2008, the city where she had spent much of her later life as a teacher and working painter. Her paintings remain held by the Museum of Modern Art, anchoring her legacy in one of the most significant collections of modern art in the United States.