Barbara Swan: Reflected Self
Self Portrait, Sanary, 1951, oil on canvas, 36 x 29 inches
Barbara Swan: Reflected Self Barbara Swan first came to my attention almost four years ago, while I was working on an exhibition entitled The Expressive Voice. The exhibition was an opportunity to explore Boston Expressionism, a movement that dominated the Boston art scene beginning in the late 1940s. However, due to the popularity of Abstract Expressionism and New York during the same period, and the Boston Expressionist’s commitment to figurative rather than pure abstraction, it remained a largely regional movement. By definition, the term expressionism can be interpreted widely, and those considered Boston Expressionists were certainly not carved from the same mold. Artists such as Hyman Bloom, Jack Levine, and David Aronson looked to religion, spirituality, politics, and heritage to define their artistic identity. The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and the instruction of Karl Zerbe, head of the Department of Painting, was highly influential as well. The mentoring relationship between students and teachers, and the resulting community of artists who formed at the Museum School, also contributed greatly to the development of a vibrant arts culture in Boston mid-century. There was another interesting signifier that came to my attention while working on The Expressive Voice—the number of women who appeared in the exhibition. Much has been written about the gendered culture and robust masculinity of mid-century movements such as Abstract Expressionism, but gender appeared to be a more fluid construction for the Boston Expressionists—something visible and felt, but not widely discussed. While not all of the women who trained at the Museum School moved on to careers as professional artists, some did, Barbara Swan among them, along with Esther Geller and Lois Tarlow—both subjects of Swan’s works. These women faced an uphill climb—trying to find success in a difficult field, while also being acutely aware of gendered societal expectations of home and family. Barbara Swan entered the Museum School in 1943. In Judith Bookbinder’s study of Boston Expressionism, Boston Modern, Swan recalled that she did not feel as if she was treated any differently from the male students, but acknowledged that she was fortunate that Karl Zerbe liked her; she was appointed as Zerbe’s teaching assistant in her fifth year1. The influence of Zerbe, and the direction he was taking the Museum School, are evident in Swan’s early work—seen in her vibrant use of color coating the canvas in strong blocks with wide visible brushstrokes. The broad blocks of colors juxtaposed against each other, yellows and reds and greens, seen in the Portrait of Pinkney Near (c. 1950) and Baby (Aaron at 4 Months)(1955), are jarring yet ultimately harmonious. Her interest in color and its manipulation—seen in many of her early works—is a mark of Boston Expressionism, although not surprisingly, Swan resisted labels and never saw herself as part of a movement—rather more of an outlier2. While Swan excelled at the Museum School and certainly gained from her experience, she was not eager to consider herself part of a group of artists, or define herself as a Boston Expressionist. There were elements of the movement she clearly embraced (the personal and highly emotional aspects of the works, a reluctance to abandon the figure), but others that she did not consider to be within the realm of her experience.Pamela Allara has described Swan as “a Boston Expressionist in spirit, if not in style,” and this seems to fit her well—a part of the group, but forging her own path3.
1 Judith Bookbinder, Boston Modern: Figurative Expressionism as Alternative Modernism. Durham, New Hampshire: University of New Hampshire Press, 221. 2 Conversation with Joanna Fink, October 21, 2013, Brookline, MA. Fink also noted that Swan’s gender, and that she was slightly older than her fellow students, having already earned a Bachelor’s degree from Wellesley, placed her outside the movement. 3 Pamela Allara in Rachel Rosenfield Lafo, Nicholas Capasso, and Jennifer Uhrhane, Painting in Boston: 19502000, Lincoln, MA: DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, 153.
Luise Vosgerchian, c. 1950, oil on canvas, 29 x 36 inches
Luise Vosgerchian, 1950-1951 ink on paper, 21 1/2 x 17 inches
Luise Vosgerchian, 1950-1951 ink on paper, 17 x 21 1/2 inches
While Swan was at the Museum School, she received a two-year fellowship to study in Paris. She observed that it was generally uncommon for women to be awarded this position, but due to a surplus of scholarship money after World War II, more fellowships were given than usual. Swan noted that fellowships for female students were usually just for one year, “because they didn’t trust a woman to go to Paris and not have a love affair with a Frenchman.”4 Swan further noted that she fulfilled the School’s worst expectations, and met her husband Alan Fink in a cheap French restaurant. The relationship between Swan and Fink developed while both were living in Paris—she on scholarship from Boston, he traveling with friends from Chicago. Swan was working steadily when she met Fink, painting and honing her skills in drawing, but wanted to travel. Her friend and fellow artist Ralph Coburn was living in Sanary-sur-Mer, located in coastal Provence on the Mediterranean Sea, and Swan and Fink decided to change location. Swan completed a series of self-portraits while in Sanary; three are on view in the exhibition. Swan’s self-portraits are direct and self-possessed, the eyes are never averted and she returns the viewer’s gaze. This is fitting, as Alan Fink noted that she began all of her portraits with the eyes, and worked from there—bodies and studied hands fill the page, yet the figures are ultimately defined by their gaze.5 The self-possession is not only found in her self-portraits, but in all of her figure drawings. The eyes in Portrait of the artist’s Mother (Clara Swan) (1950) are simultaneously intense and tired, lending tension to the figure which speaks directly to a companion self-portrait in which Swan’s shoulders are slumped and her face crestfallen. When placed across from each other the figures eye the other warily, and this communication is not an accident. The works were in tandem in Swan’s sketchbook, and her captions indicated that her self-portrait was a direct reaction to her mother’s disciplined personality. In contrast, a peaceful confidence alludes from other self-portraits in the sketchbook, and a highlight is the oil Self Portrait, Sanary (1951), painted around the same time. At first glance, Swan’s pose is reminiscent of the self-portraits of Elisabeth Louise Vigée LeBrun, but this is not a sentimental portrait. Swan’s bright red hat glows orange against a striking teal background, and the artist’s expressionistic side is readily apparent in this work. While aspects of the figure are carefully studied, the painting is overwhelmingly an expressionistic burst of color. In her review of Swan’s first solo exhibition in 1953, Dorothy Adlow, art critic for the Christian Science Monitor, noted that Swan was above all, a portraitist. Her work was marked with a personal characterization that made her both academic and expressionistic.6 Swan’s line drawings reveal the fluidity in which she captured her subjects at hand, and she was never short on subject matter. She had a true interest and longing for engagement with others—a sentiment at the core of her pursuit of portraiture.7 Swan’s sketchbooks include neighbors, friends, and acquaintances known only long enough to pose. Notably, many of these subjects were women. Her traveling companion Louise Vosgerchian, who later became the head of the Harvard Music Department, was the subject of a series of drawings and a painting. Swan’s oil of Vosgerchian is a contemplative study in which her seated figure appears to emerge from an empty deep red background.8 Swan’s intelligent studies of the artists Mary Frank, Esther Geller, and Lois Tarlow, as well as the poet Anne Sexton, are highlighted by her often unique choice of perspective and method of posing—a careful contemplation of arranging the subject in space that yields strong figures in intimate compositions. Her portrait of Linda Duca, in profile and smoking, is reminiscent of turn-of-the-century portraits of the New Woman—a progressive figure who broke gendered boundaries in personal and professional life—a position many mid-century women artists found themselves in as well.
Swan in Bookbinder, Boston Modern, 220-221. Conversation with Alan Fink, October 21, 2013, Brookline, MA. 6 Painting in Boston, 153. 7 E-mail from Joanna Fink, November 12, 2013. 8 Alan Fink noted this was the painting Swan was working on when he first visited her studio in Paris, conversation October 30, 2013. 4 5
Esther Geller, 1948-1953 oil on canvas, 50 x 24 inches
Lois Tarlow, 1950-1951 ink on paper, 20 1/2 x 26 inches
untitled (woman on elbow), 1950 ink on paper, 17 x 21 1/2 inches
Gender is an unavoidable factor in discussing Swan, although this is often a difficult path to tread, for many women working in the mid-to-late decades of the twentieth century did not want their artistic identity tied to gender. But gender is a key framework for Swan’s work. It is important to know that she was working during a period in which historical women artists were being “rediscovered,” and that her style was developing and changing from the late 1940s until well into the 1980s—this knowledge is a key to the iconography in her works. Swan made self-portraits throughout her career; later she regularly painted female figures from art history with her own subtle variations, as well as dolls of all shapes and sizes, often in various stages of dismemberment. Initially placid still lifes have a decided dark air to them. Swan’s repeated references to dolls and the female figure suggest an uneasiness with traditional representations of women, as well as the idea that “woman’s place” was in the private, rather than public, domain. Swan’s later works also explore the theme of transformation—water-filled bottles reflecting people, places, objects, and often the artist herself. The objects in her works were signifiers of the artist’s life, and what remains of Swan’s studio space reveals their importance. Family photographs and favored reproductions still line the walls, boxes of dolls dot the floors, and bottles appear on every shelf. One has a sense of how Swan planned and executed her works, and kept her subjects close. She devoted such significance to objects in her work that they serve as surrogate self-portraits. A visit to Swan’s studio space, even after her death, is eye-opening. As noted, her canvases, and the objects she used repeatedly, cover the space. Throughout her career, Swan worked out of a home studio, making her part of a long tradition of artists who combined domestic with work space. This was often done primarily for convenience sake, and in the late nineteenth century, it was used as a vehicle for women to bridge the gap from amateur to professional artist. Locating the studio within the home was also a way for a woman artist to pursue a career while maintaining home and family. This was a difficult construction—and it would be easy to relegate a working woman to a worn stereotype. Yet, Swan merged the personal and the professional with ease, which is evident in her work, in which she brought a female point of view to themes of the body and motherhood.9 Swan’s early works made within her home studio space reference family in a direct manner, but notably, these are not sentimental depictions of mother and child. Rather, they are honest portrayals from an artist crafting an artistic identity. Swan’s Self Portrait with Matisse Poster (1956) and Joanna in Doorway (1961) illustrate this point—her children, and her art, are always within arm’s reach. One can read this as either comforting or claustrophobic—Swan leaves that up to the viewer. Her paintings and drawings of her infant children provide the viewer with a uniquely female perspective on motherhood, seen particularly in The Nest (1956), in which the viewer is looking directly down at the baby at his mother’s breast. Swan’s babies float against her expressionistic backgrounds while being held in the air. The babies’ facial expression, and the implied gaze of the parents, is loving, yet realistic. She did not sentimentalize, and her portrayals are frank portraits of studio, home, and family. Reflections on gender and women’s role in art history are key elements to the paintings and subject matter Swan returned to with regularity in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Her liberal use of the bottle motif reveal an attention to vision, the object, and the gaze—subjects long of interest to women artists. Conventional still life pieces become obscured and perceptions are altered through the addition of a parade of bottles, vases, and jars. Swan’s humor is obvious in these works—the appropriately named Bottle Parade (Ten Bottles) (1972) quite literally marches the bottles in front of the viewer in two pristine lines, then they gather in Bottle Formation, completed the same year. Swan’s early bottle works have an element of Pop sophistication and humor, and her rendering of the objects have a lushness of form. While in earlier works the bottles themselves function as the objects that are the focus of the artist’s attention, in later works the bottles transition from subject to a window into seeing—works such as
E-mail from Joanna Fink, November 12, 2013.
9
Portrait of the Artist’s Mother (Clara Swan), 1950 ink on paper, 21 1/2 x 17 inches
Self Portrait, 1950 ink on paper, 21 1/2 x 17 inches
Self Portrait, 1950, ink on paper, 21 1/2 x 17 inches
George Hatvary, 1950 ink on paper, 21 1/2 x 17 inches
Harry Somers, 1950 ink on paper, 21 1/2 x 17 inches
Portrait of Pinkney Near, 1950-1952 oil on canvas, 40 x 26 inches
Linda and Alfred Duca, 1952, ink on paper, 26 x 20 1/2 inches
Linda Duca, 1952, ink on paper, 21 1/2 x 17 inches
Inner Life (1977), Les Femmes (1990), and The Renaissance Eye (1989) contain strategically placed bottles that reflect objects ranging from dolls clad in nothing but black stockings to photographic reproductions from E.J. Bellocq’s Storyville. Notably, the bottles no longer serve as the primary subject, rather they are transformed into a mechanism that alters the view of what Swan has placed beneath—functioning as manipulative tools rather than aesthetic arrangements. What lies beneath a number of the works on view bears careful study, as Swan chose her objects with deliberation. It is pertinent that Swan was referencing figures from art history—from the Renaissance to 19th century American art to glossy magazines—that would appear, often piecemeal, in her works. Her continued references to ideals of beauty, from Renaissance profile portraits to the familiar figure of the Barbie doll, are a pointed commentary on the relationship between women and objecthood. One of the figures that appears most frequently in Swan’s works is Keturah, a Victorian-era doll with a painted china face, blond hair, and elaborate ivory undergarments under a flowing black cloak. Keturah is terrifying, but fascinating—a consummate gothic model. She stares contemplative and silent in Laura and Keturah (1985), joins three girls on a bridge in the Munch-inspired A Doll Named Keturah (1981), and peers from behind a bottle in Doll and Two Mimes (mid-1980s)—in which one eye of each of the three figures gazes steadily at the viewer. In the last decades of her life, Swan combined a public career with a more inward focus—the objects in her studio, women, and women’s role. Swan’s dolls are not playful, or nurturing, rather they are decidedly surreal as they peer from behind bottles, drapes, and other elements of a placid still life. Even her titles—which use words like doll, hussy, and eye—remind the viewer that it is impossible to look at her works and not think of a woman’s body objectified down to its actual parts—literally turning a woman into an object. This exhibition is not a retrospective, rather a careful focus on particular aspects of Swan’s career, drawing attention to certain themes which reappear throughout her work. Many of the drawings on view are from Swan’s sketchbook carried through Europe and Boston in the 1950s, and have never been shown before. Swan was a gifted draftsman, and her sketchbooks revealed her steady progression and increasing confidence with perfecting the line. It has been enlightening to view her works in their original context, paging through her sketchbooks a viewer can see her hand become stronger as figures fill the pages and single strokes masterfully represent what may take others far more work to convey. Swan’s notes and captions, which occasionally appeared on the back of the works, add yet another level to the experience, as she often noted the personality of the sitter, or her own feelings about her skill. The themes explored in this exhibition place Swan in the context of her time, and the works on view highlight integral aspects of her oeuvre, although there is much more to be seen. As Swan herself noted, her work underwent a stylistic change after the 1960s—she moved from the expressionistic style seen in many of her classmates at the Museum School, which showed the strong influence of Karl Zerbe, to a more refined, classical formal style.10 This exhibition, which highlights painting and drawing equally, does not favor one style over another; rather it seeks to find a continuum from Swan’s early expressionistic work to her later focus on objects, reflection, and vision, with drawing and a devotion to the figure accompanying her throughout the process. Swan’s change in style and methodology over the course of her career marked her evolution as an artist. She defied characterization, and ultimately used her work to unite the personal and the professional. Jessica Roscio, Ph.D. Assistant Curator, Danforth Art
Bookbinder, Boston Modern, 221.
10
Aaron at 4 Months, 1955, oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches
The Nest, 1955, ink on paper, 20 1/2 x 26 inches
The Nest, 1955, oil on canvas, 31 x 41 inches
Joanna and Aaron, 1959, ink on paper, 27 x 21 inches
Anne Sexton, c. 1974, ink on paper, 19 1/8 x 24 1/4 inches
Mary Frank, c. 1966 ink on paper, 30 x 22 1/2 inches
Louise Parsons, c. 1960 ink on paper, 21 1/2 x 17 inches
Column, 1969, etching, edition of 35, 26 1/4 x 22 inches
Column 2, 1969, oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches
A Doll Named Keturah, 1981, oil on canvas, 55 x 37 inches
Elbert Weinberg, 1970, lithograph, edition of 50, 22 x 29 1/2 inches
Sigmund Abeles, 1970, drypoint, edition of 50, 29 1/2 x 22 inches
Bernard Chaet, 1970, etching, edition of 50, 29 1/2 x 22 inches
Bottle Formation, 1972, oil on canvas, 22 x 26 inches
Brown Stripes, 1970s, oil on canvas, 14 x 11 inches
Bottle Parade, 1973, oil on canvas, 19 x 21 inches
Provencal Scarf, 1977, oil on canvas, 15 x 13 inches
Inner Life, 1977, oil on canvas, 35 x 43 inches
Doll and Two Mimes, mid 1980s, oil on canvas, 40 x 24 inches
Homage to Varujan (Boghosian), 1982, oil on canvas, 50 x 32 inches
Blonde Hussy, 1986, oil on canvas, 26 x 32 inches
Laura and Keturah 2, 1985, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches
The Renaissance Eye, 1989, oil on canvas, 36 x 24 inches
Les Femmes, 1990, oil on canvas, 36 x 24 inches
BARBARA SWAN Born in Newton, MA, 1922 Died in Boston, MA, 2003 Education School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, 1943-48 Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, B.A. in Art History, 1943 Grants and Awards Alumnae Achievement Award, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, 1996 George Roth Prize, Philadelphia Print Club, 1965 Institute for Independent Study (The Bunting Institute), Radcliffe College, Associate Scholar, 1962, 1961 Pintner Award, Cambridge Art Association, 1960, 1958, 1957 Albert Whitin Traveling Fellowship (conferred by the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), 1948 – lived and worked in France for two years McDowell Colony Fellowship, 1948, 1947 Solo Exhibitions Barbara Swan: Portraits and Still Lifes, Museum of Art, University of New Hampshire, Durham, 2012 Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA; 1996, 1992, 1987, 1984, 1980, 1976, 1973, 1970 Barbara Swan: A Retrospective of Drawings, Boston Public Library, Boston, MA, 1993 Pine Manor College, Chestnut Hill, MA, 1985 Boston Public Library, Boston, MA, 1980 Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA, 1973 Cober Gallery, New York, NY, 1968 Boris Mirski Gallery, Boston, MA; 1965, 1963, 1957, 1953 Crapo Gallery, Swain School of Art, New Bedford, MA; 1964 Selected Group Exhibitions The Expressive Voice, Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA, 2011-2012 Gallery Selections, Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA, 2011 The Expressive Voice, St. Botolph Club, Boston, MA, organized by the Danforth Museum, 2011 Women Artists from the Cape Ann Museum Collection: A Survey Exhibition, Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA, 2009-2010 Gallery Selections, Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA, 2010 Painting in Boston: 1950-2000, deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA, 2002 The Visionary Decade: New Voices in Art in 1940s Boston, Boston University Art Gallery, Boston, MA, 2002 Against the Grain: The Second Generation of Boston Expressionism, The Art Gallery at University of New Hampshire, Durham, 2000 Paris, 1949, Boston Public Library, Boston, MA, 1999
Boston International Fine Art Show, Boston Center for the Arts, 1998 Gallery Selections, Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA, 1998 Be Still Dear Art, New England School of Art & Design, Boston, MA, 1998 (curated by Charles Giuliano) Still Life and Portraits: Paintings by Frances Gillespie, Marci Gintis and Barbara Swan, Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA, 1997 Working Sources: The Painter and the Photographic Image, Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA, 1997 Memento Mori, New England School of Art & Design, Boston, MA, 1996 Eighth Triennial, Fuller Museum of Art, Brockton, MA 1996 Boston’s Honored Artists: Still Working, Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA, 1995 Gallery Artists, Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA, 1995 Then & Now: Celebrating 50 Years of the Cambridge Art Association, 1944-1994, Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA, 1994 Art Chicago 1994: The New Pier, Chicago, IL, 1994 Small Scale, Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA, 1993 Women in Watercolor, Boston Public Library, Boston, MA, 1993 Self aMUSEd: The Contemporary Artist as Observer and Observed, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA, 1993 The Object: Found, Observed, Imagined, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA, 1991 Invitational Exhibition, Northeastern University Art Gallery, Boston, MA, 1988 Boston Expressionism, 1945-1985, deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA, 1986 (catalogue) Collected Visions, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Boston, MA, 1986 Portraits: Artists by Artists, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA, 1985 Boston Arts Festival, Boston, MA, 1985 Homage, Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA, 1981 Directions in Realism: Boston, Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA, 1980 New England Realists, Northeastern University Art Gallery, Boston, MA, 1980 New England Artists: Works on Paper, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, 1980 Award Candidates Exhibition, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letter, New York, NY, 1976 Boston Area Artists, Brockton Museum of Art, Brockton, MA, 1975 New England Women Artists, deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA, 1963 Biennial Print Exhibition, Brooklyn Museum of Art. Brooklyn, NY, 1965 New England Art: Drawing, deCordova Museum and Sculpture
Park, Lincoln, MA, 1963 View 1960, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA, 1960 Contemporary American Painting, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL, 1950 Carnegie Annual, 1949 Selected Collections Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA Amherst College, Amherst, MA Anderson Industries, Rockford, IL Boston Public Library, Boston, MA Brandeis University, Waltham, MA Colby College, Waterville, ME Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA Dunkin' Donuts Corporation Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Milton Academy, Milton, MA Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. Northfield Mount Hermon, Gill, MA Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA Radcliffe College, Cambridge, MA Raytheon Company Salem State College, Salem, MA Simmons College, Boston, MA Stephen and Sybil Stone Foundation Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA Teaching Boston University, Boston, MA, 1960-65 Milton Academy, Milton, MA, 1951-54 Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, 1946-48 School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, 1946-48 Selected Bibliography Christopher Volpe, Barbara Swan at the Museum of Art, University of New Hampshire, Art New England, November/December, 2012. Linda Chestney, Barbara Swan: Portraits and Still Lifes, ArtScope Magazine, November/December 2012, p. 43. Meredith Cutler, The Expressive Voice: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Artscope Magazine, January/February, 2012. Cate McQuaid, Boston Expressionists Get Their Due, The Boston Globe, Dec. 27, 2011. The Expressive Voice, exhibition brochure, Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA, 2011. Martha Oaks, Women Artists from the Cape Ann Museum Col-
lection: A Survey Exhibition, gallery guide, Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA, 2009. Ted Drozdowski, The Collector, Boston Magazine, June, 2005. Rachel Rosenfeld Lafo, Nicholas Capasso & Jennifer Uhrhane, eds., Painting in Boston: 1950-2000, Lincoln, MA: deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, 2002. Evan Ide, Against the Grain: The Second Generation of Boston Expressionism, Durham, NH: University of New Hampshire, 2000. Cate McQuaid, The Kindly Uncle of Boston Artists, The Boston Globe, Feb. 23, 2000 Panorama, Sept. 21 – Oct. 4, 1998, cover illustration. Helen Schlein, Still Life and Portraits: Paintings by Frances Gillespie, Marci Gintis & Barbara Swan, exhibition catalogue, Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA, 1997. Stash Horowitz, Through a Glass Brightly, The Back Bay Courant, March 5, 1996. Eighth Triennial, introduction by Wendy Kaplan, Brockton, MA: The Fuller Museum of Art, 1996. Christine Temin, Best of Show: Fuller Surveys Art Scene, The Boston Globe, Sept. 20, 1996, pp. D1, D11. Phyllis Meras, An Artist Who Paints Life Through 18th Century Bottles, Wellesley Magazine, Spring, 1996, pp. 28-31. Barbara Swan, Honored by Wellesley, Museum School News, Winter, 1996. Nan Stalnaker, A Generation’s Best, The Tab, October 17, 1995, p. 7B. Nancy Stapen, Showcasing the Artist Who Recast Hub Scene, The Boston Globe, February 9, 1995, pp. 63, 66. Boston’s Honored Artists, Still Working, exhibition catalogue, Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA, 1995. Christine Temin, Cambridge Art Association’s 50th, The Boston Globe, December 21, 1994, p. 92. Diane Middlebrook, Circle of Women: Tillie Olsen and Anne Sexton at the Radcliffe Institute, in Listening to Silences: New Essays in Feminist Criticism, Elaine Hedges and Shelley Fisher Fishkin, eds., 1994: Oxford University Press. Sarah London, Barbara Swan: A Retrospective of Drawing, Art New England, April/May, 1994, p. 62. Nancy Stapen, Portraits of an Artist’s Life in Boston, The Boston Globe, Jan. 18, 1994, pp. 57 & 62. Robert Taylor, These Self-Portraits Go More Than Skin-Deep, The Boston Globe, May, 24, 1993, pp. 42 & 44. Nancy Stapen, Alpha’s Striking ‘New Beginning’ in New Locale, The Boston Globe, Oct. 8, 1992, p. 75. Nancy Stapen, Finding New Vitality in Still Life Painting, The Boston Globe, April 23, 1992, pp. 69 & 74. Reva Wolfe, Inner Eye, exhibition catalogue essay, Boston: Alpha Gallery, April 1992. Daniel Grant, Untidy Thinking Doesn’t Taint ‘Object’ Exhibit, The
Boston Herald, May 5, 1991, p. 46. Diane Middlebrook, Anne Sexton: A Biography, 1991: Houghton Mifflin, Boston. Christine Temin, Perspectives, The Boston Globe, March 19, 1987, p. 78. Robert Taylor, And The Expressionist Who Followed, The Boston Globe, June 22, 1986. Richard Pacheco, Through the Water Glass with Barbara Swan, The New Bedford Standard Times, May 27, 1984. Christine Temin, Exhibits: Artists by Themselves, The Boston Globe, March 17, 1983, Calendar Section, p. 1. Elizabeth Findley, On the Joy of Puzzles, The Christian Science Monitor, January 28, 1981, p. 4. Charles Giuliano, At Home with an Artist, The Brookline Chronicle Citizen, July 2, 1981, p. 4. New England Works on Paper, exhibition brochure, Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Dec. 7, 1976 – Feb. 8, 1977. Robert Taylor, Reflecting Tradition in Art, The Boston Globe, May 14, 1976. Mary Lou Kelly, Lincoln Shows Art by Women, The Christian Science Monitor, February 20, 1975, p. 2D. Robert Taylor, Barbara Swan Exhibits at Wiggin, The Boston Globe, November 1, 1974. Robert Taylor, Swan Exhibits at Alpha, The Boston Globe, February 12, 1973. Caron Le Brun Danikian, The Boston Herald, February 18, 1973, p. 42. Edgar J. Driscoll, Jr., Boston Art Scene Keeps Second Ranking Behind New York, The Boston Globe, May 15, 1970, pp. A-41, A-44. Edgar J. Driscoll, Jr., Undistorted Human Form, The Boston Globe, May 15, 1966, p. A-17. Jane Holtz Kay, College Exhibits Prove Attractive, The Christian
Science Monitor, May 25, 1966, p. 11. Jane Holtz Kay, column in Home Forum section, The Christian Science Monitor, March 10, 1965, p. 8. Dorothy Adlow, Drawings by Three Bostonians at Boris Mirski’s, The Christian Science Monitor, June 1, 1961, p. 6. Dorothy Adlow, The Christian Science Monitor, May 29, 1961. Dorothy Adlow, The Christian Science Monitor, September 12, 1960. Dorothy Adlow, The Christian Science Monitor, June 21, 1954. Dorothy Adlow, Barbara Swan’s Paintings on View, The Christian Science Monitor, March 23, 1953, p. 7. Videography/Discography Our Own Time: The Rich Art-Life of Boston, with Barbara Swan and Sinclair Hitchings, produced by Eric Shambroom in conjunction with Drawings from Boston: The Boston Public Library Collection, 1987 Barbara Swan interviewed by Karl Fortess, December, 1969, Boston University, Gottlieb Special Archives, part of Fortess Audio Archives Other Executed drawings for Transformations by Pulitzer Prize poet Anne Sexton Executed drawings for Up Country by Pulitzer Prize poet Maxine Kumin
Checklist Self Portrait, Sanary, 1951, oil on canvas, 36 x 29 inches Collection Joanna Fink Luise Vosgerchian, c. 1950, oil on canvas, 29 x 36 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston* Luise Vosgerchian, 1950-1951 ink on paper, 21 1/2 x 17 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston Luise Vosgerchian, 1950-1951 ink on paper, 17 x 21 1/2 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston Esther Geller, 1948-1953 oil on canvas, 50 x 24 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston* Lois Tarlow, 1950-1951 ink on paper, 20 1/2 x 26 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston untitled (woman on elbow), 1950 ink on paper, 17 x 21 1/2 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston Portrait of the Artist’s Mother (Clara Swan), 1950 ink on paper, 21 1/2 x 17 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston
Self Portrait, 1950 ink on paper, 21 1/2 x 17 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston
The Nest, 1955 ink on paper, 20 1/2 x 26 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston
Self Portrait, 1950 ink on paper, 21 1/2 x 17 inches, 1950 Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston
The Nest, 1955 oil on canvas, 31 x 41 inches Collection of Anne Mastrangelo Fink*
George Hatvary, 1950 ink on paper, 21 1/2 x 17 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston Harry Somers, 1950 ink on paper, 21 1/2 x 17 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston Portrait of Pinkney Near, 19501952 oil on canvas, 40 x 26 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston* Linda and Alfred Duca, 1952 ink on paper, 26 x 20 1/2 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston Linda Duca, 1952 ink on paper, 21 1/2 x 17 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston Aaron at 4 Months, 1955 oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches Collection of Danforth Art
Joanna and Aaron, 1959, ink on paper, 27 x 21 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston Anne Sexton, c. 1974 ink on paper, 19 1/8 x 24 1/4 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston Mary Frank, c. 1966 ink on paper, 30 x 22 1/2 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston Louise Parsons, c. 1960 ink on paper, 21 1/2 x 17 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston Column, 1969 etching, edition of 35, 26 1/4 x 22 Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston Column 2, 1969 oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston*
A Doll Named Keturah, 1981 oil on canvas, 55 x 37 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston*
Inner Life, 1977 oil on canvas, 35 x 43 inches Collection of Joanna Fink
Elbert Weinberg, 1970 lithograph, edition of 50, 22 x 29 1/2 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston
Collection of Noah Gönci
Sigmund Abeles, 1970 drypoint, edition of 50, 29 1/2 x 22 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston Bernard Chaet, 1970 etching, edition of 50, 29 1/2 x 22 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston Bottle Formation, 1972 oil on canvas, 22 x 26 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston* Brown Stripes, 1970s oil on canvas, 14 x 11 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston*
Doll and Two Mimes, mid 1980s oil on canvas, 40 x 24 inches
Homage to Varujan (Boghosian), 1982, oil on canvas, 26 x 32 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston* Blonde Hussy, 1986 oil on canvas, 26 x 32 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston* Laura and Keturah 2, 1985 oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches Collection of Danforth Art The Renaissance Eye, 1989 oil on canvas, 36 x 24 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston Les Femmes, 1990 oil on canvas, 36 x 24 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston*
Bottle Parade, 1973 oil on canvas, 19 x 21 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston* Provencal Scarf, 1977 oil on canvas, 15 x 13 inches Collection of the Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Alpha Gallery, Boston*
*Photography by Nathaniel Fink © 2013 Alpha Gallery, Boston All rights reserved Barbara Swan: Reflected Self © 2013 Jessica Roscio