t ar matters
Week of Sunday, November 24, 2013
www.montgomerynews.com
Page 21
■ December 2013
■ Covering the Arts throughout the Philadelphia Region
ExhibitionsInSight By Burt Wasserman
Emma Amos, “Identity,” 2006, Digital print with hand lithography, 12 x 12 in. (30.5 x 30.5 cm). Gift of Danielle Rice in memory of Anne d’Harnoncourt and Sylvia Sleigh, 2010. On view in the “Femfolio exhibition at Delaware Museum of Art.
‘Femdom’ highlights graphics by women at Del Art
uring the 1960s, identity became a very hot topic for many women artists in the American art scene, especially in the vicinity of New York City. Special interest groups came into being with an emphasis on such matters as race and gender. In addition, communities of like-minded individuals arose to protest both social inequities domestically and the war in Vietnam, beyond the Pacific rim. In addition, imagery based on feminist themes became an especially important area of expression. Interestingly, womenonly collectives and galleries came into being. Several of the artists partial to this notion chose to focus on the appearance of the female body, in part or in whole. Some even turned to performance art as a supplement to their more traditional efforts. Other critical areas included the exploration of traditional roles of the mother as a caregiver and
investigations of feminine roles along mythological and spiritual lines. At Rutgers University in New Jersey, the Brodsky Center for Innovative Editions published a group of original graphic prints by 20 well-known women artists. At this time and until Jan. 12, 2014, the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington is showing these artworks in a distinctive installation titled “Femfolio.” It consists of Joyce Kozloff, “Maui: Sugar Plantation,” 2007. Digital print with hand diverse examples by such lithography. outstanding personalities as Eleanor Antin, Faith Ringgold, Carolee Schneeman able idiom. Instead, it’s body. It parallels her work in and June Wayne. an open-ended approach the field of painting, which The entire folio was accommodating a decidedly has dealt with nude couples donated to the museum by wide spread of individual as well as reflections of Dr. Danielle variations of herself posing uncovered and Rice, the style, each seen from above. museum’s appropriate Emma Amos’ print, titled recently to the unique “Identity,” is a combination “Femfolio” resigned personalfull-front and profile image continues at director, who ity, aesthetic of her head that is someDelaware Art Museum, will soon be manner and what reminiscent of Pablo 2301 Kentmere Parkway, undertaking expressive Picasso’s great painting “The Wilmington, DE 19806, a challenging needs of the Girl in the Mirror.” through Jan. 12, 2014. new position person who It appears to probe aspects Info: 302-571-9590 or in higher brought it of her being that simultanewww.delart.org. education into being. ously show elements of her at Drexel Typically, conscious and subconscious University in Philadelphia. Joan Semmel’s untitled print nature, both of which come As the exhibition demdeals with the subject of hu- to affect the way she is onstrates, feminist art is not man sexuality in a represena single, readily recogniztational treatment of her own Please see Femdom on a23
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