Featured Exhibition: Confronting Greatness

WRITTEN BY ART HISTORY CAPSTONE STUDENTS & DR. ANNIE DELL’ARIA

Confronting Greatness celebrates the 50th anniversary of Linda Nochlin’s groundbreaking 1971 essay “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?”. The article investigates and strives to dismantle the institutional obstacles faced by women that have prevented their being seen as “great” in the same sense as their male counterparts. This essay will be featured prominently within the exhibition.

The exhibition was co-curated by the Miami University Art & Architecture History Capstone class under the direction of Dr. Annie Dell’Aria (Art History) during the Fall 2020 semester. Featured in the exhibition are works by renowned women artists including Kara Walker, Carolee Schneemann, Cindy Sherman, Elizabeth Catlett, Audrey Flack, Miriam Schapiro and Louise Nevelson. All of the featured artists are self-identifying women.

Dr. Annie Dell’Aria, the Capstone’s advisor, expects that the exhibition “starts conversations, shakes things up, and foregrounds the diverse methods of women artists. By calling attention to this all-women roster, it will hopefully both prompt viewers to question how we do or do not consider gender when looking at art and impart expectations of inclusion and a diversity of voices.”

The majority of the artworks are in the collection, with the exception of pieces graciously loaned from the personal collection of Sara M. and Michelle Vance Waddell.

Virtual Exhibition Programs

What is a Feminist Picture?

Carmen Winant, Associate Professor, Roy Lichtenstein Chair of Studio Art, The Ohio State University

WED, FEB 10 | 6-7 PM [Virtual]

Revisiting several projects across the last few years, Winant will prompt: what makes an artwork feminist?

Gallery Talk with Capstone Students

WED, MAR 10 | 6 PM [Virtual]

Join this virtual gallery tour with Art & Architecture Capstone students (ART 498), as they share their curatorial experiences and research related to works on display in this exhibition.

Women Navigating in the Art World : A Panel Discussion

THU, MAR 18, 6 PM [Virtual]

Artists Joomi Chung and Tracy Featherstone join collector and activist Sara Vance Waddell to discuss women in the professional art world and art market. Dr. Annie Dell’ Aria, Art History, Miami University will moderate the panel discussion. Co-sponsored with the Contemporary Art Forum.

Shifting the Frame: A Screening of Moving Images by Women

WED, APR 7 | 6 PM [Virtual] Annie Dell’Aria, Assistant Professor, Art History, will curate a screening of short works of experimental film and video art by women artists in conjunction with the exhibition.

Header featured work: Miriam Schapiro (American, b. Canada, 1923-2015); Conservatory (Portrait of Frida Kahlo) [detail], 1988; Acrylic and mixed media on canvas; Miami University Art Museum purchase funded through the Helen Kingseed Art Acquisition Fund and the Commemorative Acquisition Fund; 1990.113