FALL 2017
DIRECTOR’S LETTER
Dear Members and Friends, The thirtieth anniversary of the museum began with our beautiful spring gala and the exhibition Revival, which showcased exciting growth in NMWA’s collection. This fall, we are continuing our anniversary celebration and highlighting our strengths. Inside the Dinner Party Studio, an exhibition on view through January, provides a window into the creation of Judy Chicago’s iconic feminist work The Dinner Party. The exhibition honors the artist’s gift of the Judy Chicago Visual Archive to NMWA’s Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center. This archive, documenting Chicago’s career through photographs, slides, negatives, and printed materials, will be an essential source for researchers. Opening in October, Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today is the first U.S. exhibition to feature abstraction by black women artists across generations. It showcases several artists with connections to the D.C. area and builds on the museum’s history of introducing audiences to great, under-recognized artists. As visitors have seen in Revival and our newly reinstalled exhibition galleries, the museum has recently received a number of important works, many given in honor of our anniversary. Works by Yael Bartana, Louise Bourgeois, Lalla Essaydi, Berthe Morisot, Jami Porter Lara, and Faith Ringgold, among others, help us to better tell the story of women and art. The museum also proudly celebrates its thirtieth anniversary with a new membership program that paves the way for our next thirty years of advocacy for women artists. I invite you to join the Circles, our new annual giving group. Your leadership contribution to the Circles will be put straight to work, funding the advocacy, outreach, conservation, special exhibitions, innovative programs, and research we share with you in these pages and at the museum. We count on your generosity, so please turn to page 26 to learn more, and thank you.
Susan Fisher Sterling The Alice West Director, NMWA
The National Museum of Women in the Arts brings recognition to the achievements of women artists of all periods and nationalities by exhibiting, preserving, acquiring, and researching art by women and by teaching the public about their accomplishments. MUSEUM INFORMATION Location: 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20005 Public transportation: Take metrorail to Metro Center station, 13th Street exit; walk two blocks north to corner of New York Avenue and 13th Street Website: https://nmwa.org Blog: https://nmwa.org/blog Main: 202-783-5000 Toll free: 800-222-7270 Member Services: 866-875-4627 Shop: 877-226-5294 Tours: 202-783-7996 Mezzanine Café: 202-628-1068 Library and Research Center: 202-783-7365 Magazine subscriptions: 866-875-4627 Hours: Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Sunday, noon–5 p.m. Closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day Admission: NMWA Members free, Adults $10, Visitors over 65 $8, Students $8, Youth under 18 free. Free Community Day is the first Sunday of every month. For more information, check https://nmwa.org. Women in the Arts Fall 2017 (Volume 35, no. 3) Women in the Arts is a publication of the NATIONAL MUSEUM of WOMEN in the ARTS® Director | Susan Fisher Sterling Editor | Elizabeth Lynch Digital Editorial Associate | Emily Haight Editorial Intern | Xiaoxiao Meng Design | Studio A, Alexandria, Virginia For advertising rates and information, call 202-266-2814 or email elynch@nmwa.org. Women in the Arts is published three times a year as a benefit for museum members by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20005-3970. Copyright © 2017 National Museum of Women in the Arts. National Museum of Women in the Arts®, The Women’s Museum®, and Women in the Arts® are registered trademarks of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
On the cover: Candida Alvarez, Puerto Rico, 25796, 2008; Watercolor, pencil, and marker on vellum, 12 x 9 in.; Courtesy of the artist, Chicago, Illinois; © Candida Alvarez; Photo by Tom van Eynde DIRECTOR’S PHOTO: © MICHELE MATTEI
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Cover Story
Features
Departments
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Arts News
Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today
Inside the Dinner Party Studio
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Culture Watch
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Education Report
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Dedicated Donor: Lydia Ruyle and Planned Giving
Abstract works by several generations of black women artists are presented in context with one another and within the larger history of abstract art. The exhibition features evocative prints, unconventional sculptures, and monumental paintings. Erin Dziedzic and Melissa Messina
Archives, documentation, and film provide insight into the creation of Judy Chicago’s monumental and radical work. Sarah Osborne Bender
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14 Recent Acquisitions: Berthe Morisot
Wonder Women!
16 Calendar
Vintage feminist comics, archival materials, and works on paper showcase heroines in the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center. Sarah Osborne Bender
26 Museum News and Events 29 Supporting Roles 32 Museum Shop
FALL 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS
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Above: Mirella Bentivoglio; Right: Sculptures by Chakaia Booker installed in Chicago’s Millenium Park
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In Memoriam
Chakaia in Chicago
Book artist Mirella Bentivoglio died March 23, at age ninety-four. Throughout her long career, Bentivoglio remained fascinated by the interplay between image and word. Several of her works are in NMWA’s collection, and she has been featured in the museum’s many exhibitions of artists’ books from 1987 to the present. Her 1999 solo exhibition The Visual Poetry of Mirella Bentivoglio included works of visual and concrete poetry, photomontages, collages, and unique artists’ books. Born in 1922 in Klagenfurt, Austria, to Italian parents, Bentivoglio grew up in Milan. Her education in Switzerland and London was interrupted by World War II, and during this period, she studied from her father’s extensive library. She published two books of poetry, in 1943 and in 1968. She was also active in the Italian concrete poetry movement, which focused on the visual expression of language, using letters and words to evoke meaning. Later in her career, Bentivoglio created sculptural book works, often made from marble or earth and including symbols of nature and birth such as eggs and trees. In addition to her wide-ranging art, Bentivoglio also undertook research and curatorial projects that brought recognition to many other women artists. As she said in 1999, “We must always strive to disseminate information, conduct research, and seek exposure for women artists to ensure that they continue to gain representation in exhibitions worldwide.”
Millennium Park, located in downtown Chicago, presents a new public art installation of seven sculptures by Chakaia Booker (b. 1953), several of which were previously on view in D.C. in NMWA’s New York Avenue Sculpture Project. Booker, whose work is also in Magnetic Fields, is the first African American artist to exhibit in the park’s Boeing Galleries. Park visitors can enjoy the installed sculptures through April 2018. Her works, made from discarded tires and ranging from eight to sixteen feet in height, can weigh up to a ton. Booker slices, twists, and weaves this medium into radically new forms and textures, which easily withstand outdoor environments. With woven, textilelike qualities, Booker’s sculptures transform simple, industrial materials into complex, poetic creations.
WOMEN IN THE ARTS | FALL 2017
Scripted Statistics Women remain underrepresented in film, both on screen and behind the camera, according to a study by the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering Signal Analysis and Interpretation Lab (SAIL). Researchers analyzed language and character interaction in nearly 1,000 scripts, including more than 53,000 conversations between 7,000 characters. Key findings show that there were 4,900 male characters to 2,000 female characters. Men spoke in 37,000 dialogues, while only 15,000
conversations included women. There were seven times as many male screenwriters as female and almost twelve times as many male directors. Studies of recent box office successes of women-led films suggest a possible shift in representation. San Diego State University’s Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film found that women made up 29% of protagonists in 2016’s hundred highestgrossing films, an increase of 7% over the previous year.
Austen Makes Note The Bank of England announced a new tenpound note featuring famed novelist Jane Austen on the 200th anniversary of her death. The note features images of Queen Elizabeth II, Austen’s writing desk, Elizabeth Bennet, and Austen’s brother’s house, Godmersham Park. It includes an ironic line by Pride and Prejudice character Caroline Bingley, who does not like reading, but says, “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!”
COURTESY THE ARTIST AND MARIAN GOODMAN GALLERY; © JULIE MEHRETU; PHOTO BY MATTHEW MILLMAN PHOTOGRAPHY
MILLENNIUM PARK FOUNDATION
ARTS NEWS
Arts News
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, PHOTO BY SHAWN MILLER
Left: Installation view at SFMOMA of Julie Mehretu, HOWL, eon (I, II), 2017; Below: Tracy K. Smith, poet laureate of the United States
Galleries, Tallied Students in a spring course titled “Arts in NYC” at CUNY Guttman College studied representation at commercial art galleries around the city. They found that 80.5% of all artists represented at the top forty-five New York galleries during the 2016–17 season were white. That percentage climbed to 88.1% when only examining the representation of American artists. Their statistics show that only 30% of the featured artists were women.
1961. Her saturated images often featured stilllifes packed with fruit or floral arrangements, as well as portraits of extravagantly dressed individuals. In 1966, she became the fifth woman to have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Although Cosindas garnered critical acclaim for her painterly photographs, she fell into obscurity until 2013, when the Amon Carter Museum of American Art hosted a retrospective of her work.
A Howl at SFMOMA In Memoriam Marie Cosindas, an early pioneer of color photography, died on May 25, 2017, at age ninety-three. The Greek-American artist studied painting and fashion design, and attended a photography workshop with Ansel Adams in
A new site-specific installation by Julie Mehretu (b. 1970), HOWL, eon (I, II), greets visitors to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Commissioned by the museum, the monumental work comprises two 27-x-32foot canvases, which Mehretu created in
the nave of a deconsecrated Harlem church in order to work at that scale. The layered, abstract painting incorporates references to the landscapes, violent colonial history, and contemporary social dynamics of the American West and the Bay Area.
Laurels for a Poet Tracy K. Smith (b. 1972) was named the poet laureate of the United States by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. Smith, professor of creative writing at Princeton University, is the author of four books of poetry, including Life on Mars, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize in 2012. The poet laureate generally serves a one-year term and is free to define the position’s scope; Smith hopes to introduce poetry to new audiences.
JOIN US!
Champion women through the arts with NMWA membership
FALL 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS
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photography’s impact in defining—or being defined by—contemporary culture. Photos from ten bodies of work from 1977 to 2012 showcase her evolution as a groundbreaking feminist artist.
Sheila Pepe, Put Me Down Gently (detail), 2014; On view at the Phoenix Art Museum COLLECTION OF THE ARTIST; PHOTO BY RICK LOZIER PHOTOGRAPHY
Fibrous, large-scale installations by Sheila Pepe not only question conventions of art institutions, but also toy with notions of feminism and femininity in the traditionally female-dominated medium of textiles. This will be the first mid-career survey of her often site-specific works.
California Sarah Charlesworth: Doubleworld LACMA Through February 4, 2018 Photographer Sarah Charlesworth pioneered the use of found images in art, dissecting
OVITZ FAMILY COLLECTION, LOS ANGELES, © 2017 ESTATE OF SARAH CHARLESWORTH
Sheila Pepe: Hot Mess Formalism Phoenix Art Museum October 14, 2017–January 28, 2018
Valeska Soares, Lugar Comum, 2016; On view at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art
COURTESY GALERIA FORTES D’ALOIA & GABRIEL SÃO PAULO
Arizona
Ohio Swoon Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati Through February 25, 2018 Sarah Charlesworth, Buddha of Immeasurable Light, from the series “Objects of Desire,” 1987, On view at LACMA
The first major survey of Swoon (Caledonia Curry) displays her large-scale street art crafted from prints, wheat paste, and cut paper. Breaking into a male-dominated field, Swoon earned her own place by redefining street art to be elaborate, yet also grounded with humility.
Valeska Soares: Any Moment Now Santa Barbara Museum of Art Through December 31, 2017 Forty-nine works by Valeska Soares— installation artist, sculptor, photographer, and video artist—reveal her fascination with repurposing objects and reshuffling established narratives. The exhibition is part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, a collaboration of Southern California museums presenting Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles.
COURTESY SWOON STUDIO
C U LT U R E WAT C H
Culture Watch | Exhibitions
Swoon, KamayuraBrooklyn, 2016; On view at the Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati
Books What makes a woman “unruly”? Successful women in the public eye face paradoxical expectations. Though they wield power in maledominated spheres, they also step outside social norms and are labeled too fat, too loud, too slutty, too much. Anne Helen Petersen grapples with the labels placed on “unruly” women who influence today’s cultural landscape in The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman (Plume, 2017) and drills down to society’s underlying anxieties. Petersen, a senior culture writer at Buzzfeed, highlights ten prominent celebrities—each embodying a particular kind of rejection of feminine propriety. From Serena Williams as “too strong,” to Hillary Clinton as “too shrill,” to Lena Dunham as “too naked,” Petersen offers a sophisticated analysis of each woman’s resistance to dominant forms of representation and picks apart the public’s vitriolic reactions. Petersen’s findings are both enlightening and infuriating, encouraging readers to celebrate conscious disrupters: “The best way to honor and accelerate the project of unruliness is to refuse to participate in its demonization, even when—especially when—the cultural tide threatens to turn against it.”—Emily Haight 4
WOMEN IN THE ARTS | FALL 2017
References to water and fluidity recur in the texts and imagery of Janaina Tschäpe (Hirmer Publishers, 2017), a book that presents an overview of the full career of artist Tschäpe. Born in 1973 in Munich, Germany, and raised in São Paolo, Brazil, Tschäpe now lives and works in New York and Brazil. In addition to her photography, represented in NMWA’s collection, she creates mixed-media works, drawings, paintings, and films that, along with her photography, often document performances. Water appears prominently in her performance and photography work: waterfilled appendages and mysterious landscapes transform her body into something surreal and radiant. Inflatables metamorphose into magical objects that complement and energize the natural world. The book’s lush, large illustrations present photobased works interspersed with Tschäpe’s paintings, which feature rich blues and organic shapes that evoke volumes of pouring liquid. As essayist Luisa Duarte describes, Tschäpe’s art reveals a landscape of “ambiguous territory that refers to a repertoire of images that is familiar, but different from everything we have ever seen.”—Elizabeth Lynch
Pennsylvania
Annabeth Rosen, Talley, 2011; On view at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
Nathalie Du Pasquier: BIG OBJECTS NOT ALWAYS SILENT Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Through December 23, 2017 Known as a founding member of design collective Memphis Group, Nathalie Du Pasquier embraces dual roles as painter and designer. Her work breaks down assumptions of prestige that prioritizes fine art over design, exploring the abstract and the concrete in spatially conscious pieces. Nathalie Du Pasquier, Con la foglia di magnolia, 2005–06; On view at the Institute of Contemporary Art
COURTESY THE ARTIST; ANGLIM GILBERT GALLERY, SAN FRANCISCO; AND P.P.O.W, NEW YORK
Working primarily with ceramics, Annabeth Rosen emphasizes the integrative, hands-on nature of her work through reassembly and obsessive combination. Despite their organic forms, her ceramics reject representation and functionality, instead encouraging discourse on feminist thought, labor, and the processes of birth and death.
International Canada Nadia Myre Montreal Museum of Fine Arts November 14, 2017–March 31, 2018
Nadia Myre’s multidisciplinary work reappropriates cultural artifacts to spin tales about identity and belonging. Fusing the personal with the historical in her collaborative pieces, she contrasts official records and private histories, revealing the shared narrative of pain in indigenous dispossession.
Australia Pipilotti Rist: Sip my Ocean Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney November 1, 2017–February 18, 2018 The expanding scale of Pipilotti Rist’s videosculptural installations becomes evident in the most comprehensive exhibition of her work to date. Aiming to challenge as well as delight, she crafts colorful immersive experiences that explore the way bodies relate to technology and nature. Pipilotti Rist, Sip my Ocean, 1996; On view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
COURTESY OF KUNSTHALLE WIEN AND THE INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Texas Annabeth Rosen: Fired, Broken, Gathered, Heaped Contemporary Arts Museum Houston Through November 26, 2017
A “mirror” Facebook shows people alternate versions of themselves. Skincare products hide an organization far more sinister than pyramid schemes. A woman begins to lose weight, then height, before realizing she’s shrinking irreversibly. Mysteries like these abound in Jillian Tamaki’s Boundless (Drawn and Quarterly, 2017), a collection of short comics that combine the paranormal and the mundane. While the supernatural can be disruptive, it’s never separated from daily life or treated as spectacle. Rather than focusing on the shock incurred by the paranormal, the stories follow characters as they cope with their shifting bodies, relationships, and selves. This emphasis on lives over moments grounds the characters, making them protagonists that readers grow to care about rather than passive sufferers of paranormal circumstances. Illustrated in spare color, the pages come to life thanks to Tamaki’s simplistic but versatile art. Whether it’s thin, deliberate line work that highlights the contrast between shadow and light, or coarse strokes
Nadia Myre, Meditation (Respite 02), 2017; On view at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
COURTESY THE ARTIST, HAUSER & WIRTH AND LUHRING AUGUSTINE; © PIPILOTTI RIST
that lend texture to humdrum daily scenes, her style breathes life into the page. From beginning to end, the supernatural guards its secrets, taking form as yet another inexplicable force of nature. As in real life, characters seldom find out how or why these things happen to them, but have to make the most of their circumstances. The mix of surreal situations and realistic characters makes Boundless witty and surprising, but also incredibly poignant.—Xiaoxiao Meng
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E D U C AT I O N R E P O R T
Education Report Art, Books, and Creativity Teacher Institutes In July, NMWA’s education team and guest content-area specialists Kathleen Anderson, Carol Barton, Rosemary Fessinger, Lucinda Presley, and Denise Rudd welcomed thirtysix pre-K through twelfth-grade teachers to the museum for two weeks of intensive professional development. These impressive educators were selected from a rich applicant pool for their dedication to the field of education, their students, and arts integration. As a group, they have clocked 516 total years of teaching experience in special education, general education, humanities, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), and art classrooms as well as library/ media centers. They represent public and private schools across the country—Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. As individuals, each teacher made the conscious choice to forgo a precious week of summer break for creative and professional growth. One participant said, “I enjoyed being stretched in ways I don’t typically experience— both for my personal creativity and for thinking about my teaching in new ways.” The first cohort, twenty-three teachers, attended the Art, Books, and Creativity Teacher Institute, July 10–14. This hands-on course introduced participants to techniques and materials that will support their efforts to integrate the visual arts into their classrooms. During the week, the group explored the ABC Curriculum and the museum’s collection, practiced seven artist book formats and six writing exercises, and learned to facilitate learner-centered conversations about visual art using the Visual Thinking Strategies methodology. They concluded their week by creating lesson plans that integrate their subject areas with art-making and writing. The second cohort, thirteen teachers, attended the biennial Advanced Teacher Institute, July 17–21. This institute is offered exclusively to ABC Teacher Institute alumni. During the week, teachers identified and investigated parallels between the working processes of artists, writers, and engineers through readings, gallery discussions, reflective exercises, and hands-on practice. Participants dove deeper into the curriculum and considered potential STEM connections—and even made books that 6
WOMEN IN THE ARTS | FALL 2017
Clockwise from top: At the Art, Books, and Creativity Teacher Institutes, an Advanced Institute participant practiced a new book format; A group of teachers at the ABC Institute learned techniques to lead discussions about art; An ABC Institute attendee’s artist’s book
included simple circuits and functional LED lights! Additionally, they learned more complex book formats and writing exercises, expanding their ABC tool kit while stretching their creativity and problem-solving skills. Synthesizing the week, participants developed interdisciplinary lesson plans and project prototypes, which they shared during a presentation session. About this institute, one participant said, “In this course I truly learned more than I imagined.” As in years past, NMWA partnered with Trinity Washington University to offer graduate credit for interested participants. A record number of participants, fifteen, enrolled in this option. To our 2017 institute alumni who came from near and far to share their teaching experience, stories, and passions, thank you!
Firsthand Experiences with Revival Revival inspired hands-on workshops that tapped into the transformative possibilities
of the exhibition. During two Firsthand Experiences, participants became artists themselves, inspired by artwork in the exhibition as well as artistic tools, supplies, and methods chosen by the guest teaching artist. To spark creativity, each instructor selected works in Revival that spoke to her and designed an art project inspired by those objects. On July 15, under the tutelage of Albuquerque-based artist and art educator Denise Rudd, participants explored visual storytelling. First the group looked at Sonya Clark’s Cotton to Hair (2012) found-object assemblage and then created their own three-dimensional shadow-box personal narratives. World-renowned and D.C.-based book artist Carol Barton taught the workshop on September 9. Participants investigated how selected artists use the body to investigate gender and ethnic identity. They then used their own silhouettes to create full-size body books.
D E D I C AT E D D O N O R
Dedicated Donor | In Remembrance of Lydia M. Ruyle
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PHOTO BY HANNAH SWICK, WWW.HANNAHSWICKPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
ydia M. Ruyle, a passionate artist, teacher, and community leader, was also a committed supporter of NMWA, generously remembering the museum in her estate plans. She taught art and women’s studies at the University of Northern Colorado, which named the Lydia Ruyle Room of Women’s Art as a study space in her honor. As an artist, Ruyle created more than three hundred works in a series of Goddess Icon Spirit Banners–nylon banners featuring painted images of sacred feminine figures from many global cultures. Ruyle began making art when she was a mother to three young children and also caring for her young niece and nephew. She returned to school to earn her MFA, and spent much of the rest of her life teaching and making art. Her artwork is rooted in travel and historical scholarship—she was fascinated by going to sacred sites and seeing goddess figures in situ. She often led groups traveling to those sites, and traveled widely with her work to conferences and gatherings. As her husband, Robert Ruyle, describes, “Her primary focus was education and advancing the image of women in the arts.” She was particularly interested in sharing her scholarship about goddess figures from around the world. She rooted out their universalities, images, and indigenous stories. NMWA was significant to Ruyle, intersecting so closely with her love for the arts and empowerment of women. She began supporting the museum in 1985, and continued until her death in 2016. NMWA Founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay says, “We are grateful for Lydia Ruyle’s legacy gift. She was dedicated to the museum’s mission of highlighting the contribution of women to the history of art.”
Commit to NMWA’s Future with a Legacy Gift
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s the museum celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, we thank all of the members and donors who have made our success possible. Planned gifts as well as year-end gifts from committed friends like you ensure that NMWA can organize trailblazing exhibitions and plan dynamic outreach and education programs. Gifts also extend your deep enthusiasm and advocacy for women artists far into the future. With the holiday season approaching, it is a good time to think about ways to make year-end gifts to continue supporting NMWA.
on the date of the gift. There is no capital gains tax on these transfers to NWMA. • Donors age 70 ½ or older can make a direct transfer of up to $100,000 from an IRA account to NMWA. When retirement assets are given directly to NMWA, they are not subject to income tax. • Additional gift opportunities include funding a charitable gift annuity, making a transfer of a life insurance policy, and a variety of other plans that can provide you income for life.
Donating to NMWA
To learn more about year-end and planned giving options, please contact Major Gifts Officer Julia Keller at jkeller@nmwa.org or 202-783-7987.
• You can transfer assets such as stocks, bonds, or cash. Under our current tax laws, some people may be able to enjoy additional tax benefits for their gifts. For example, gifts of appreciated stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and real estate, which have been held longer than one year and have increased in value, are deductible at full fair market value
As always, NMWA recommends that you consult your tax and legal advisors about including the museum in your estate plans or creating a life income plan.
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MagneticFields Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today October 13, 2017—January 21, 2018
Erin Dziedzic and Melissa Messina
A Brief Introduction1 As the first museum exhibition of its kind, Magnetic Fields aims to be a catalyst for more broad and inclusive presentations of American abstraction. Intergenerational in scope, the exhibition amplifies the formal and conceptual connections between twenty-one black women artists born from 1891 to 1981, many presented in conversation with one another for the first time. Featuring a range of media including painting, sculpture, printmaking, and drawing, the exhibition places these unique visual vocabularies in context with one another and within the larger history of abstraction.
Mildred Thompson, Magnetic Fields, 1991; Oil on canvas, triptych, 70 ½ x 150 in.; Courtesy of the Mildred Thompson Estate, Atlanta, Georgia Š THE MILDRED THOMPSON ESTATE, ATLANTA, GEORGIA
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© BRENNA YOUNGBLOOD, COURTESY OF TILTON GALLERY, NEW YORK, NEW YORK
Often, audiences favored figurative representations as the stronger mode of expression for these ideas. The prevalence of identity-based exhibitions in the late twentieth century further marginalized black female artists focusing on non-objective abstraction. In the 1980s and ’90s, while several exhibitions laid important groundwork for the exposure of women artists of color, few featured those working in abstraction. More than twenty years later, Magnetic Fields foregrounds self-identifying black female artists whose sustained practice and formal, expressive, and conceptual scope of work dismantles the dominant white, male narrative of non-representational
Brenna Youngblood, YARDGUARD, 2015; Mixed media on canvas, 72 x 60 in.; Courtesy of the artist and Tilton Gallery, New York, New York
Chakaia Booker, El Gato, 2001; Rubber tire and wood, 48 x 42 x 42 in.; Collection of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Bebe and Crosby Kemper Collection, Museum purchase, Enid and Crosby Kemper and William T. Kemper Acquisition Fund, 2004.12
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© CHAKAIA BOOKER; PHOTO BY E. G. SCHEMPF
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n celebrating the commanding dialogue among these under-recognized leaders, Magnetic Fields argues for their enduring relevance in the history and iconography of abstraction. The exhibition, which includes works from the collections of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, participates in the promising turn toward a more inclusive narrative around the history and future of American abstraction. The exhibition title Magnetic Fields denotes exploration, the charting of new directional currents and re-charting of hidden terrain within the history of abstraction. The exhibition’s beginning decade of the 1960s corresponds to the period in American art when the language of non-representational abstraction moved beyond its origins in the Abstract Expressionist movement and began taking root outside of New York City. Its hallmarks were beginning to be studied and practiced in other cities, including Washington, D.C., and were being interpreted and redefined by new generations of artists, including African Americans. As the art of the time began to reflect the social unrest enacted in the civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, and anti-war movements, the expression of gender and identity politics came to the fore.
abstraction. Given this focus, it also pays tribute to the lived experiences of the featured artists, who have come individually to pursue abstraction, disrupting the presumption that representation and narrative beholden to figuration are the prime modes of visualizing personal experience. Collectively, the work represents a range of formalist approaches rooted in painterly, post-painterly, and hard-edge abstraction, with emphasis on process, materiality, innovation, and experimentation. Artists in the exhibition working across time and place share common aesthetics and impulses. For example, repetitive mark-making, a bright color palette, and cosmic references are found in the triptych Magnetic Fields (1991) by Mildred Thompson (1936–2003), as well as in Orion (1973) by Alma Thomas (1891–1978). Often, the artists in Magnetic Fields are acutely aware of the work of their predecessors and contemporaries. Yet some with similarities in visual vocabulary had no knowledge of one another—like Mavis Pusey (b. 1928) and Jennie C. Jones (b. 1968), who are among the few female artists historically to work in geometric abstraction. Earthen and gritty textured planes are found in the paintings of both D.C.-based Sylvia Snowden (b. 1942) and Kianja Strobert (b. 1980), who works in upstate New York. The kaleidoscopic merging of bright colors and organic forms in the paintings and prints of Betty Blayton (1937–2016) finds kinship in the elements of paintings and drawings by Candida Alvarez
© SYLVIA SNOWDEN; PHOTO BY E. G. SCHEMPF
Sylvia Snowden, June 12, 1992; Acrylic on canvas, 120 x 72 x 3½ in.; Courtesy of the artist, Washington, D.C.
(b. 1955); and while the artists knew of one another, they worked independently, with studios in the Bronx and Chicago. Works on paper by Deborah Dancy (b. 1949), paintings by Brenna Youngblood (b. 1979), and prints by Evangeline “EJ” Montgomery (b. 1930) transcend generation and medium in their expressive lines and aqueous color fields. Meanwhile, the use of shaped compositions and illusory textures connects the works of Maryland-based Lilian Thomas Burwell (b. 1927) to those of Nanette Carter (b. 1954) and Howardena Pindell (b. 1943), who are closer in age and geographic proximity. Such affinities are recognized and set in context throughout Magnetic Fields. FALL 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS
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© SHINIQUE SMITH, PHOTO © DENVER ART MUSEUM
© MARY LOVELACE O’NEAL
Mary Lovelace O’Neal, “Little Brown Girl with your Hair in a Curl”/Daddy #5, 1973; Charcoal and pastel on paper, 18 x 24 in.; Mott-Warsh Collection, Flint, Michigan
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ven within the specific scope of this exhibition’s non-representational focus, a number of artists incorporate representational elements. Harlem Flag (2014) by Abigail DeVille (b. 1981) has remarkable similarities to works by Gilda Snowden (1954– 2014). Akin to DeVille’s creative response to the streets of New York, her predecessor Snowden transformed found debris from the urban decay of Detroit, Michigan, into dimensionally constructed assemblages and textured paintings. Similarly, El Gato (2001) by Chakaia Booker (b. 1953) reframes discarded tire rubber into sculptural inventions that explore themes including diversity and cultural connections, scarification, and textile design. Noticeably, younger artists in the exhibition, like Youngblood and DeVille, incorporate found objects with hints of representational imagery, finding precedent in the torn pieces of postcards and exhibition invitations embedded in Howardena Pindell’s Autobiography: Japan (Shisen-do-, Kyoto) (1982). Such collage elements, seen throughout the exhibition, conceal and reveal fragments of representation, further blurring the boundaries of pure abstraction. Political undercurrents also flow throughout the exhibition. The black palette and trademark use of the velvety pigment lampblack in the drawings of Mary Lovelace O’Neal (b. 1942), for example, are not “empty abstractions”; rather, they use color and material as metaphor for the black experience. Furthermore, her use of provocative titles, as in the painting Racism is Like Rain, Either it’s Raining or it’s Gathering Somewhere (1993), informs the reading of this monumental work. Maren Hassinger (b. 1947) similarly uses sociopolitically inflected titles and materials— specifically New York Times newspapers in
Shinique Smith, Bale Variant No. 0017, 2009; Clothing, fabric, ink, twine, ribbon, and wood, 72 x 52 x 52 in.; Denver Art Museum Collection, Gift of Baryn Futa to the Collection of the Denver Art Museum, 2013.6A-B
her floor sculpture Wrenching News (2008). By twisting the newsprint, making its original text unreadable, she evokes a sense of the warped perceptions surrounding media content. This negation of textual meaning has a corollary in Zanzibar/ Black (1974–75) by Barbara Chase-Riboud (b. 1939), a stele that functions as a monument to the interplay of Western iconography and non-Western visual cultures that have lost their verbal resonance. In another politically charged sculpture, Shinique Smith (b. 1971) visualizes accumulation and consumer excess in a columnar gathering of tightly packed garments entitled Bale Variant No. 0017 (2009). While these twenty-one artists come to their practices with different goals and perspectives, as well as unique biographies and experiences, their passion for abstraction—a shared universal language of color, form, texture, and line—is the connecting force. Among these works we see the evocation of the spiritual and the scientific; the exploration of the emotional spectrum, from exuberance to sorrow; the interpretation of natural, physical, and cosmic phenomena; and allusions to the body, place, movement, and sound. The breadth of styles within the genre demonstrates the enduring vitality of a language that has been adopted, adapted, and recharged over time and across generations. In a poignant 1997 essay “Art World Racism,” in her book The Heart of the Question, pioneering artist and curator Howardena Pindell wrote, “We must evolve a new language which empowers us and does not cause us to participate in our own disenfranchisement.” This exhibition proposes that perhaps non-representational abstraction can be that language. The
© MAREN HASSINGER; PHOTO BY DAN MEYERS
Far right: Maren Hassinger, Wrenching News, 2008; Shredded, twisted, and wrapped New York Times newspapers, 12 x 72 x 72 in.; Courtesy of the artist, New York, New York
© ALMA WOODSEY THOMAS; PHOTO BY LEE STALSWORTH
Alma Woodsey Thomas, Orion, 1973; Acrylic on canvas, 59 ¾ x 54 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay
black women artists of Pindell’s generation paved the way technically and conceptually, rigorously persevering alongside their male contemporaries for decades, and the next generation sustained the pursuit of abstraction against continued odds. Now younger female artists of color assume the mantle and are shaping its future. Like the bands of concentric reverberations pulsating in Mildred Thompson’s painting Magnetic Fields, each wave of artists delivers renewed energy to and broadens the scope of this most magnetic field of American abstraction. Erin Dziedzic is director of curatorial affairs at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Melissa Messina is an independent curator. Note: 1. Portions of this essay are excerpted from “An Introduction,” Erin Dziedzic and Melissa Messina, Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today (2017), catalogue published in conjunction with the exhibition. Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today is organized by the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, and is supported in part by awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The presentation of Magnetic Fields at NMWA is made possible through the generous support of Marcia and Frank Carlucci, FedEx, the Sue J. Henry and Carter G. Phillips Exhibition Fund, Stephanie Sale, Mahinder and Sharad Tak, and the Black Women’s Agenda, Inc. Additional support is provided by American Airlines, the official airline of the museum’s 30th Anniversary.
FALL 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS
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RECENT ACQUISITIONS
Berthe Morisot: Jeune Femme en Mauve (Young Woman in Mauve), 1880 Virginia Treanor
B
erthe Morisot’s Young Woman in Mauve (1880) was recently donated to the museum by Joe and Teresa Long. The Longs have been longtime NMWA patrons, and Teresa is the namesake of the museum’s Teresa Lozano Long Gallery, a dynamic exhibition space on the museum’s ground floor. NMWA’s collection is greatly enriched through the Longs’ gift of this significant and characteristic example of Morisot’s paintings of women. Morisot (1841–1895) depicted women in more than 500 of her approximately 850 catalogued works. Like Mary Cassatt (1844–1926), a contemporary painter working in nineteenth-century France, Morisot was limited to certain spaces because she was a woman as well as a member of the upper-middle class. The spaces she painted, by and large, were private ones—often her home or the homes of friends. They did not include the cafes, academies, and studios where her male peers congregated to discuss the tenets of their burgeoning Impressionist movement and to discover “modern” subject matter. It is no surprise, then, that women (and children) make up such a large percentage of Morisot’s subjects. Most of the remainder of her oeuvre depicts landscapes and still lifes, subjects that were also deemed acceptable for women to paint.
Cultivating an Impressionist Style Despite constraints related to gender, Morisot achieved critical recognition 14
WOMEN IN THE ARTS | FALL 2017
for her work. She was actively sought by artist Edgar Degas (1834–1917) to participate in the first exhibition of the Société anonyme des artistes peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs, etc.—a group later known as the Impressionists. Morisot, the only woman in their 1874 exhibition, continued to show with the Impressionists, missing only one exhibition due to the birth of her daughter in 1878. Inevitably, motherhood had a profound effect on Morisot’s life and art. She is well known for using her daughter, Julie, as a model almost from her birth in 1878, but Morisot’s new role may also have led to a change in her painting style. Perhaps suffering from what today would be called postpartum depression, Morisot wrote to her sister in a letter dated 1879, “I have little time, and then I have my days of melancholy, my black days when I am afraid to take up a pen for fear of being dull.”1 While she had previously used watercolor to capture sketches, a common practice of the Impressionists, Morisot turned more frequently to this expedient medium while her daughter was an infant, perhaps because she found her time limited as a new mother. In the years immediately after Julie’s birth, Morisot also seems to have adapted her rapid, flickering style of watercolor brushwork for her oil paintings. During these early years of her daughter’s life, Morisot broke from traditional pictorial conventions dictating how certain elements should be represented.
In Young Woman in Mauve and other compositions she made during this time, the division between background and foreground begins to dissolve and forms blend into one another, earning Morisot a reputation as a leading proponent of Impressionist technique.
Who is the Subject? Morisot gave many of her works to family and friends, who also comprised a large number of her buyers. Similarly, the people she painted were those she knew: family members, friends, and paid models; sometimes she even lent the models her own clothes to pose in. The name of the woman depicted in this image may have been known at one time, but it is just as likely that this picture was not meant to be a portrait, but a reflection of the daily life of the artist and her peers.2 As the contemporaneous critic Charles Ephrussi wrote of Morisot’s work, “Her subjects are of only secondary importance, one might almost term them insignificant, they are but a pretext for trying various luminous effects and harmonies, and are accepted (or rather tolerated) so as to provide the eye with a resting point.”3 To this end, Morisot frequently gave descriptive titles to images that emphasized the colors she used or the number of figures rather than personal or narrative content. Mauve is the French term for the mallow flower, a bloom that is also referred to as French Hollyhock. This variety is a white or purple flower with dark purple
LEE STALSWORTH
Berthe Morisot, Jeune Femme en Mauve (Young Woman in Mauve), 1880; Oil on canvas, 28 ¾ x 23 5⁄8 in.; NMWA, Gift of Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long
veins radiating out from the center. Perhaps it was this flower that inspired Morisot’s strokes of lavender throughout her sitter’s predominately white garment. The woman is shown in clothing that is most likely a morning or dressing gown. These garments, which appear in a number of images by Morisot, were worn by upper-class women while grooming and dressing at their “toilette.” The sitter here, poised as if caught in the midst of an action, appears to be holding a powder
puff. Her eyes are directed to the side, away from the viewer. The spontaneity of the moment is echoed in the painting’s sketchy quality and unfinished look, both hallmarks of Morisot’s painting style in the late 1870s and early 1880s. The apparent looseness of the painted image, however, is practiced—Morisot labored to develop a personal style that allowed her to create an “impression” of her subject, rather than a realistic replica. For Morisot, color and light were her true subjects.
Virginia Treanor is the associate curator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Notes: 1. D. Rouart, Berthe Morisot Correspondence, London, 1987, p. 115. 2. The model for this painting may be Angèle, the wet nurse hired by Morisot to breastfeed her daughter, Julie. Angèle appears at least twice in Morisot’s oeuvre, both in paintings titled Wet Nurse and Baby, one from 1879 (private collection, Washington, D.C.) and the other from 1880 (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen). Like the sitter in Young Woman in Mauve, Angèle is portrayed with very dark, curly hair. 3. La Chronique des Arts, April 23, 1881.
FALL 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS
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Most Days
EXHIBITIONS
10 |1
2 P.M.
Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today October 13, 2017–January 21, 2018 Inside the Dinner Party Studio Through January 5, 2018
El Tendedero/The Clothesline Project November 10, 2017–January 5, 2018
DAKOTA FINE
Equilibrium: Fanny Sanín Through October 29, 2017
GALLERY EXPERIENCE. Conversation Pieces. Join us for 30-minute “conversation pieces” most days at 2 p.m. These brief experiences spotlight two works on view. Check in at the Information Desk to learn more. Free with admission. No reservations required.
Wonder Women! Through November 17, in the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center; Open Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–12 p.m. and 1 p.m.–5 p.m.
10 | 2
MON 6:30–9 P.M.
10 | 1, 11 |5, 12 |3, 1 |7, & 2 |4
DROP-IN TOUR. Fierce Women. Discover a diverse cast of fierce women who refused to let men define their place; thumbed their noses at the limited roles society accorded them; and blazed trails as artists, activists, and innovators. Free. No reservations required, but space is limited. First-come, firstserved—sign up at the Information Desk upon arrival.
Maria Sibylla Merian, Plate 11 (from Dissertation in Insect Generations and Metamorphosis in Surinam, 2nd ed.), 1719
SUN 12 –5 P.M. FREE COMMUNITY DAYS. First Sundays. The first Sunday of every month, NMWA offers free admission to the public. Take this opportunity to explore current exhibitions as well as the museum’s newly reinstalled collection. For a complete schedule, visit the online calendar. Free. No reservations required.
EMILY HAIGHT, NMWA
© CANDIDA ALVAREZ; PHOTO BY TOM VAN EYNDE
Candida Alvarez, Puerto Rico, 25796, 2008; On view in Magnetic Fields
SUN 1–2 P.M.
LEE STALSWORTH
CALENDAR
Calendar
10 | 4–1 | 31
WED 12–12:30 P.M.
GALLERY TALK SERIES. Lunchtime Gallery Talks. Bite-size lunchtime talks are offered most Wednesdays. Museum staff members facilitate interactive conversations, encouraging visitors to look closely and investigate the mediums, techniques, and themes of special exhibitions and works from the museum’s collection. Free. No reservations required. Barbara Lennie in María (y Los Demás)
CULTURAL CAPITAL. Mujeres de Cine/ Women of Film. Join us for a film screening and evening celebrating women in the film industry in Spain. Director Nely Reguera’s feature debut, María (y Los Demás) / María (and Everybody Else) is a coming-of-age film that follows a thirtyfive-year-old heroine stumbling unhappily toward the rest of her life and changing her fate. Free. Reservations required.
10 | 4 Collection Sampler 10 | 11 Wonder Women! 10 | 18 Magnetic Fields 10 | 25 Collection Sampler 11 | 1 Magnetic Fields 11 | 8 Magnetic Fields 11 | 15 Magnetic Fields 11 | 29 Magnetic Fields 12 | 6 Inside the Dinner Party Studio
12 | 13 Magnetic Fields 12 | 20 Magnetic Fields 1 | 3 Magnetic Fields 1 | 10 Magnetic Fields 1 | 17 Magnetic Fields 1 | 24 Collection Sampler 1 | 31 Collection Sampler
Murphy Anderson, “Wonder Woman for President,” Ms. magazine, July 1972; On view in Wonder Women!
Visit https://nmwa.org for reservations, more information, and a complete calendar of events.
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WOMEN IN THE ARTS | FALL 2017
THURS 11 A.M. –2 P.M. MEMBER PREVIEW DAY. Magnetic Fields. Join us for a special Member Preview Day for Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today, which places abstract works by generations of black women artists in context with one another for the first time, revealing the artists as underrecognized leaders in abstraction. Members enjoy a first look at the exhibition, tours, double discounts (20%) in the Museum Shop, and 15% off at the Mezzanine Café. Free admission for members and one guest.
COURTESY AND COPYRIGHT THE MILDRED THOMPSON ESTATE, ATLANTA, GEORGIA
10 | 12
10 | 12
Mildred Thompson, Magnetic Fields, 1991; On view in Magnetic Fields
10 | 18
THURS 7:30 –9:30 P.M.
WED 7:30 –9:30 P.M.
YASSINE EL MANSOURI
SHENSON CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERT. Sang-Eun Lee. Artistic Director Gilan Tocco Corn welcomes cellist Sang-Eun Lee, who has been hailed for her expressive artistry and dazzling technique. Praised by the Washington Post as “a prodigiously talented young artist with powerful technique and musical poise,” Lee has won top prizes in various international competitions. Free. Reservations required.
10 | 21
FRI–SUN
Howard graduate Mary Lovelace O’Neal, “Little Brown Girl with your Hair in a Curl”/Daddy #5, 1973; On view in Magnetic Fields
© MARY LOVELACE O’NEAL; PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MOTTWARSH COLLECTION, FLINT, MICHIGAN
SPECIAL WEEKEND. Howard University and Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) Weekend at NMWA. In honor of the many Magnetic Fields artists with ties to Howard University and MICA, the faculty, staff, students, and alumni from these institutions will receive complimentary admission to the museum during regular hours (10 a.m.–5 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 12–5 p.m. Sunday) throughout the weekend. No reservations required. Free.
SAT 10–11 A.M.
YOUNG LEARNERS TOUR. Portrait Party. Children ages 3–6 and their guardians go on a museum adventure during this portrait-focused tour. Participants learn about NMWA, practice museum manners, and discover art concepts through developmentally appropriate discussions, a themed story, and hands-on activities. Free. Reservations required by Thursday, October 19.
EMILY HAIGHT, NMWA
10 | 20–22
MATT DINE
OPENING PARTY. Magnetic Fields. Join us for a first chance to see and celebrate NMWA’s new exhibition! Enjoy Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today, exhibition tours, local music, an open bar, and light refreshments. Reservations required. IDs will be checked at the door. $30 general; $20 members.
Visit https://nmwa.org for reservations, more information, and a complete calendar of events.
FALL 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS
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10 | 29–30
MON 5 –9 P.M.
DARIAN GLOVER; COURTESY WASHINGTON IMPROV THEATER
FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCE WORKSHOP. Improv For All with Washington Improv Theater. Spontaneity, individual expression, and emotion are key elements of the visual art featured in Magnetic Fields, as well as in the work of performers. High-fun and low-stress, this workshop shows participants how improvisers create spontaneous, off-the-cuff theater. Come in ready to have a good time! All experience levels welcome. Ages 18 and older. Registration includes admission to Magnetic Fields, happy hour with a cash bar 5–7 p.m., and improv workshop 7–9 p.m. Free. Reservations required.
11 | 2
LEE STALSWORTH; © JULIE CHEN
BOOK ARTS LECTURE. Every Moment of a Book: Three Decades of Work by Julie Chen. Julie Chen presents the museum’s third annual Book Arts Lecture, covering highlights from her thirty-year career as a studio book artist. Chen, an internationally known book artist who publishes limitededition artists’ books under the Flying Fish Press imprint, shares insights into her creative process and behind-thescenes stories and readings. Free. No reservations required. Julie Chen, Bon Bon Mots, 1998
11 | 8
MON 5–8 P.M.
TEACHER PROGRAM. Abstraction Attraction. Ever wondered how to teach students to appreciate abstract art and help them discover its relevance? Have trouble “getting” abstraction and mining it for meaning? Then this is the program for you! Explore the exhibition Magnetic Fields, learn from a curator about abstract art forms and artists with regional ties, hear from author Nancy G. Heller, play gallery games, and brainstorm curricular connections with local teachers. Reservations required. $10.
Kianja Strobert, Charmer, 2016; On view in Magnetic Fields
© KIANJA STROBERT; PHOTO COURTESY OF MARINARO GALLERY, NEW YORK, NEW YORK
11 | 6
MUSEUM SHOP. 2017 Makers Mart Arts & Craft Fair. The Makers Mart Arts & Craft Fair features a pop-up artisan market, promoting local women artists and designers who create handcrafted art and merchandise. A wide variety of products, including jewelry, fine art, home accents, and personal accessories, will be available. No reservations required. Included with museum admission.
11 | 5
THURS 3 –4:30 P.M.
SUN 12 –5 P.M.; MON 10 A.M. –7 P.M.
SUN 12–5 P.M.
FREE COMMUNITY DAY PARTNERSHIP. DC Art Book Fair. Join us for the second annual DC Art Book Fair. This curated event in NMWA’s Great Hall brings together small presses, artists, and more to sell their independently published (largely paper-based) works. More than forty artists will be selling creations from zines to books, from comics to prints, and plenty in between. Free admission to the fair as well as NMWA’s collection and exhibition galleries. Free. No reservations required.
WED 7:30–9:30 P.M.
SHENSON CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERT. Danbi Um. Artistic Director Gilan Tocco Corn welcomes Violinist Danbi Um in her Washington, D.C., debut. A current member of Chamber Music Society Two of Lincoln Center, Danbi Um is a Winner of Astral Artists 2015 National Auditions. She holds an Artist Diploma from Indiana University. Um has appeared as a soloist with the Israel Symphony, Auckland Philharmonic, Vermont Symphony, Herzliya Chamber Orchestra, and Dartmouth Symphony, among others. Free. Reservations required.
VANESSA BRICEÑO PHOTOGRAPHY
CALENDAR
10 | 23
Visit https://nmwa.org for reservations, more information, and a complete calendar of events.
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WOMEN IN THE ARTS | FALL 2017
11 | 12
SUN 4:30 –8 P.M. FRESH TALK FORUM. El Tendedero/The Clothesline Project. Join us for the inaugural Fresh Talk Forum with artist Mónica Mayer. Fresh Talk Forums reach beyond the museum’s walls with community collaborations. Mexico City-based artist Mónica Mayer brings El Tendedero/The Clothesline Project to D.C., working with local artists, activists, and organizations to raise awareness about domestic violence. Their work culminates in this Fresh Talk, featuring Mayer in conversation with participants. A special installation remains on view November 10, 2017–January 5, 2018. Reservations required. $25 general; $20 members, seniors, students. Ticket includes museum admission and Sunday Supper. Clothesline Project participants in Mexico City
11 | 28
12 | 3
TUES 6:30–8:30 P.M.
GARY PENNOCK, 2017
COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
ARTISTS IN CONVERSATION. Sylvia Snowden and Shinique Smith. Artists Sylvia Snowden (b. 1942) and Shinique Smith (b. 1971) share their stories and their artwork featured in Magnetic Fields. Snowden, a D.C.-based painter, manifests energy through gestural applications of paint on canvas. Smith, a Baltimore-born MICA graduate, offers viewers a bit of herself by incorporating personal clothing into her sculptures. Following in-gallery artist talks, guests will have time to speak with the artists, explore the exhibition and collections, and enjoy food and beverages. Reservations required. $25 general; $15 members, seniors, students.
Top to bottom: Sylvia Snowden, Shinique Smith
DROP-IN TOUR. Fierce Women. Discover a diverse cast of fierce women who refused to let men define their place; thumbed their noses at the limited roles society accorded them; and blazed trails as artists, activists, and innovators. Free. No reservations required, but space is limited. First-come, first-served—sign up at the Information Desk upon arrival.
Mickalene Thomas, A-E-I-O-U and Sometimes Y, 2009 © 2009 MICKALENE THOMAS, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND LEHMANN MAUPIN
SAT 9:30 A.M. –2:30 P.M.
HOLLY MASON
12 | 9
SUN 1–2 P.M.
Danielle Badra
FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCE WORKSHOP. Responsive Poetry. Spontaneity, individual expression, and emotion are key elements of the visual art featured in Magnetic Fields, as well as in the work of poets. D.C.-based poet Danielle Badra shares her experience writing poetry in direct response to a variety of art forms. This workshop provides the tools and time for participants to stretch their poetic muscles and use the works on view as the inspiration for their own written creations. All experience levels welcome. Ages 13 and older. Reservations required. $25 general; $15 members, seniors, students.
Education programming is made possible by Gladys Kemp Lisanby, Leo Rosner Foundation, and William Randolph Hearst Foundation. Additional support is provided by SunTrust, Wells Fargo, the Harriet E. McNamee Youth Education Fund, William and Christine Leahy, and the Junior League of Washington. The Women, Arts, and Social Change public program initiative is made possible through leadership gifts from Denise Littlefield Sobel, the MLDauray Arts Initiative, Reva and David Logan Foundation, and the Swartz Foundation. Additional support provided by Deborah G. Carstens, Ray and Dagmar Dolby Family Fund, and the Bernstein Family Foundation. The Shenson Chamber Music Concert Series is made possible by support from Fred M. Levin and Nancy Livingston and The Shenson Foundation in memory of Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson.
Visit https://nmwa.org for reservations, more information, and a complete calendar of events.
FALL 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS
19
INSIDE THE
DINNER PARTY STUDIO Through January 5, 2018  SARAH OSBORNE BENDER
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WOMEN IN THE ARTS | FALL 2017
(Left to right) Judy Chicago, Diane Gelon, Ellen Dinnerman, Beth Thielen, Adrienne Weiss, and Susan Brenner in the Dinner Party studio, 1978; Photo negative, photographer unknown; NMWA, Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center
“
Judy Chicago wrote this in her journal during the creation of The Dinner Party (1974–79), a work that can best be described as monumental. Composed of a triangular table, fifty feet per side, featuring thirty-nine place settings and elaborate textile runners, atop a porcelain floor of 2,300 hand-cast tiles, The Dinner Party consumed the artist during the nearly five years it took to create. The extraordinary craftswomanship and scale was achieved through Chicago’s leadership of a studio filled with an ever-changing cast of volunteers and staff, a promotion and fundraising campaign, and exhausting rounds of experimentation and research. The resulting work is arguably the most important contemporary artwork made by a woman. Through archival materials, Inside the Dinner Party Studio explores the experience of creating not only the work, but also the community.
The struggle to bring this piece into fruition has given birth to a community—one which is centered on creating art that can affect the world and help change its values.
”
FALL 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS
21
ot one to be restricted by medium or March 15, 1979. It featured the table, place settings, and Heritage process, Chicago planned in 1974 to Floor, as well as six Entry Banners, seven Heritage Panels, Acknowledgement Panels, and Documentation Panels. There use her new china painting skills to were 90,000 visitors during the twelve-week run. make thirteen place settings commemIn 2016, the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center orating women from history. It was a matter of months before she determined that the quantity was (LRC) received the first deposits for the Judy Chicago Visual insufficient and increased the project to thirty-nine place settings. Archive, a unique research collection documenting Chicago’s By March of 1975, her procedural plan was in place: she would long and productive contemporary art career. The first materials china paint in the morning, embroider in the afternoons (never to enter the archive are from the creation of The Dinner Party: mind that she had yet to learn embroidery), and do historical twenty-two Documentation Panels (which describe the creation research on her subjects in the evening. It wasn’t long before she of the work with personal narrative and photos), a large and rich collection of photographic negatives and contact sheets, and a realized she would need help, and it appeared in the form of Susan Hill, Leonard Skuro, and Diane Gelon. Each series of photographic prints produced in contributed strengths to the project: Hill the course of planning the book trained and led the remarkable number of Embroidering Our Heritage (1980). Unlike needleworkers, Skuro worked to overcome many archival collections, yet characterhuge challenges creating and firing the istic of Chicago’s careful record-keeping, porcelain plates, and Gelon acted as adminthe materials were in exceptionally good istrator and fundraiser. The years-long effort condition and order. The task of archival would include hundreds of volunteers. processing—by which papers and effects The popular lore of artists’ studios, or are assessed for content and arrangement, atelier, focuses on male artists who lead housed in non-reactive protective materiworkshops where their style and manner als, and labeled for access—was eased greatly by Chicago’s team. are executed by anonymous apprentices. As Chicago progressed through the The Documentation Panels, like the ever-growing effort of creating The Dinner Heritage and Acknowledgement Panels that Party, she embraced and leveraged the reside at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, are studio environment. Filmmaker Johanna considered a part of The Dinner Party. Demetrakas, who filmed the studio for her Consisting of collaged photos of the studio documentary Right Out of History (1980), and text, they demonstrate Chicago’s belief described new faces on nearly every visit that the process of creation was as essential and volunteers who were new not only to as the work itself. The panels are thematic, this kind of art-making, but also to the femand the text comes from Chicago and other inist consciousness with which Chicago workers describing the challenges, cooperstructured the experience. Insisting on ation, and achievements of the team. A respect, self-respect, discipline, and openquote from artist Judye Keyes on a panel ness, Chicago enacted the feminist devoted to the plates’ creation tells viewers pedagogy that she had formalized during something they might never know looking her time teaching at the California Institute at the finished work: “We had a lot of techof the Arts (Cal Arts) in Fresno a few years nical problems and disappointments. It was prior. She wrote in June 1977, “So far, just very difficult to remake a plate when four providing the environment, the Project, or five of its predecessors had failed in the and me as a role model has allowed a lot kiln after weeks of work. . . . We tried everything we knew to ensure a good result, and of growth, but the move toward real education has to take place. I realize that if when we didn’t know enough, we sought feminist art education is to develop as a help. We got a lot of encouragement and viable alternative tool, I will probably have even solutions at times, but mostly we had to train people here and then send them to solve the problems ourselves.” Spanning from 1976 to 1979, the out into the world.” Judye Keyes at work on the Virginia Woolf plate, 1978; The completed work opened at the San archive includes negatives and contact Photo contact sheet by Mary McNally; NMWA, Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center Francisco Museum of Modern Art on sheets from approximately 500 rolls of 22
WOMEN IN THE ARTS | FALL 2017
Left: Diane Gelon, Susan Hill, and Judy Chicago in the Dinner Party studio, 1978; Photo contact sheet by Mary McNally; NMWA, Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center Below: Adrienne Weiss at the loom, 1978; Photo negative by Beth Thielen; NMWA, Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center
black-and-white film, many annotated with names of photographers and subjects. Though many images of the studio have been published, there remains much more to explore and delight in. Volunteer workers appear not only in the throes of studio work—at the pottery wheel, stitching a runner on a frame, poring over boxes of research notecards—but also in beautifully shot individual portraits. The emphasis on the individual is clear: these people, almost all women, brought their own skills and histories to the work. A series of panoramic studio images show large portions of the lofted workshop. Planning notes on a chalkboard are legible, as are instructive or humorous postings on the walls. And perhaps the best-known panoramic images were taken on July 20, 1978, a party for Chicago’s thirty-ninth birthday. Balloons hang along the lofted needleworkers’ area, and friends and volunteers crowd around communal dining tables where weekly potluck meals were held. Embroidering Our Heritage, a companion book by Chicago and Susan Hill, came out in 1980. While The Dinner Party: A Symbol of our Heritage (1979) delved into the making of the work as well as each place setting and woman featured, this book focused on the needlework. It provided a venue for discussion of the problem that needlework was considered “women’s work” as opposed to an art form. The NMWA archive holds prints included in the book, historic images from many eras of women doing needlework,
as well as close-up images of the runners in production. In person, viewers may overlook the refined and specialized techniques used in the runners—beading, stumpwork, lacemaking—but the photographs provide historical reference for the techniques and a clear view of the labor that went into the elaborate runners. In keeping with the other portions of the archive, these prints from the book’s production are meticulously identified, matched to pages in the published book. Selections from all of these portions of the Judy Chicago Visual Archive are on view in Inside the Dinner Party Studio, along with related ephemera from the library’s artist file on Chicago. Additionally, works on loan from the artist include preparatory drawings for runner designs, test plates, and one of many sketchbooks Chicago filled with ideas for this vast work. Johanna Dematrakas’s film Right Out of History is also screening in full length, bringing the studio experience to life. Art critic and historian Lucy Lippard wrote a letter of support for Chicago to the National Endowment for the Arts, in 1976, in which she said, “The Dinner Party transcends individual style by its collective process. It will stand as a record of how much many women cared to have our history re-emerge, how vigorous this tradition is and can be.” The LRC is pleased to share this remarkable collection with visitors. Opening archival collections to the public in this way extends their reach and helps them inspire meaningful research and new creative work. Judy Chicago continues her mission to keep women in the story of history, especially art history. She does so not only for herself in this case, but also for the many artists who helped her make The Dinner Party. The National Museum of Women in the Arts celebrates their tireless effort, collaboration, and dedication, which generated this iconic work that puts women first like no other. Sarah Osborne Bender is the director of the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Inside the Dinner Party Studio is organized by the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center at the National Museum of Women in the Arts and made possible by the generous support of MaryRoss Taylor.
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Throug Novembe h r 17,
Wonder Women! 201 7
Sarah Osborne Bender
W
Murphy Anderson, “Wonder Woman for President,” Ms. magazine, July 1972
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hile acquiring materials related to Simone de Beauvoir for the recent exhibition From the Desk of Simone de Beauvoir, the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center (LRC) purchased a copy of the first regular issue of Ms. magazine, from July 1972. That issue of Ms., the magazine founded by Gloria Steinem and Dorothy Pittman Hughes, featured an interview with Beauvoir and a full-page photo of her in her apartment, along with a striking cover. Wishing to distinguish their publication from other women’s magazines, editors featured a bold Wonder Woman illustration drawn by Murphy Anderson of DC Comics. In the image, Wonder Woman is a giantess under the banner headline “Wonder Woman for President”; an adjacent sign reads, “Peace and Justice in ’72.” She moves urgently down a town’s main street, using her golden lasso to save residents from a threatening war zone just beyond the storefronts. This was the year that Shirley Chisholm sought the Democratic nomination for the presidency, and the Vietnam War continued on. Perhaps, in parallel to 2017, Wonder Woman was just the kind of superhero people wanted in those times. Female superheroes, or wonder women, inspired the latest exhibition in the LRC. Wonder Women! celebrates women who are big, bold, brave, larger than life. Some are fictional and some are historic, but all are drawn from the rich and varied
holdings of the LRC’s special collections in the form of comics, artists’ books, prints, and archival materials such as documentation and press releases:
A Lady’s Champion D.C.-based artist Jennaway Pearson is fascinated by physical feats. Her previous works include an artist’s book focused on daredevil motorcycle stuntman Bob “Evil” Knievel and a print series on Rick Barry, who broke NBA records with his underhand “granny-style” free throw. In A Lady’s Champion (2016), Pearson uses floods of bold color and layered imagery to pay tribute to beleaguered figure skater Tonya Harding. Arguing that Harding never stood a chance against the fickle demands of both the ice skating world and tabloid culture, Pearson includes a screenprinted essay that considers whether the Greek goddess Juno, patron of women and marriage, could have saved her from misfortune. The title plays on the word “champion,” referencing both Harding’s record-breaking performances and Juno’s supportive protection. A Leaf From Her Book: Barbara Rose Johns Based in the Pacific Northwest, Chandler O’Leary and Jessica Spring of the “Dead Feminists” broadsides series came east to lead a printmaking workshop at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, in 2017. Working with students, O’Leary and Spring created A Leaf From Her Book, a broadside honoring Barbara Rose Johns, a student and activist in a segregated school in 1960s Farmville. The print commemorates Johns’s courage in leading her classmates in a strike against the exceedingly poor conditions of their high school. Her action attracted attention and became one of the five cases combined into the pivotal U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education. O’Leary and Spring’s work is always inspired by details of place, history, and biography. This unconventional broadside is printed on handmade paper cut in the shape of a tobacco leaf and colored with a stain of tobacco juice. Johns’s portrait and quote—“This is your moment. Seize it!”—are rendered in rich green ink and O’Leary’s energetic hand-drawn lettering.
ALL IMAGES: NMWA, BETTY BOYD DETTRE LIBRARY AND RESEARCH CENTER
Kathleen and the Great Secret Nell Brinkley (1886–1949) brought style, romance, and strong women to the pages of William Randolph Hearst’s newspapers for three decades. Brinkley drew serialized comics in American Sunday magazine, later named American Weekly. Kathleen and the Great Secret ran on the cover of American Weekly in 1920 and ’21, featuring a female hero who saves her fiancée from villains. Kathleen’s rescue of Jim involved a thrilling journey around the globe. Brinkley’s immense popularity as an illustrator and tastemaker influenced the era. The Ziegfeld Follies featured “Brinkley Girls” dressed in her fashion, and women used hair-curling products named for her.
Nell Brinkley, “Kathleen and the Great Secret,” New York Evening Journal, November 21, 1920
Jennaway Pearson, A Lady’s Champion (detail), 2016; Screen-printed, Coptic-bound artist’s book with slipcase
Superlatives for sculptor Eva Hesse Artist Eva Hesse (1936–1970), whose work is remarkable in its own right, has been lifted to mythic status since her death. A breathless press release on display from 1992 features a series of statements such as, “Who is this sculptor who commenced her mature work at twenty-nine and demised five years later in 1970? EVA HESSE.” Highlighting her short life, prolific career, and critical popularity, Hesse is presented as a miracle rather than a nuanced and talented woman artist. Her diaries were published in 2016 in a remarkably faithful, thick-as-a-brick volume, capturing the mundane cares of a very young woman and artist, alongside candid concerns about her artistic practice, inspiration, and illness. Sarah Osborne Bender is the director of the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. FALL 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS
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© ESTATE OF ALMA WOODSEY THOMAS; LEE STALSWORTH
MUSEUM NEWS AND EVENTS
Member News The Circles
Charity Navigator
Join a dynamic group of individuals who ensure that every day, every gallery wall at NMWA is dedicated to women artists. Circles membership ranges from Donor Circle ($1,000) to President’s Circle ($25,000) and offers a suite of special benefits and experiences, including prominent recognition in the museum and its publications. For more information, or to join, call Director of Membership Christina Knowles at 202-783-7984 or visit https://nmwa.org/ support/membership#circles.
NMWA is proud to have received four stars, the highest possible rating, from Charity Navigator, on August 1, 2017. Charity Navigator’s rating recognizes the museum for sound fiscal management and a proven commitment to accountability and transparency.
Left: Alma Woodsey Thomas, Iris, Tulips, Jonquils, and Crocuses, 1969; Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 50 in.; NMWA, Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay
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Member Events at the Museum
Members and revelers celebrate the opening of Revival on June 22.
Revival Redux Nearly 350 guests celebrated the spirited opening of Revival with a preview party on June 22. Guests enjoyed Southern bites, including a mac-and-cheese bar and specialty cocktail. Local musicians Sweet Yonder performed throughout the night with bluegrass classics and originals. Special exhibition tours were offered throughout the evening. Thank you to everyone who attended!
exhibition. Members and their guests enjoy tours throughout the day and special discounts in the Museum Shop! The opening party for Magnetic Fields begins at 7:30 pm. Guests will enjoy light refreshments, local entertainment, and exhibition tours. Member admission $20, General $30. Visit https://nmwa.org/events/opening-party-magnetic-fields to get your tickets today!
What’s on Next? Fall Member Preview: Magnetic Fields Members have the first chance to see Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today, the first U.S. exhibition to focus on formal and historical abstraction by black women artists. Mark your calendar for October 12, 11 a.m.–2 p.m. to preview the
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Women House, on view March 9–May 28, 2018, features women artists whose work renovates, and sometimes demolishes, traditional ideas about the home. Learn more on the back cover, and save the date for preview events on March 8. Look for details at https://nmwa.org as they become available.
Committee News discussion and visits to their institutions for guests that included NMWA Trustee Mary Mochary. A session with Women to Watch curator Sharon Lerner took place at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Celebrating NMWA’s thirtieth anniversary, the Mississippi State Committee held their annual event at the Governor’s Mansion on May 9. Director Susan Fisher Sterling was the keynote speaker. The founders of NMWA’s new Committee in Peru at the committee’s launch in May
Educating the Public beyond the Museum’s Walls Our Committee in Peru, led by its founder and president Veronica De Ferrero, held its official launch on May 11. The three days of events, meetings, and festivities included sessions that introduced the founding members to the community of arts and business professionals in Lima. Representatives from Lima’s museums, including Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI) and Museo Larco, provided in-depth
Looking Forward to Women to Watch 2018 Women to Watch is NMWA’s triannual exhibition series that is a dynamic collaboration between the museum and its outreach committees. For the Women to Watch exhibition in 2018, committees worked with curators in their respective regions to create shortlists of artists working in the medium of metal. From this list, NMWA curators select the artists whose work will be on view at the museum. For 2018, participating U.S. committees include Arkansas, Northern California, Southern California, Florida, Georgia, Greater
Kansas City Area, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Mexico, Greater New York Region, Ohio, Texas, and Mid-Atlantic. International committees include Chile, France, Italy, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and United Kingdom. Several committees are holding local events or exhibitions for their shortlisted artists in fall 2017. Save the dates! • Georgia: October 5, a pop-up exhibition and reception at MOCA GA in Atlanta celebrates the five shortlisted Georgiabased artists. • Massachusetts: October 20–27, with opening reception October 20, an exhibition at Gallery Kayafas in Boston features work by the five shortlisted Massachusetts-based artists. • New York: October 19, an event at the Museum of Arts and Design in Manhattan honors the shortlisted artists from the Greater New York Region. • Peru: November 28, a panel discussion at MOCA Lima celebrates the shortlisted artists from Peru.
Museum Events 1. Tiffany D. Cross, Laura A. Liswood, Isisara Bey, Leila Hessini, Carly Gamson, and Olivia Trice take part in a conversation about achieving a more gender-balanced world 2. NMWA Board Vice Chair Winton Holladay welcomes attendees 1
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Cultural Capital: 50/50 Day Film Screening
3. Amy Lipton, curator and East Coast director of ecoartspace, presents about artists who address environmental issues 4. Fresh Talk speakers Kari Fulton, Laura Turner Seydel, Miranda Massie, Jacqueline Patterson, and Amy Lipton 3
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FRESH TALK: How can the arts inspire environmental advocacy?
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MUSEUM NEWS AND EVENTS
FRESH TALK: Who are the new superwomen of the universe? 5. Fresh Talk speakers Emily Whitten, Carolyn Cocca, Ariell Johnson, Ashley A. Woods, and Gabby Rivera 6. Ashley A. Woods presents her illustration art for the series NIOBE: She is Life 7. Gabby Rivera and Fresh Talk attendees enjoying happy hour following the conversation 5
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Opening reception for Revival
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8. NMWA Trustee Amy Weiss, Board Vice Chair Winton Holladay, Director Susan Fisher Sterling, Trustee Nancy Stevenson, Trustee Kathleen Elizabeth Springhorn, and Board President Cindy Jones 9. Revival artists Petah Coyne and Charlotte Gyllenhammar 10. Revival artist Alison Saar, Kimberly Davis, and Director Susan Fisher Sterling 11. Kate Chieco and Tony Podesta 12. Revival artist Charlotte Gyllenhammar and NMWA Chief Curator Kathryn Wat lead an exhibition tour
13. Fanny Sanín and Director of the OAS Art Museum Pablo Zúñiga 14. Beatriz de Sanín, Félix Ángel, Mayer Sasson, Fanny Sanín, NMWA Associate Curator Virginia Treanor, and Diana Sanín 13
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EMILY HAIGHT, NMWA
Opening reception for Equilibrium: Fanny Sanín
15. NMWA Director of Public Programs Melani N. Douglass introduces the screening 16. Elizabeth Alexander and Gay McDougall in conversation after the screening 15
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KEVIN ALLEN PHOTOGRAPHY
March on Washington Film Festival: Winnie screening and conversation
The National Museum of Women in the Arts is deeply grateful to the following donors who made contributions from July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2017. Your support enables NMWA to develop groundbreaking exhibitions, expand its education, library, and outreach programs, and offer other special events to the public. Your contributions are critical to the museum’s success! Although we can only list donations of $500 and above due to space limitations, NMWA is thankful for all of its members and friends. We also wish to acknowledge our Spring Gala sponsors. This year’s generous endowment gifts are listed separately on page 31. For more information, please contact the Development Office at 202-783-7989.
Individuals $1,000,000+ Madeleine Rast* $500,000–$999,999 Rose Benté Lee Ostapenko* $100,000–$499,999 Betty Boyd and Rexford* Dettre • Sue J. Henry and Carter G. Phillips • Cindy and Evan Jones • Jacqueline Badger Mars • Christine Suppes $50,000–$99,999 Clara M. Lovett • Lorna Meyer Calas and Dennis Calas • MaryRoss Taylor $25,000–$49,999 Anonymous • Gina and Eugene Adams • Jan S. Carr • Deborah G. Carstens • Belinda de Gaudemar • Nancy and Marc Duber • Bella J. May* • Dee Ann McIntyre • Burnley T. Perrin* • Stephanie Sale • Geri Skirkanich • Denise Littlefield Sobel • Susan and Jim Swartz • Mahinder and Sharad Tak $15,000–$24,999 Yousef and Abeer Al Otaiba • Sunny Scully Alsup and William Alsup • Amy and Bret Baier • Martha Dippell and Daniel Korengold • Jamie and David Dorros • Winton and Hap Holladay • Nancy Livingston and Fred M. Levin • The Honorable Mary V. Mochary • Patti Pyle • Sheila and Richard Shaffer $10,000–$14,999 Edith Bergstrom • Lucy Buchanan • Charlotte and Michael Buxton • Rose and Paul Carter • Paul T. Clark • Elva Ferrari-Graham • Lisa Claudy Fleischman • Rosemarie Forsythe • Suzanne and Bruce Glassman • Jamie S. Gorelick and Richard E. Waldhorn • J. W. Kaempfer, Jr. • W. Bruce Krebs • Carol M. and Climis G. Lascaris • Marcia MacArthur • Marlene A. and Frederic V. Malek • Victoria J. Mastrobuono* • Kristine Morris • Kay W. Olson • Cecil S. Richardson* • Elizabeth Robinson • Lydia M. Ruyle* • Jack and Dana Snyder • Patti Amanda and Bruce Spivey • Cheryl S. Tague • John Tavss • Deborah Dunklin Tipton • Paula S. Wallace • Eunice Weed* $5,000–$9,999 Gail D. Bassin • M. A. Ruda and Peter J. P. Brickfield • Margaret C. Boyce Brown • Diane Casey-Landry and Brock Landry • Renee Chodur • Linda L. and John Comstock • Liz Cullen • Beverly Dale • Thomas J. Dillman • Jean-Marie and Raul Fernandez • Victoria Firth • Rita Diane Fuchsberg • Elizabeth and Michael Galvin • Susan Goldberg • Lois Lehrman Grass • Barbara R. and Larry Hayes • Anna Stapleton Henson • Sally and Christopher H. Jones • Alice D. Kaplan • Dr. Kathleen A. Maloy and Ms. Heather L. Burns • Juliana and Richard E. May • Bonnie McElveen-Hunter and Bynum Hunter • Honey McGrath • Jeannette T. Nichols • Marjorie and Philip Odeen • Jean Hall and Thomas D. Rutherfoord, Jr. • Sara Steinfeld • Nancy N. and Roger Stevenson, Jr. • Frances Usher • Krystyna
SUPPORTING ROLES
With Thanks Wasserman • Alice W. and Gordon T. West, Jr. • Patricia and George White • Dian Woodner $2,000–$4,999 Noreen M. Ackerman • Janice L. and Harold L. Adams • Jo Ann Barefoot • Karen Beardsley • Sue Ann and Ken Berlin • Catherine Bert and Arthur Bert, M.D. • Brenda Bertholf • Eva M. Borins • Susan Borkin • Katherine and David Bradley • Nancy Anne Branton • Anna E. Burman • Dr. Mary A. Carnell and Dr. Agnes Guyon • Donna Paolino Coia and Arthur Coia • Bethanne Kinsella Cople • Lizette Corro • Byron Croker • Lynn Finesilver Crystal • Carole Cullen • Paula Ballo Dailey and Brian Dailey • Katy Graham Debost • Elizabeth J. Doverman • Kenneth P. Dutter • Geraldine E. Ehrlich • Hanna G. Evans • Mimi Alpert Feldman • Jane Fortune • Barbara L. Francis and Robert Musser • Mary M. Free • Karen L. Friss • Julie and Jon Garcia • Lisa Garrison • Carol and Henry Goldberg • Barbara S. Goldfarb • Jody Harrison Grass • Fruzsina M. Harsanyi and Raymond Garcia • Michelle Howard • Mareen Hughes • Caroline Rose Hunt • Lynn M. Johnston • Arlene Fine Klepper and Martin Klepper • Doris Kloster • Sandra W. and James Langdon, Jr. • Nelleke Langhout-Nix • Anne and Robert Larner • Gladys K. and James W.* Lisanby • Sarah H. Lisanby, M.D. • Adrienne B. Mars • C. Raymond Marvin • Mr. and Mrs. Clyde S. McCall, Jr. • Cynthia McKee • Owen McMahon • Jacqui Michel • Milica Mitrovich • Nancy Moorman • Claudia Pensotti Mosca • Jessica Mowery • Nancy Ann Neal • Melanie and Larry Nussdorf • Carol J. Olson • Llelanie Orcutt • Nellie Partow • Margaret H. and Jim Perkins • Amanda and Curtis Polk • Jean Porto • Maddie L. Preston • Jacqueline L. Quillen • Elizabeth S. Ray • Barbara Richter • Andrea Roane and Michael Skehan • Dr. Markley Roberts • Elizabeth A. Sackler • Marsha Brody Shiff • Esther Simplot • Kara Singh • Kathern Ivous Sisk • Beverly Hall and Kurt Smith • Dot Snyder • Judy W. Soley • Susan Kahn Sovel • Alice and Ken Starr • Josephine L. and Thomas D. Stribling • Joanne C. Stringer • Lucretia D. and William H. Tanner • Carol F. Tasca • Lisa Cannon and Charles Edison Taylor • Annie S. Totah • Sarah Bucknell Treco • Sara and Michelle Vance Waddell • Laura Singer • Carol Wardell • Harriet L. Warm • Amy Weiss • Elizabeth B. Welles • Tara Beauregard Whitbeck • Betty Bentsen Winn • Rhett D. Workman $1,000–$1,999 Ruth and Sam Alward • Robin M. Andrews • Jean T. and William B.* Astrop • Rita Balian • Linda C. Barclay • Joanne Barker • Jane L. Barwis • Mr. and Mrs. John T. Beaty, Jr. • Johanna Billmyer • Frances and Daniel W. Blaylock • Anne E. Branch • Jean B. Brown • Katherine and Richard Bruch • Beth B. Buehlmann • Charlotte Anne Cameron • Ellen A. Cherniavsky • Meredith Childers and Dimitris C. Varlamis • Ann Clark and Timothy M. Price • Myrna Colley-Lee • Gabriela Coman • Ellen and Steve Conley • Mr. and Mrs. Ralph F. Cox • Charlotte Cressey • Dr. Linda Daniel • Barbara Denrich • Sara Jo Victors Dew • Barbara L. Elky • Valerie Facey • Denise J. Fiore • Christopher Forbes • Tracy Freedman • Ann and Michael Freiman • Lisa Friedman • Cary Frieze • Patricia Mast and Kenneth S. George • Ruth Bader Ginsburg • Merry Glosband • Sheila and Patrick Gross • Anjali Gupta • Ilene S. and Jeffrey S. Gutman • Pamela Gwaltney • Susan Hairston • Patricia A. Harcarik and Carlton Nelson • Carla Hay • Marilyn J. and Philip Hayes • Jean E. Hayward, M.D. • Thomas Healy and Fred P. Hochberg • Pat and Fred Henning • Lilo A. Hester • Pamela J. Hoiles • Linda Hope • Jane S. and E. Claiborne Irby • Madelyn Jennings • Gretchen W. and James L. Johnson • Keiko and Steven Kaplan • Ann Kaplan • Julie Karcis • Sheldon and Audrey Katz • Cheryl L. Keamy • Kay Kendall and Jack Davies • Cheryl Kiddoo • Kathleen Knepper • Yvette Kraft • David and Christina Kunko • Julia M. Ladner • Piper-Lynne Larson and Adeline Phillips • John Leubsdorf and Lynn B. Montz • Eve Auchincloss Lilley • Maryann Lynch • Cynthia Madden Leitner and Walter Leitner • Ann L. Maguire • Margaret Maree • Carrie and David Marriott • Susan A. Mars • Pamela W. Massey • Adlai T. Mast, Jr. • Joyce A. Mims • Deborah E. Myers • Melissa Nabors • Yvonne B. Nevens • Audrey Niffenegger • Heidi Nitze • Susan O’Brien, M.D. • Mary B. Olch • Monica T. O’Neill • John Paradiso and Tom Hill • Laura and Sam Patten • Lois M. Pausch • Norma J. Pearson • Sarah Perot • Dr. Michael and Mrs. Mahy Polymeropoulos • Marjorie B. Rachlin • Miriam M. Rand and Ona Lara Porter • Toni Ratner Miller •
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SUPPORTING ROLES
Mary Anne Rogers • Marion and Robert Rosenthal • Bonnie and Thomas Rosse • Susan M. Ryan-Deaner • Christopher M. Sargent • Mary Schmidt and Russell Libby • Dennis Siegner • Diljeet Singh • Karen and William Sonneborn • Dr. Marjorie L. Stein • Andrea Strawn • Kim and Sarah Baldwin Swig • Amanda M. Termuhlen • Sharen A. Thomas • Patt Trama • Micaela A. Trumbull • Margaret S. Vining • Sarah Vradenburg • Candace King Weir • Carolyn L Wheeler • Karen Wilson • Dorothy and Kenneth Woodcock $500–$999 Anonymous (2) • Diane Abeloff • Marjorie H. Adler • Deanna S. and Charles T. Akre • Mark and Kathe Albrecht • Ms. Margery Al-Chalabi • Robin M. Andrews • Claire Arnold • Mr. Joseph Asin and Ms. Beryl Gilmore • Patricia Baig • Barbee Bancroft • Kathleen Barclay • Rebecca A. Barclay • Leslie B. Belzberg • Ruth Benanav • Mary Ellen Bergeron • Bertha Soto Braddock • Joan Braderman • Reina Brekke • Leonie M. and John R. Brinkema • Joan K. Bruchas • Terri D. Bullock • Mary C. Bunting • Rosemarie Buntrock • Doris Burd • Carolyn Burress • Gretchen Griesinger Butkus • Phyllis Cairns • Lynda L. Calderone and Ralph Calderone • Kathleen Carey • Ellen Carey • Sylvia K. Carlson • Vicki E. Chessin • Mary and James Clark • Mary Clutter • Kathryn and Douglas Cochrane • Marcy and Neil Cohen • Elinor Coleman and David Sparkman • Robyn D. Collins • Elizabeth Colton • Elizabeth Crane • Paul Davis • Doloras E. Davison • Carol A. Delany • Karen Detweiler • Norman Dreyfuss • Margaret P. and Peter Dzwilewski • Elizabeth Enders • Sandra Bauman Enser • Sarah G. Epstein and Donald A. Collins • Ms. Arlene Evans Dewberry • L. B. Ewing • Tarry D. Faries • Jill Ferrera • Joyce Itkin Figel and Brad Figel • Sandra Filippi and Barré Bull • Joyce Flaherty • Nancy M. Folger • Helen H. Ford • Constance S. and Joseph P. Franklin • Sara A. and Michael Friedman • Wendy Frieman and David Johnson • Sandra R. Fucigna • Raymond K. Fudge • Virginia Elkin Fuller • Virginia L. Fulton • Yolanda S. George • Karen Gingrich • Susan Glantz • Priscilla and Russel A. Glenn • Marguerite F. Godbold • Jim Goldschmidt • Ruth Goldstein • Mary C. Goodwin • Catherine A. Green • Alan and Bonnie Hammerschlag • Sandi and Larry Hammonds • Ruth* and Harlan Hansen • Nadine S. Hardin • Anna-Liza and Elizabeth Kiley Harris • Mary J. Hayden and Carla J. Tomaso • Delphine Hedtke • Janet Ruth Heller • Charles T. Hendrix • Connie Hershey • Nancy Hirshbein and Robert Roche • Jennefer A. Hirschberg • Ann C. Holmes • Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Holt • Alice C. Hudson • Deborah Hulse • Linda M. Ingersoll • Elayne Janiak and Karl C Voiles • Sheila Jefferson • Helen Jeter • Betsy Jewett • Pamela C. Johnson and Wesley King • Anita Jones • Ruina Wallace and Ardon Berkeley Judd • Caroline Kaplan and Douglas Clark • William and Nancy Keefe • Patricia A. Kenney • Idaclaire and Tom Kerwin • Margery Kibby • Katherine Kiehn and Alexis Lane Jensen • Mary S. and Stephen E. Kitchen • Christina Knowles and Christopher Petite • Carol and Martin Paul Kolsky • Barbara J. Kraft and Peter Winkler • Sue Kroll and Michael Desilets • Suzanne S. La Pierre • M. Leanne Lachman • Jacquelynne P. Lanham • Julia Lanigan • Joan O. Lautenberger • Emmanuelle and Brieuc Le Bigre • Anne K. Leake • Ruth and Edward Legum • Dale Leibowitz and Amy Kaster • Mary K. Leskovac • Maro Lester • Bari D. and Keith D. Levingston • David Lloyd • Liz Minyard Lokey • Sandra Lotterman • Carl M. Louck • Christine Loveland • Judy R. Loving • Rhonda Ludwico • Joanne Lyman • Anne H. Magoun • Knute E. Malmborg • Elizabeth MarchutMichalski • Pamela Marron • Priscilla and Joe R. Martin • Marsha Mateyka • Janice Mays • Ann M. McGraw • Laurie E. McNeil and Patrick W. Wallace • Helen McNiell and Antonio Alcalá • Dorothy and Bill McSweeny • Iris McWilliams • Dottie Mergner • Lorie Mertes • Gail B. Meyers • Gloria Adams Mills • Mercy D. Miranda • Leila Misher • Patricia Carr Morgan • Charles Morrison • Patricia L. Mote • Lola M. Muller • Debbie Murdock • Linda Myers • Christie Neuger • Beth W. Newburger • Ruby Nock • Bu Nygrens • Sharon and Lawrence Oeschger • Maureen A. Orth • Graciela Ostera • Zoe H. Parker • Cynthia Paschen • Dorothy J. Pearson • Ellen and Anson Peckham • Joanne Pekarik • Sheryl A. Pesce • Patricia R. Pickford • Gloria Pieretti • Edith and John Poertner • Carol T. and William Pollak • Mrs. Pond • Bonnie and John Priebe • Martha A. Prumers • Mary H. Railsback and Joel L. Ekstrom • Theron Rinehart • Diane C. Robertson • Pamela Roby • Lenore Rubino and T. Patterson Clark • Donna Z. Saffir • Libby Sandbank • Joyce E. Scafe • Irene and Lawrence S. Schaffner • Sharon Schatten • Karen Schwartz • Carol Seaman • Cecilia and Peter Sepp • Mary A. Severson • Sarah C. Shoaf, D.D.S. • Jennifer L. Sigler • Doris G. Simonis • Pamela Simonton • Linda
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Skare • Sarah S. Slocum • Anya Toomre and Peter D. Smith • Ruth Karl Snyder • Linda Watkins Sorkin • Ann M. Stack • Richard E. Stafford • Crystal L. Steffen • Maryan F. Stephens • Douglas K. Struck • Gail Talbott • Debra Therit • Linda J. Thompson • Debra Tillery • Phyllis Trible • Diana Twining • Luella C and Karl Van Newkirk • Elzbieta Chlopecka Vande Sande • Christy A. Vezolles • Christine M. Waters • Linda Weber Kiousis • Lynn P. Whittaker • Susie Williams • Jane Wilson • Donald M. Wolf • Mary Lee Wood • Jeanne C. Zolezzi • Pamela Zorich and Rosa Gwinn
Corporations and Foundations $100,000+ McDermott Will & Emery** $50,000–$99,999 The Geiger Family Foundation • The Reva and David Logan Foundation $25,000–$49,999 Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation • American Airlines** • Bernstein Family Foundation • Bottega Veneta • The Ray and Dagmar Dolby Family Fund • FedEx • The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation • SunTrust Foundation • Total Wine & More** • Share Fund • Walton Family Foundation, Inc. $15,000–$24,999 Carl M. Freeman Foundation • Dior • Mississippi State Committee of NMWA • RBC Wealth Management • Leo Rosner Foundation, Inc. $10,000–$14,999 LaVerna Hahn Charitable Trust • Milton and Dorothy Sarnoff Raymond Foundation $5,000–$9,999 Bloomberg Philanthropies • Edward John Noble Foundation, Inc. • Marshall B. Coyne Foundation, Inc. • Mary Potishman Lard Trust • The Mill Foundation, LTD • Nancy Peery Marriott Foundation • PECO Foundation • Wells Fargo $2,000–$4,999 Abacus Technology Corp • J.Crew • Louis J. Kuriansky Foundation, Inc. • The Mellor Family Foundation • Paul and Emily Singer Family Foundation • Versace $1,999 and below Anonymous • A. Holmes Parker Foundation • Clifton Community Woman’s Club • The Jane Henson Foundation • Junior League of Washington, Inc. • McGregor Links Charitable Gift Fund for the Greater Capital Region • Southern California State Committee of NMWA • The Steven Barclay Agency • United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey • United Way of the National Capital Area • Woodward Family Foundation
Government and Diplomatic Supporters D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities • U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs Program * Deceased ** In-kind Gifts NMWA strives to ensure the accuracy of donor information. We apologize for any errors or omissions. Please note that event ticket purchases are not included in the donation amounts provided in this list. Contact 202-783-7989 with changes or questions.
Board of Trustees
Legacy of Women in the Arts Endowment Campaign
Wilhelmina Cole Holladay—Chair, Winton S. Holladay— Vice Chair , Cindy Jones—President, Gina F. Adams— First Vice President, Susan Goldberg—Second Vice President (Community Relations), Joanne C. Stringer— Treasurer, Nancy Duber—Secretary, Mary V. Mochary— Finance Chair, Amy Weiss—Nominations Chair, Nancy Nelson Stevenson—Works of Art Chair, Marcia Myers Carlucci—Building Chair, Carol Matthews Lascaris—President Emerita and Endowment Chair, Dana J. Snyder—At Large, Susan Fisher Sterling— The Alice West Director*, Janice Lindhurst Adams, Pamela G. Bailey, M. A. Ruda Brickfield, Charlotte Clay Buxton, Rose Carter, Diane Casey-Landry, Mary Clark*, Gilan Tocco Corn, Lizette Corro, Ashley Davis, Betty Boyd Dettre, Deborah I. Dingell, Martha Lyn Dippell, Karen Dixon Fuller, Sally L. Jones, Marlene Malek, Jacqueline Badger Mars, Juliana E. May, Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, Marjorie Odeen, Jackie Quillen, Sheila Shaffer, Kathleen Elizabeth Springhorn, Jessica H. Sterchi, Mahinder Tak, Annie S. Totah, Sarah Bucknell Treco*, Frances Luessenhop Usher, Ruthanna Maxwell Weber, Alice West
We wish to thank all of the supporters of the Legacy of Women in the Arts Endowment Campaign, whose generosity guarantees that NMWA will endure and forever inspire for generations to come. Although we can only list donations of $10,000 and above due to space limitations, NMWA is grateful to all donors to the endowment.
*Ex-Officio
NMWA Advisory Board Sarah Bucknell Treco—Chair, Noreen M. Ackerman, Sunny Scully Alsup, Jo Ann Barefoot, Gail Bassin, Sue Ann Berlin, Catherine Little Bert, Brenda Bertholf, Eva M. Borins, Nancy Anne Branton, Margaret Boyce Brown, Deborah G. Carstens, Paul T. Clark, Donna Paolino Coia, John Comstock, Linda Comstock, Byron Croker, M.D., Lynn Finesilver Crystal, Elizabeth Cullen, Verónica de Ferrero, Belinda de Gaudemar, Katy Graham Debost, Betty Boyd Dettre, Elizabeth J. Doverman, Kenneth P. Dutter, Gerry E. Ehrlich, Elva Ferrari-Graham, Lisa Claudy Fleischman, Rosemarie Forsythe, Jane Fortune, Claudia Fritsche, Julie Garcia, Lisa Garrison, Barbara S. Goldfarb, Jody Harrison Grass, Sue J. Henry, Anna Stapleton Henson, Caroline Rose Hunt, Jan Jessup, Alice D. Kaplan, Arlene Fine Klepper, Doris Kloster, Nelleke Langhout-Nix, Fred M. Levin, Gladys Kemp Lisanby, Sarah H. Lisanby, M.D., Nancy Livingston, Maria Teresa Martínez, C. Raymond Marvin, Pat McCall, Dee Ann McIntyre, Cynthia McKee, Suzanne Mellor, Milica Mitrovich, Claudia Pensotti Mosca, Deborah E. Myers, Jeannette T. Nichols, Kay W. Olson, Katherine D. Ortega, Margaret Perkins, Patti Pyle, Drina Rendic, Barbara Richter, Elizabeth Robinson, Elizabeth A. Sackler, Stephanie Sale, Consuelo Salinas de Pareja, Steven Scott, Marsha Brody Shiff, Ann L. Simon, Kathern Ivous Sisk, Geri Skirkanich, Dot Snyder, Denise Littlefield Sobel, Patti Amanda Spivey, Kathleen Elizabeth Springhorn, Sara Steinfeld, Jo Stribling, Susan Swartz, Cheryl S. Tague, Lisa Cannon Taylor, MaryRoss Taylor, Deborah Dunklin Tipton, Nancy W. Valentine, Sara M. Vance Waddell, Paula S. Wallace, Harriet L. Warm, Krystyna Wasserman, Island Weiss, Tara Beauregard Whitbeck, Patti White, Betty Bentsen Winn, Rhett D. Workman (all lists as of September 1, 2017)
Endowment Foundation Trustee ($1 million+) Anonymous, Betty B. and Rexford* Dettre, Estate of Grace A. George, Wilhelmina C. and Wallace F.* Holladay, Sr., Carol and Climis Lascaris, Estate of Evelyn B. Metzger, The Honorable Mary V. Mochary, Rose Benté Lee Ostapenko*, Madeleine Rast*, The Walton Family Foundation Endowment Foundation Governor ($500,000–$999,999) Noreen M. Ackerman, P. Frederick Albee and Barbara E. Albee*, Catherine L. and Arthur A. Bert, M.D., J.W. Kaempfer, Nelleke Langhout-Nix, Joe R. and Teresa L. Long, James R. and Suzanne S. Mellor, National Endowment for the Humanities, Drs. A. Jess and Ben Shenson*, MaryRoss Taylor, Alice W. and Gordon T. West, Jr. Endowment Foundation Fellow ($200,000–$499,999) Catharina B. and Livingston L. Biddle, Jr.*, Marcia Myers and Frank Carlucci, Costa del Sol Cruise, Kenneth P. Dutter, Estate of E. Louise Gaudet, Lorraine G. Grace*, William Randolph Hearst Foundation, Estate of Eleanor Heller, Fred M. Levin and Nancy Livingston/The Shenson Foundation, in memory of Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson, Dorothy S. Lyddon*/Seven Springs Foundation, Marlene McArthur and Frederic V. Malek, Victoria J. Mastrobuono*, Sea Goddess I and II Trips, Alejandra and Enrique Segura, Sheila and Richard Shaffer, Clarice Smith Endowment Foundation Counselor ($100,000–$199,999) Janice L. and Harold L. Adams, Nunda and Prakash Ambegaonkar, Carol C. Ballard, Baltic Cruise, Eleanor and Nicholas D. Chabraja, Clark Charitable Foundation, Hilda and William B. Clayman, Julia B. and Michael M. Connors, Martha Lyn Dippell and Daniel Lynn Korengold, Gerry E. and S. Paul* Ehrlich, Jr., Enterprise Rent-A-Car, FedEx Corporation, The Geiger Family Foundation, Barbara A. Gurwitz and William D. Hall, Caroline Rose Hunt/The Sands Foundation, Cindy and Evan Jones, Alice D. Kaplan, Dorothy and Raymond LeBlanc, Lucia Woods Lindley, Gladys K. and James W.* Lisanby, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Adrienne B. and John F. Mars, Juliana and Richard E. May, Bonnie McElveenHunter, Irene Natividad, Jeannette T. Nichols, Nancy O’Malley*, Lady Pearman, Reinsch Pierce Family Foundation by Lola C. Reinsch and J. Almont Pierce, Julia Sevilla Somoza, Marsha Brody Shiff, June Speight*, Kathleen Elizabeth Springhorn, Mahinder K. and Sharad Tak, Sami and Annie Totah Family Foundation, Elzbieta Chlopecka Vande Sande Endowment Circle ($50,000–$99,999) Linda Able Choice*, George* and Ursula Andreas, Arkansas Fifty, Lulu H. Auger*, Virginia Mitchell Bailey*, Sondra D. and Howard M. Bender*/The Bender Foundation, Inc., Patti Cadby Birch*, Laura Lee and Jack S. Blanton, Sr.*/Scurlock Foundation, Anne R. Bord*, Caroline Boutté, BP Foundation Inc., M. A. Ruda and Peter J. P. Brickfield, Margaret C. Boyce Brown, Martha Buchanan, Charlotte Clay Buxton, Sandra and Miles Childers, Mary and Armeane Choksi, Donna Paolino Coia and Arthur Coia, Margaret and David Cole/The Cole Family Foundation, Holland H. Coors*, Porter and Lisa Dawson, Courtenay Eversole, Suzy Finesilver*/The Hertzel and Suzy Finesilver Charitable Foundation, Karen Dixon Fuller, Alan Glen Family Trust, Peter and Wendy Gowdey, Laura L. Guarisco, Jolynda H. and David M. Halinski, Janie Hathoot, Hap and Winton Holladay, I. Michael and Beth Kasser, William R. and Christine M. Leahy, Louise C. Mino Trust, Zoe H. and James H. Moshovitis, Joan and Lucio A. Noto, Marjorie H. and Philip Odeen, Nancy Bradford Ordway, Katherine D. Ortega, Margaret H. and Jim Perkins, Ramsay D. Potts*, in honor of Veronica R. Potts, Elizabeth Pruet*, Edward Rawson, Jane S. Schwartz Trust, Jack and Dana Snyder, Judith Zee Steinberg and Paul J. Hoenmans, Susan and Scott Sterling, Nancy N. and Roger Stevenson, Jr., Jo and Thomas Stribling, Susan and Jim Swartz, Elizabeth Stafford Hutchinson Endowed Internship—Texas State Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts , William and Frances Usher, Stuart and Chancy West, Betty Bentsen Winn and Susan Winn Lowry, Yeni Wong Endowment Patron ($25,000–$49,999) Micheline and Sean Connery, Sheila ffolliott, Georgia State Committee of NMWA, New York Trip, Mississippi State Committee of NMWA, Northern Trust, Estate of Mary Marvin Breckinridge Patterson, Chris Petteys*, Lisa and Robert Pumphrey*, Elizabeth A. Sackler, Estate of Madoline W. Shreve, Patti Amanda and Bruce Spivey, Sahil Tak/ST Paper, LLC, In honor of Alice West, Jean and Donald M. Wolf, The Women’s Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts Endowment Sponsor ($15,000–$24,999) Deborah G. Carstens, Stephanie Fein, Martha and Homer Gudelsky*, Sally L. Jones, Louise H. Matthews Fund, Lily Y. Tanaka, Liz and Jim Underhill, Elizabeth Welles, Dian Woodner Endowment Friend ($10,000–$14,999) Carol A. Anderson, Julia and George L. Argyros, Mrs. Joseph T. Beardwood, III, Catherine Bennett and Fred Frailey, Susan G. Berk, Mary Kay Blake, Booz Allen Hamilton, Lynne V. and Richard Cheney, Esther Coopersmith, Darby Foundation, Jack J. Dreyfus, Jr.*, Patricia M. and Clifford J. Ehrlich, Mary Page and Thomas B. Evans, Lois Lehrman Grass, Anna Stapleton Henson, Alexine C. and Aaron G.* Jackson, Jan Jessup, Pamela Johnson and Wesley King, Helga and Peter-Hans Keilbach, Howard and Michelle Kessler, Ellen U. and Alfred A. King*, Jacqueline Badger Mars, C. Raymond Marvin, Clyde and Pat Dean McCall, Edwina H. and Charles P. Milner, Evelyn V. and Robert M.* Moore, Harriet Newbill, Estate of Edythe Bates Old, PepsiCo., Inc., Anne and Chris Reyes, Savannah Trip, Mary Anne B. Stewart, Paula Wallace/Savannah College of Art and Design, Marjorie Nohowel Wasilewski, Jean S. and Gordon T. Wells * Deceased
FALL 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS
31
MUSEUM SHOP
Museum Shop
Save the Dates for Holiday Shopping! Celebrate the Season Visit the Museum Shop in person or online to find unique jewelry, gifts, home décor, and more.
The Dinner Party Coaster Set This gift-packaged set of four corkboard coasters is based on The Dinner Party, Judy Chicago’s iconic feminist installation with place settings honoring important women from history. $28/Member $25.20 (Item #TDDS_JC)
2017 Makers Mart Arts & Craft Fair October 29–30, a pop-up artisan market in NMWA’s Great Hall features handcrafted art and merchandise by local women artists and designers. Learn more on the calendar on page 18.
Strathmore Hall Museum Shop Holiday Market Magnetic Fields Exhibition Catalogue The full-color catalogue
November 9–12, enjoy your holiday shopping with more than a dozen museum shops under one roof. Visit www.strathmore.org for details.
for Magnetic Fields features prints, sculptures, and paintings by black women abstract artists. Hardcover, 136 pages. $60/Member $54 (Item #1197)
Frida Kahlo Doll
Liturgical Life & Latin Learning at Paradies Bei Soest, 1300–1425 The inaugural publication
Keep Frida Kahlo at your side. Original portrait illustration by KahriAnne Kerr printed on linen/ cotton canvas with solid black linen back, poly fiber filling. 10 ½ in. high. $35/Member $31.50 (Item #KD012FK)
of NMWA’s Suzanne and James Mellor Prize, by Jeffrey Hamburger and collaborators, this study explores the intellectual, artistic, and musical culture of the Dominican nuns of Paradies in late medieval Germany. Hardcover, two volumes. $229/Member $206.10 (Item #1168)
Happy Hollydays Glass Tray Frida Kahlo Secular Saint Candle Add color and a dash of drama to your home with this candle. 8 ½ in. high. $15/Member $13.50 (Item #29234)
Read This If You Want to Take Great Photographs Photography is now more popular than ever. This book contains no graphs, jargon, or high-tech diagrams. Instead, it inspires readers through iconic images and playful text packed with hands-on tips. Paperback, 128 pages. $17.95/Member $16.16 (Item #3216)
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WOMEN IN THE ARTS | FALL 2017
Add a bright, festive accent to your holiday décor with a glossy tray stamped with a playful “Happy Hollydays!” Hand wash. 5 ¾ × 4 in. $20/Member $18 (Item #50020)
Read This If You Want to Take Great Photographs of People This is an inspiring book of starting points and technical tips for anyone, novice or professional, who wants to take top-notch pictures of people. Paperback, 128 pages. $17.95/Member $16.16 (Item #3217)
Sale on NMWA Library Fellows Award-Winning Artist Books Song Lines Painter, printmaker, and book artist Susan Harlan created this beautiful book inspired by the earliest maps of Australia. Handmade artist’s book: photo silkscreens, letterpress, and engravings on Japanese paper; anodized aluminum and linen-on-board cover. 9 ½ × 11 ¾ in. Sale price $250/Member $225 (Item #1231)
Day by Day Day by Day contains a series of twenty meditations, in poetry by Natasha Guruleva and artwork by Olga Nenazhivina, on everyday life and the world. Handmade artist’s book: canvas covers hand-stretched over wood frames, digital images, and handwritten verse. 8 × 8 × 2 in. Sale price $50/Member $45 (Item #8488)
Just for Kids! What Do You Do with an Idea?
Idea Plush Big Idea plush is a
What to do with an idea that’s different, or daring, or a little wild? This is the story of one brilliant idea and the child who helps bring it into the world. Hardcover, 36 pages. 4–8 years. $20.95/Member $18.86 (Item #1052)
great desktop or bedside reminder to give your ideas plenty of time, attention, and space to grow. 9 ½ in. high. $12.50/Member $11.25 (Item #29520)
Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls Enjoy reinvented fairy tales with 100 bedtime stories about the lives of 100 extraordinary women, including Frida Kahlo, Elizabeth I, and Serena Williams, inspiring young girls to dream big. Illustrated by 60 women artists. Hardcover, 224 pages. 5–8 years. $35/Member $31.50 (Item #3192)
Masha and Her Sisters Meet Masha and her sisters in this charming die-cut novelty board book inspired by Russian nesting dolls. 2–4 years. $9.99/ Member $8.99 (Item #3171)
Little Feminist 500-Piece Family Puzzle Illustrations by Lydia Ortiz introduce children to important figures from history with realistic and fun images. 8 x 8 in.; completed puzzle 20 x 20 in. 8–12 years. $13.99/Member $12.59 (Item #PZ2017)
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Fall 2017
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NATIONAL MUSEUM of WOMEN in the ARTS 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20005-3970
COMING SOON
Women House March 9–May 28, 2018
Q
uestions about a woman’s “place” resonate in our culture, and conventional ideas about the house as a feminine space persist. The eye-opening exhibition Women House features more than thirty global artists who conceive of home as a place for exploration and liberation rather than a space solely for nurturing comfort and stability. This new exhibition forms a sequel to the famous project called “Womanhouse,” developed in 1972 by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro. Like their artistic foremothers in the 1970s, the artists in Women House recast conventional ideas about the home and homekeeping with wit and daring. They create provocative photographs, sculptures, videos, and room-like installations built with materials ranging from felt to rubber bands. With themes such as “Desperate Housewife” and “Dollhouse,” Women House emphasizes the plurality of artists’ views on the home. The exhibition is a special partnership between NMWA and project organizer La Monnaie de Paris; NMWA is the only U.S. venue for this innovative exhibition. Women House is organized by La Monnaie de Paris. Its presentation at NMWA is made possible by GRoW @ Annenberg and Denise Littlefield Sobel, with additional support provided by the Sue J. Henry and Carter G. Phillips Exhibition Fund; Belinda de Gaudemar; Mahinder and Sharad Tak; and American Airlines, the official airline of the museum’s 30th Anniversary.
Laurie Simmons, Walking House, 1989; Chromogenic print, 64 1⁄8 x 46 in.; Collection of Dr. Dana Beth Ardi, New York