Women in the Arts Summer 2018 by Women in the Arts

Summer 2018

CHAMPION WOMEN THROUGH THE ARTS dear members and friends, At the museum’s 2018 Spring Gala, it was a thrill when we presented the Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in the Arts to legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz. In her acceptance remarks, she said, “It is institutions like this that have invited young women to think of themselves with such confidence.” Thank you for your part in making NMWA such a special museum. This summer, Heavy Metal marks the fifth installment of NMWA’s Women to Watch exhibitions. The series highlights the unique contributions of our committees, which engage groups around the world in NMWA’s mission through programs and events in their regions as well as Women to Watch in Washington, D.C. For Women to Watch, participating committees worked with curators in their respective regions to create shortlists of artists working with metal. From these lists, NMWA curators selected the artists whose work is on view in Heavy Metal. This process involves a wide group of collaborators—standout artists and curators from around the world, collectors who lend their works to the museum, and dedicated committee members who support the whole project. I want to extend our gratitude to everyone who has played a role in bringing this exhibition to fruition. As we conclude the anniversary year, we offer our warmest thanks to outgoing Board President Cindy Jones, who brought great energy and creativity to NMWA during her tenure. We also welcome incoming Board President Martha Dippell, whose longstanding commitment to the museum makes her a perfect successor.

MUSEUM INFORMATION

WOMEN IN THE ARTS

1250 New York Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20005

Summer 2018 Volume 36, no. 2

PUBLIC TRANSIT

Women in the Arts is a publication of the National Museum of Women in the Arts®

Take metrorail to Metro Center station, 13th St. exit; walk two blocks north to corner of New York Ave. and 13th St.

DIRECTOR

Susan Fisher Sterling

WEBSITE

EDITOR

https://nmwa.org

Elizabeth Lynch

BROAD STROKES BLOG

DIGITAL EDITORIAL ASSOCIATE

https://blog.nmwa.org

Emily Haight

MAIN

Kali Steinberg

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.

Susan Fisher Sterling The Alice West Director

fb.com/womeninthearts

@womeninthearts @womeninthearts

EDITORIAL INTERN DESIGN

Studio A, Alexandria, VA 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 © 2018 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: Beverly Penn, Eight Months Time: Snowcap Hawthorne (detail), 2017; Bronze, glass, brass, and steel, 40 x 10 x 6 in.; Courtesy of the artist, Lisa Sette Gallery, and William Campbell Contemporary Art Director’s photo: © Michele Mattei

Contents

“Metal can be transformed in amazing, even surprising, ways.” PAGE 8

Making a Living: Women Artists Illustrating Books

FEATURES

↑8

Heavy Metal—Women to Watch 2018

Contemporary artists working in metal explore the medium’s physical properties and expressive possibilities, creating a wide variety of objects, including sculpture, jewelry, and conceptual forms. virginia treanor

↓20

Bound to Amaze: Inside a BookCollecting Career

In an interview, Krystyna Wasserman, curator emerita, describes her work assembling NMWA’s collection of artists’ books. kathryn wat

Books and archival documentation showcase artists who managed careers as illustrators. sarah osborne bender ↑ 26

#5WomenArtists: Social Media Engagement Hits New Heights

The third year of the museum’s #5WomenArtists social media campaign met with a resounding response. emily haight

// DEPARTMENTS

2 Arts News 4 Culture Watch 6 Education Report 7 Dedicated Donor: Denise Littlefield Sobel 14 Recent Acquisitions: Mildred Thompson 16 Calendar 19 On view: Maria Helena Vieira da Silva 28 Museum News and Events 32 Supporting Roles 33 Museum Shop

Arts News 2

Far left: Sophia Al-Maria, The Magical State, 2017; Courtesy of the artist and The Third Line, Dubai

S U M M E R 2 0 18

Left: Laura Aguilar, Grounded #111, 2006; Inkjet print, 14 ½ x 15 in.; Courtesy of the artist and the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center

In for the Win: Sophia Al-Maria In April, the first Dunya Contemporary Art Prize was awarded to Qatari American artist, writer, and filmmaker Sophia Al-Maria. Presented by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA), this new biennial prize recognizes midcareer contemporary artists from the Middle East and its diaspora. Employing diverse forms of technology, Al-Maria explores cultural, social, political, and environmental issues that affect the Gulf region. She received $100,000 and a new MCA commission for a solo exhibition in fall 2009.

Employing diverse forms of technology, Sophia Al-Maria explores issues that affect the Gulf Region.

In Memoriam Chicana photographer Laura Aguilar died on April 25 at the age of fifty-eight. Aguilar’s alluring and profound photographs delve into themes surrounding gender, identity, and body politics. Aguilar, who had auditory dyslexia, employed photography as both a means to communicate with the world around her and as a way to express her multifaceted identity. Her photographs represent marginalized communities and chronicle her struggles embracing her Mexican American heritage and her identity as a lesbian. Aguilar’s major breakthrough occurred in the 1990s, when she created a series of poetic nude photographs in expansive Southwestern landscapes. Curled inward and seated near boulders, or laying in the desert, Aguilar’s figure becomes part of the natural landscape. Hard-Hitting Public Art A week before the Academy Awards took place in March 2018, artist Zoë Buckman and the Art Production Fund unveiled Champ at The Standard in Hollywood, overlooking Sunset Boulevard. The fortythree-foot-high sculpture supports a nine-foot-diameter

circle containing a neon uterus wearing boxing gloves. Seemingly prescient, the work had been planned for two years before its installation in Los Angeles—it will be on view for one year, at a time when the film industry is grappling with its history of gender inequity and harassment. In London’s Parliament Square, a new sculpture was unveiled in April as a permanent memorial to the suffragist Millicent Fawcett, marking the hundred-year anniversary of women’s right to vote in the U.K. Created by artist Gillian Wearing, the figure is depicted holding a banner that says, “Courage calls to courage everywhere.” In New York, Diana Al-Hadid created six sculptures that will be on view in Madison Square Park through September 3. The exhibition, Delirious Matter, includes two wall sculptures, three reclining female figures, and one site-specific sculptural bust within the park’s reflecting pool. The works reference depictions of women in classical art, and are constructed from poured polymer gypsum that appears to be fragmented or dripping down their plinths.

Left to right: Zoë Buckman, Champ, 2018; Neon, 43 ft. high

JOIN US!

speech in dialect, which was the accepted standard of the time for its authenticity, but left publishers uninterested. In the decades since, the manuscript was placed in an archive at Howard University, where several scholars read and quoted from it, but copyright laws discouraged its full publication. As Ted Genoways wrote in a Washington Post article about the book, current copyright laws “[extend] the life span of biases that have long silenced female writers, minority writers, and workingclass writers.” Resurrecting History Since 1851, obituaries in the New York Times have been dominated by white men. The newspaper launched a

new project on March 8, International Women’s Day, by adding the stories of fifteen women. Because obituary writing serves as a last testament to human achievement, recognizing previously overlooked women resurrects their remarkable histories and accomplishments. Among the previously overlooked individuals whose obituaries were published are Jane Eyre author Charlotte Brontë, civil rights leader and journalist Ida B. Wells, photographer Diane Arbus, poet Sylvia

Plath, and Bollywood legend Madhubala. The Times began the project as a way to inspire conversation about diversity and to spotlight noteworthy individuals whose deaths they had not recognized. Now treating the project as an ongoing initiative, the Times adds to the collection as a feature of the obituaries section each week. Readers can also nominate candidates for future “Overlooked” obituaries through an online form.

Champion women through the arts with NMWA membership

WO M E N I N T H E A RTS

Rediscovering Zora Neale Hurston Zora Neale Hurston’s book Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” was published in May, eighty-seven years after its completion. Hurston (1891–1960), the renowned author of African American literature best known for the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, completed Barracoon early in her career. Her book provides the true, first-person account of Oluale Kossola (also known as Cudjo Lewis), an Alabama man believed to be the last living person captured in Africa and brought to the U.S. in the slave trade. The work’s history and the reasons it sat unpublished in an archive are also compelling: Hurston rendered Kossola’s

PHOTO BY OBJECT STUDIES; © DIANA AL-HADID

PHOTO BY VELI-MAT TI HOIKK A; COURTESY OF ART PRODUCTION FUND

Diana Al-Hadid, Delirious Matter, 2018 in Madison Square Park. Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen

Culture Watch EXHIBITIONS

ARIZONA

MASSACHUSETTS

To Be Thirteen: Photographs and Videos by Betsy Schneider

Jennifer Steinkamp: Blind Eye

Phoenix Art Museum RM May 4–October 14, 2018

Clark Art Institute, Williamstown RM June 30–October 8, 2018

In an effort to deconstruct generalizations about adolescence, Schneider documents the differing experiences of 250 thirteen-year-olds through photography and film.

Steinkamp uses digital animation to bring natural and abstract forms to life. Her immersive and meditative video projections explore themes related to time and transformation.

Women Artists in Paris, 1850–1900

FLORIDA

Lisette Model: Photographs from the Canadian Photography Institute of the National Gallery of Canada Boca Raton Museum of Art April 24–October 21, 2018

Amy Sherald, The Bathers, 2015; On view at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis MISSOURI //

Clark Art Institute, Williamstown RM June 9–September 3, 2018 RM

MISSOURI

Women Artists in Paris testifies to the extraordinary achievements of women artists working in late nineteenth-century Paris.

Amy Sherald Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis RM May 11–August 19, 2018

NEW YORK

Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985 Brooklyn Museum April 13–July 22, 2018 Radical Women demonstrates how Latina artists from fifteen countries use the female body to address harsh political and social conditions. RHODE ISLAND

SUMMER 2018

Rania Matar: A Girl and Her Room Newport Art Museum RM May 26–August 5, 2018 Jennifer Steinkamp, Fly to Mars, 6 (left), 2006; Fly to Mars, 9 (right), 2009; On view at the Clark Art Institute MASSACHUSETTS //

faced by adolescent girls on the cusp of adulthood.

By using props, costumes, and colorful settings, Sherald transforms her African American portrait subjects into fictional characters, using fantasy to reflect real experiences. © JENNIFER STEINK AMP, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST, LEHMANN MAUPIN, NEW YORK AND HONG KONG AND GREENGRASSI, LONDON ; IMAGE © JAMES EWING

Street photographer and influential teacher Model captured the lives of ordinary people through photographs that portray everyday situations with candor and energy.

COURTESY THE ARTIST AND MONIQUE MELOCHE GALLERY, CHICAGO

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND ROBERT KLEIN GALLERY

Matar’s portraits of teenage girls from the U.S. and the Middle East reveal universal struggles

RHODE ISLAND // Rania Matar, Christilla,

Rabieh Lebanon, from the series “A Girl and Her Room,” 2010; On view at the Newport Art Museum

TEXAS

Lenka Clayton: The Distance I Can Be From My Son Blanton Museum of Art, Austin RM June 2–September 2, 2018 Clayton’s humorous videos highlight the challenges of motherhood and question conventional parenting practices. Also on view, her elaborate “Typewriter Drawings” use only letters and symbols from her typewriter.

BOOKS

International

CANADA

Berthe Morisot: Woman Impressionist Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec □ June 21–September 23, 2018

SPAIN //Joana Vasconcelos, Lilicoptère,

2012; On view at Guggenheim Bilbao WORK PRODUCED IN COLLABORATION WITH FUNDAÇÃO RICARDO DO ESPÍRITO SANTO SILVA, LISBON ; © JOANA VASCONCELOS, VEGAP, BILBAO, 2018

SPAIN

Joana Vasconcelos: I’m Your Mirror Guggenheim Bilbao June 29–November 11, 2018 Vasconcelos uses everyday household objects in her multimedia works to comment on sociopolitical issues ranging from consumerism to gender-based violence.

RM North American Reciprocal Museum

benefits for NMWA members at the Friend level and above □ See works from NMWA’s collection

Fired Up! Ready to Go! Finding Beauty, Demanding Equity: An African American Life in Art. The Collections of Peggy Cooper Cafritz Collector, philanthropist, and founder of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Peggy Cooper Cafritz (1947–2018) amassed a remarkable collection of African American and African art—much of which was tragically destroyed in a fire in 2009. Fired Up! Ready to Go! (Rizzoli Electa, 2018) showcases more than two hundred works that were lost, along with more recent acquisitions. Near an image of bronze figures by Sanford Biggers, Cafritz added a note: “Charred and melted to near ruin in the 2009 fire, but too close to my soul not to keep.” Featuring contributions by eleven artists and curators, the book highlights Cafritz’s impact on emerging artists’ careers and approach to collecting. “I always say it’s gut, eye, mind, and heart,” shared Cafritz in an interview with Thelma Golden. Sculptor Simone Leigh writes that the most impressive aspect of the collection is “the hidden stories behind those works that tell a tale of [Cafritz’s] undying efforts to support a generation of Black artists.” // Emily Haight

Self-Portrait with Boy “I never meant for any of it to happen. Or no. Part of me meant for part of it to happen,” admits Lu Rile in Self-Portrait with Boy (Scribner, 2018), Rachel Lyon’s captivating debut novel. Lu is an ambitious photographer struggling to break into the New York art scene. While taking a series of self-portraits, she unintentionally captures an image of her neighbors’ child falling from a rooftop to his death. Despite the horrific subject matter, the photograph is exquisite. Lu immediately realizes it could change her career. In the wake of the tragedy, She unexpectedly forms a close friendship with the child’s grieving mother. Lu must decide whether to capitalize on the death of a child for the sake of her career or to spare the feelings of her friend. Readers learn her decision immediately; the novel opens several years after the incident. Lu recounts her story, making anguished attempts to justify her decision. Did she have a moral obligation to protect her friend, or should her art come first? Self-Portrait with Boy is a hauntingly beautiful and honest exploration of the relationship between art, life, and morality. // Kali Steinberg

Bizarre Romance Audrey Niffenegger, artist and writer, recently married Eddie Campbell, an Australian cartoonist and author of graphic novels. Bizarre Romance (Abrams ComicArts, 2018) is the result of the union of this talented couple. The book includes thirteen stories written by Niffenegger and illustrated by Campbell. The narratives, not unlike Niffenegger’s novels, The Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry, often interweave romantic but realistic plots with surreal tales inhabited by ghosts and fantastical visitors. With humor and a keen eye for detail, Niffenegger’s fables reveal aspects of life we do not always want to talk about, such as getting old and suffering through illness, as well as universal emotions such as love, jealousy, and possessiveness. Niffenegger’s marriage may have inspired an amusing tale, “Thursdays, Six to Eight PM,” about a soon-tobe-married couple. Here, she writes about the necessity of time alone, even in a happy conjugal life. In “The Church of the Funnies,” the character Gaia Manchester delivers a sermon professing art and love as an alternative to God. The stories in Bizarre Romance are deeply human, forcing us to test our imaginations, to look, and to think. // Krystyna Wasserman

WO M E N I N T H E A RTS

Figure paintings and portraits by Morisot, a leader of the French Impressionists, are featured through 50 to 60 paintings from both public institutions and private collections.

Education Report

Raising Awareness, Raising Funds Programing for the spring exhibition Women House took

They call me thumb-sucker, but I’d rather be baby girl. Washington School for Girls student

on a social-justice tenor, as NMWA educators collaborated with a community organization and individual artists who work to empower women. On March 28, NMWA hosted Welcome to Our House, a causedriven happy hour. At this soldout program, ninety attendees made feminist crafts, heard a female DJ spin, and enjoyed food and drink provided by local women-owned companies. This program garnered more than $2,000 in donations for N Street Village, which serves homeless and low-income women in Washington, D.C. Massachusetts-based activist and textile artist Crispina ffrench led a weaving workshop on April 28. ffrench shared her no-waste philosophy with participants by showing them how to repurpose old clothing into beautiful hand-woven rugs and chair covers. She shared stories of running a manufacturing company that produced her home furnishings and apparel from discarded clothing and textile waste. Her company employed and empowered

women who had never worked outside of the home. ffrench mentioned her latest passion— collaborating with textile companies that offer recycling programs, like Eileen Fisher’s RENEW initiative—to repurpose previously loved materials. One participant said of her workshop experience, “[I learned] endless possibilities to use/recycle fabric.” Jennifer Lindsay, D.C.-area artist, educator, and curator, rounded out the Women House workshop series on May 19. During Survival Sewing Skills for the Game of Life, participants created hand-stitched mini-quilts. Lindsay taught traditional quilt piecing and

assembly techniques as well as stitches that have been used to mend clothing for centuries. Through the process of making, participants gained a greater appreciation for laborious processes traditionally assumed by women. They also picked up or honed sewing skills that are no longer consistently passed down in American culture. One participant most enjoyed “learning some practical, applicable skills and leaving with a finished project.” This workshop was a powerful reminder that the work of making clothing and textiles is taxing, and that it is still largely done by hand by anonymous individuals worldwide.

Top left: Kids from Washington School for Girls dance and explore art by women at NMWA Top right: Attendees at the Welcome to Our House happy hour enjoyed refreshments and crafts benefiting N Street Village Right: A participant in Crispina ffrench’s weaving workshop learns how to repurpose old textiles

ADRIENNE L. GAYOSO

SUMMER 2018

Dancing into Spring This March, NMWA joined forces with Washington School for Girls (WSG) and Word Dance Theater to develop a week-long Wonder Women program that WSG’s 3rd- through 5th-grade students enjoyed during their spring break. To bring this theme to life, representatives from each organization met in advance to select seven artworks from NMWA’s collection to feature in the classroom. Over three days, Word Dance Theater facilitated discussions with students about these works before collaboratively creating dances inspired by their discoveries. One painting in particular made an impact, Amy Sherald’s They call me Redbone, but I’d rather be Strawberry Shortcake. The students were drawn first to the image, and then the work sparked a writing activity in which students completed the sentence “They call me , but I’d rather be .” This partnership culminated with a field trip to NMWA. During an educator-led tour, students saw the works they had discussed all week, explored new pieces, and performed their dances in NMWA’s Kasser Board Room.

PHOTO BY EMILY HAIGHT

PHOTO BY SYLVANA CHRISTOPHER

Dedicated Donor 7

DENISE LITTLEFIELD SOBEL

“I LOVE TO LEARN,” SAYS Denise Littlefield Sobel, donor to several NMWA exhibitions and a lead sponsor of the Women, Arts, and Social Change (WASC) public programming initiative. Sobel views the arts as a gateway to learning about new cultures, to understanding different perspectives, and to experiencing sheer delight in art forms. Although Sobel discovered NMWA as a tourist twenty years ago, she only became deeply involved in recent years, when she heard about the WASC initiative from her friend, Lucy Buchanan. As a consultant, Buchanan helped launch WASC in October 2015 with its signature Fresh Talk program series, which features conversations that highlight the power of women and the arts as catalysts for change. The idea resonated with her, Sobel says, because “The

“I feel that each of us is enriched by learning about new cultures.”

Women, Arts, and Social Change initiative brings people into the museum building who normally might not feel welcome or interested in its programs.” She loves the intellectual discussions at Fresh Talks, the intimate and informal Sunday Suppers that follow, and that “people leave feeling inspired and challenged.” From the standout speakers as well as perceptive comments from attendees, she says, “I learn something each time.” Sobel is also fond of the “escapism and beauty” inherent in art forms such as ballet and opera. Now based in New York City, she grew up in the Bay Area of California, and says, “I am very lucky to have come from a family that values academics and the arts highly.” She traces her love of the arts to the women in her family. Her late mother, Jeannik Méquet Littlefield, was born in Paris, came to New York City as a scholar, and was a passionate supporter of opera and the fine arts in San Francisco. Sobel also had an aunt in Switzerland who was an artist, who broadened her perspective on art ownership and artistic careers. Sobel attended Williams College, in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where she studied art design and architecture. The student body, which had previously been all male, began admitting women shortly before Sobel arrived in 1971. Her class was the first that expanded to allow women to enroll as freshmen. Her passion for architecture inspired her to support NMWA’s recent

exhibition Women House. In Williamstown, she became captivated by the Clark Art Institute, where she is now a trustee. “I feel that each of us is enriched by learning about new cultures,” Sobel says. Since 2005, she has shared her passions for France and ballet through her support for Les Etés de la Danse, a summer dance festival that brings non-French dance companies, often from America, to come to Paris for two to three weeks to perform. Whether at NMWA, the Clark, Les Etés de la Danse, or elsewhere, Sobel takes philanthropy seriously. She targets her giving to find “projects that resonate with me, are important to the institutions I like, and that might be difficult to start or fund in other ways.” NMWA Founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay says, “We are thankful for Denise Littlefield Sobel’s generous commitments to our exhibitions and Fresh Talks. Her sustained yearly support enables us to create and present top-quality programming.”

WO M E N I N T H E A RTS

June 28 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; September 16, 2018

H EAVY

M ETA L

Women to Watch 2018

Virginia Treanor

NMWA’s exhibition series

Women to Watch presents

up-and-coming and under-

represented artists whose

work focuses on a particular theme or medium—past

exhibitions have showcased

photography, the human

figure, nature, and textile art.

The contemporary artists

in Heavy Metal investigate

the physical properties and expressive possibilities of

metalwork. They create a wide

variety of objects, including

sculptures and wearable works

that emphasize or upend our

many associations with metal.

Rana Begum, No. 161, 2008; Paint on powder-coated aluminum, 98 ½ in. high; Courtesy of the artist and Kate MacGarry, London PHOTO BY PHILIP WHITE

This exhibition is the fifth in the Women to Watch series, and, as in years past, it is the result of a dynamic collaboration with the museum’s national and international outreach committees. It is the largest to date, with twenty featured artists who were each nominated by a participating committee. NMWA committees worked closely with local curators to identify noteworthy artists working with metal in their regions. Each committee submitted up to five artists for consideration; from this extensive list, NMWA curators selected those whose work is on view in Heavy Metal. Metal can be transformed in amazing, even surprising, ways. Sometimes these transformations fool the eye. In other examples, an artist might rely on metal’s distinctive sheen or hardness to imbue her work with literal and metaphorical weight. The artists represented in Heavy Metal approach their

work with varied techniques, goals, and inspiration, providing insight into the ways artists today are using this medium.

Metal suits large works as well as delicate forms that belie the material’s strength.

To make metal appear to be something other than metal is no small feat. Yet, this is exactly the result that Alice Hope (Greater New York) achieves in her untitled work from 2004. Hope uses yards of ball chain—of the kind found in keychains, jewelry, and light fixtures—to create a work that,

Left: Katherine Vetne, Selling the Dream, 2017; Three lead crystal Avon pitchers, melted and mirrored with silver nitrate, 45 x 11 x 10 ¾ in.; Courtesy of the artist

PHOTO BY SIENNA PAT TI

PHOTO BY JOHN JANCA

SUMMER 2018

Below: Lola Brooks, sacredheartknot, 2015; Stainless steel chain, 14-karat gold solder, and Mediterranean coral, 13 x 11 in.; On loan from Allen and Irene Natow

from afar, appears to be more textile than hardware. Only upon close inspection will a viewer realize that what seems to be softly cascading fabric is, in fact, aluminum ball chain. Paula Castillo (New Mexico), too, compels viewers to take a second look at her work Inverted Star (2016). Fashioned out of 22-gauge mild steel, Castillo’s piece resembles a softer medium, perhaps clay or even felt, thanks to her deft use of automotive paint. Artists Cheryl Eve Acosta (Greater Kansas City Area) and Beverly Penn (Texas) also transform their materials into naturalistic-looking forms, but they emphasize the metallic nature of their medium. Acosta’s wearable work, which she creates out of copper, enamel, and organza, is inspired by forms that take shape below the ocean’s surface, like coral and barnacles. Wall sculptures by Penn likewise take their cues from the natural world, and the artist creates intricate and tangled, yet balanced, forms such as Maelstrom (2011). Penn says, “I cast weeds into bronze, creating an enduring

stand-in for the ephemeral originals.” She views her works as memorials to the natural world, with references to climate change and extinction as well as associations of loss, hope, and desire. The brilliance of metal can also be attractive to artists. Carolina Sardi (Florida) polishes the metallic elements in her works to a highly reflective sheen. Achieving this effect is labor-intensive and repetitive, but Sardi describes it as an important part of her work: “This process is almost a form of meditation, during which I can think about and elaborate on the work I’m doing.” The beauty of metal is also apparent in the work of Katherine Vetne (Northern California). She transforms household objects such as lead crystal pitchers by flattening and melting them, leaving them barely recognizable. Vetne coats the surfaces with silver nitrate that gives them a mirror-like reflective quality. For artists whose works speak to heavy issues such as war and violence against women, the use of metal reinforces the

WO M E N I N T H E A RTS

PHOTO BY JENNY GORMAN

Alice Hope, Untitled, 2004; Aluminum ball chain and perforated metal, 6 x 6 ft.; Private collection

weightiness of their topics. For Leila Khoury (Ohio), metal is a way for her to cement her memories of places obliterated by war. Palmyra (2015) stands as a testament to that ancient city in Syria, which has been irrevocably damaged by ISIS. Her Summer House (2015) is a more personal work that captures Khoury’s nostalgia for her grandmother’s home, to which she may never be able to return. Kerianne Quick (Southern California) also contemplates recent conflicts and migration crises. Both of her works in the exhibition convey her ideas about objects that are carried or left behind when people are forced to flee. Quick says of her choice to use metal in these works, “Humans have a special relationship with metal . . . It projects our status and affiliations, straddling time and culture—it bears a psychic weight unlike any other medium.” Personal violence against women, especially in her hometown of Lima, Peru, drove Carolina Rieckhof Brommer (Peru) to construct her armor-like wearable sculpture Self-portrait 4 (2005). Resembling a patchwork jacket with its collar pulled up for added protection, this piece speaks to women’s need to feel safe in public spaces. The mutability of metal makes it perfect not only for large works, but also for wonderfully delicate forms that belie the material’s strength. Lola Brooks (Georgia) creates wearable works that are painstakingly intricate—particularly the minute, interlocking forms of sacredheartknot (2015) and four&twenty (2015). Brooks’s incorporation of other materials, such as coral or vintage rabbit fur, serves as a visual and tactile relief that contrasts with the stainless steel. Petronella Eriksson (Sweden) teases out whimsical tendrils from the silver that is her material of choice. Like other artists in the exhibition, Eriksson also finds inspiration for her forms in the natural world, sometimes incorporating elements such as wood into her pieces. Metal also lends itself to achieving hard, clean edges and lines. Thus, it is well suited to the work of Rana Begum (United Kingdom), who draws inspiration from the geometric forms found in modern cities as well as traditional Islamic art and architecture. Begum’s work stresses the often overlooked beauty in the angles, lines, and bright colors of industrialized cities. Her works, much like lenticular images, shift subtly as the viewer moves around them, the vivid colors reflecting against each other and the wall in different ways. PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER ZALESKI

SUMMER 2018

Virginia Treanor is the associate curator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Beverly Penn, Eight Months Time: Snowcap Hawthorne, 2017; Bronze, glass, brass, and steel, 40 x 10 x 6 in.; Courtesy of the artist, Lisa Sette Gallery, and William Campbell Contemporary Art

PARTICIPATING COMMITTEES, CONSULTING REGIONAL CURATORS, AND SELECTED ARTISTS

Arkansas Committee Curator: Matthew Smith, Arkansas Art Center; Artist: Holly Laws Southern California Committee Curator: Bobbye Tigerman, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Artist: Kerianne Quick

Georgia Committee Curator: Sarah Schleuning, Dallas Museum of Art (formerly of the High Museum of Art); Artist: Lola Brooks Gli Amici del NMWA (Italy) Curator: Iolanda Ratti, Museo del Novecento; Artist: Serena Porrati

Chile Committee Curator: Gloria Cortés Aliaga, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes; Artist: Alejandra Prieto

Greater Kansas City Area Committee Curator: Barbara O’Brien, formerly of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art; Artist: Cheryl Eve Acosta

Florida State Committee Curator: Diana Nawi, Pérez Art Museum Miami; Artist: Carolina Sardi

Massachusetts State Committee Curator: Emily Zilber, editor, Metalsmith (formerly of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston); Artist: Venetia Dale

Les Amis du NMWA (France) Curator: Alicia Knock, Centre Pompidou; Artist: Charlotte Charbonnel

Mid-Atlantic Region Committee Curators: Stefanie Fedor, Visual Arts Center of Richmond, and Megan Rook-Koepsel, independent curator; Artist: Susie Ganch

Mississippi State Committee Curator: Pat Pinson, Mary C. O’Keefe Cultural Center; Artist: Kelsey Wishik New Mexico State Committee Curator: Laura Addison, Museum of International Folk Art; Artist: Paula Castillo

San Francisco Advocacy for NMWA Curator: Jenny Gheith, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Artist: Katherine Vetne Spain Committee Curator: Lucia Ybarra, YGB Art and Factoría Cultural; Artist: Blanca Muñoz

Greater New York Committee Curator: Shannon Stratton, Museum of Arts and Design; Artist: Alice Hope

Sweden Committee Curator: Inger Wästberg, independent curator; Artist: Petronella Eriksson

Ohio Advisory Group Curators: Reto Thüring, Cleveland Museum of Art, and Matt Distel, The Carnegie; Artist: Leila Khoury

Texas State Committee Curator: Virginia Treanor, NMWA; Artist: Beverly Penn

Peru Committee Curator: Sharon Lerner, Museo de Arte de Lima; Artist: Carolina Rieckhof Brommer

Right: Carolina Rieckhof Brommer, Self-portrait 4, 2005; Welded steel, 47 ¼ x 27 ½ x 19 ¾ in.; Courtesy of the artist

U.K. Friends of NMWA Curator: Caroline Douglas, Contemporary Art Society; Artist: Rana Begum

PHOTO BY NATALIA REVILLA

Heavy Metal—Women to Watch 2018 is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts and sponsored by the participating committees. The exhibition is generously supported by the Clara M. Lovett Emerging Artists Fund, Share Fund, the Texas State Committee of NMWA, and the NMWA Advisory Board, with additional funding provided by the Sue J. Henry and Carter G. Phillips Exhibition Fund, Marisa and Vincent Boulard, Nellie Partow, Southern Copper Corporation, and Vhernier. Special thanks to San Francisco Advocacy for NMWA for their support of the Heavy Metal catalogue. The museum extends appreciation to the Embassy of Chile in Washington, D.C.; the Embassy of Italy, with the Italian Institute of Culture in Washington, D.C.; the Embassy of Peru in the U.S.; and the Embassy of Spain in Washington, D.C., with SPAIN arts & culture.

WO M E N I N T H E A RTS

Leila Khoury, Palmyra, 2015; Steel and concrete, 84 x 84 x 24 in.; Courtesy of the artist

RECENT ACQUISITIONS

Mildred Thompson Magnetic Fields, 1990, and Untitled (Wood Picture), ca. 1970s drawing. She began her formal artistic training in 1953 at Howard University in Washington, D.C., under James Porter, an art historian known for pioneering the field of African American art history. Thompson also studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, the Brooklyn Museum Art School, and the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg, Germany, mastering a variety of techniques. In the early 1960s, the artist moved to New York, where she continued to develop her artistic skills and created predominantly figurative work. Despite her impressive and extensive training, and the purchase of two of her prints by the Museum of

SUMMER 2018

Two works by abstract artist Mildred Thompson (1936– 2003)—Magnetic Fields (1990) and Untitled (Wood Picture) (ca. 1970s)—were recently donated to the museum. The painting Magnetic Fields was given by the Georgia Committee of NMWA in celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of both the committee and NMWA. The wall sculpture Untitled (Wood Picture) was a gift from Camille Ann Brewer in honor and memory of the artist. These works are the first by Thompson to be acquired by the museum. They enrich the collection, allowing NMWA to highlight the abstract works of an under-recognized woman artist of color. Both donations were inspired by the groundbreaking exhibition Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today, held at NMWA from October 13, 2017, through January 21, 2018. The exhibition was titled after Thompson’s series of abstract paintings and featured several of her works. The spotlight on Thompson motivated the Georgia Committee, part of NMWA’s network of national and international committees, to purchase a work by the late Atlanta-based artist for the museum. Likewise, Brewer’s gift was made in recognition of Thompson’s inclusion in the recent exhibition as well as a desire to see the artist’s work represented in NMWA’s collection. About the Artist Thompson, born in Jacksonville, Florida, was an abstract artist who worked in many different mediums, including sculpture, painting, printmaking, and

PHOTO BY LEE STALSWORTH ; © THE MILDRED THOMPSON ESTATE; COURTESY GALERIE LELONG & CO., NEW YORK

// Hannah Shambroom

Modern Art, Thompson struggled to find artistic acceptance or critical attention due to racial tensions at the height of the Civil Rights movement. In 1963, she returned to Germany to escape the racism and sexism prevalent in America at the time. There, she began to explore abstraction in her work. During the 1970s and 1980s, Thompson spent significant time abroad, living in Germany and France as well as traveling to Africa and the Middle East. In 1985, she received an artistin-residence grant at Spelman College in Atlanta, where she would live and work for the rest of her life. During her time living between the U.S. and Europe, Thompson continued to work

in a variety of mediums, diving deeper into abstraction through painting, sculpture, and drawing. By the time she returned permanently to the U.S., she was focused solely on nonrepresentational artmaking. Abstraction in Wood and Paint Untitled (Wood Picture) is an example of Thompson’s “wood pictures,” her first series of nonrepresentational sculptural works, made while the artist was living in Düren, Germany. In this piece, Thompson used segments of salvaged wood to construct a geometric, rectangular structure. Though cut into differing lengths and widths, the wooden slabs remain largely unmodified; Thompson left the

Untitled (Wood Picture), ca. 1970s; Wood, 42 x 36 in.; NMWA, Gift of Camille Ann Brewer in honor and memory of Mildred Thompson

Magnetic Fields, 1990; Oil on canvas, 62 x 48 in.; NMWA, Gift of the Georgia Committee of NMWA in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Georgia Committee and the National Museum of Women in the Arts

Magnetic Fields exemplifies the artist’s desire—using color, line, and composition—to create a visual language to depict phenomena invisible to the naked eye.

suggest the pulsing energy of magnetism. “A Reaffirmation” Thompson described her work as “a continuous search for understanding. It is an expression of purpose and reflects a personal interpretation of the universe. Each new creation presents a visual manifestation of the sum total of this life-long investigation and serves as a reaffirmation of my commitment to the arts.”¹ These two recent gifts to NMWA demonstrate

Thompson’s versatility in multiple mediums, representing the breadth of abstraction and of her longstanding artistic career. // Hannah Shambroom is the curatorial

assistant at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Note: 1. Mildred Thompson, website of the Mildred Thompson Estate, accessed May 10, 2018, http://mildredthompson.org.

WO M E N I N T H E A RTS

piece unpainted, exposing the wood’s natural grain, knots, and gaps. These “imperfections” create an abstract, haphazard visual language of their own. The straight planks of wood, nailed into a linear composition, form strong, intersecting verticals and horizontals. In contrast, the softer curves and angles of the grain, along with the piece’s asymmetry, lend a sense of movement to the rigid material. In her use of found objects, the artist prioritized this material as the aesthetic element driving the composition. Drawing on principles of minimalism, found-object assemblage, and abstraction in her wood pictures, Thompson carved a space for herself in an artistic realm populated primarily by white male artists. After her return to the U.S., Thompson began her series of paintings titled “Magnetic Fields” in the early 1990s. Building on her formal academic foundation, the artist started to explore abstraction in painting as a means of visualizing the intangibilities of the human experience. In addition to her interest in art and art history, Thompson was fascinated by metaphysical philosophy, theosophy, quantum physics, and music. Magnetic Fields exemplifies the artist’s desire—using color, line, and composition—to create a visual language to depict phenomena invisible to the naked eye. Thompson used abstraction to connect painting to principles of science, metaphysics, and cosmology. In this composition, she employed her mastery of color theory to imbue her nonrepresentational subject with intensity and emotion. The bright shades of orange, blue, and yellow, roped into chaotic lines,

Calendar 16

EXHIBITIONS

Daily / Weekly / Monthly

KEY

Gallery Experience: Conversation Pieces MOST DAYS

Heavy Metal—Women to Watch 2018 June 28–September 16, 2018

Free for members



Free for members and one guest

Free with admission

Hung Liu In Print Through July 8, 2018

No reservations required

Reservation required at https://nmwa.org

Bound to Amaze: Inside a Book-Collecting Career July 20–November 25, 2018

Exhibition-related program

2–2:30 P.M. // M A O

Join us for thirty-minute conversations that spotlight two works on view. Check in at the Information Desk.

F Free

Gallery Talks: Lunchtime Talk Series WEDNESDAYS

12–12:30 P.M. // F M O

Bite-sized lunchtime talks led by museum staff members encourage visitors to look closely and discuss works in exhibitions and the museum’s collection. Free Community Days FIRST SUNDAYS

12–5 P.M. // F M O

The first Sunday of each month, NMWA offers free admission to the public. Enjoy current exhibitions and the collection galleries.

Making a Living: Women Artists Illustrating Books On view through July 27, 2018, in the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center; Open Monday–Friday, 10 a.m–12 p.m. and 1–5 p.m.

June 6 / 27 Member Preview Day: Heavy Metal—Women to Watch 2018

WED 9 A.M.–2 P.M. // M



Attend a special preview of Heavy Metal. Artists investigate the expressive possibilities of metalwork through a wide variety of objects, including sculpture, jewelry, and conceptual forms. Exhibition tours will be held 9 a.m.–12 p.m.

6 / 27

WED 10 A.M.–5 P.M. // M A O E

Shop Pop-Up: Metal Makers

SUMMER 2018

PHOTO BY JOHN JANCA

In celebration of the opening of Heavy Metal, shop in the museum’s Great Hall. Vendors showcase exclusive jewelry, home décor, lighting, and more.

6 / 27

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O

Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler

July

7 / 1

SUN 12–5 P.M. // F M O

Free Community Day

7 / 1

SUN 1–2 P.M. // F M O

Drop-In Tour: Fierce Women Discover fierce women who blazed trails as artists, activists, and innovators. Limited space—check in at the Information Desk.

Left, top to bottom: Katherine Vetne, Selling the Dream, 2017; On view in Heavy Metal; Katherine A. Glover, Green Salad, 2001; On view in Bound to Amaze

Visit https://nmwa.org for reservations, a complete calendar of events, and more information.

August

8 / 1

Gallery Talk: Heavy Metal

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E

/5 Free 8

Community Day

SUN 12–5 P.M. // F M O

8 / 5

SUN 1–2 P.M. // F M O

Drop-In Tour: Fierce Women

EMILY HAIGHT, NMWA

Discover fierce women who blazed trails as artists, activists, and innovators. Limited space—check in at the Information Desk.

Empower and inspire your students through art! Join NMWA’s education staff, a professional book artist, and curriculum and literacy specialists for this intensive and fun week centered on NMWA’s Art, Books, and Creativity Curriculum. 7 / 11

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E

8 / 15

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E

8 / 19

Gallery Talk: Heavy Metal Young Learner Tour: Portrait Party

SUN 12–1 P.M. // F M R

Children ages 3–6 and their guardians go on an adventure through the galleries. Designed to get little bodies moving, minds thinking, hands making, and mouths talking about works of art.

MON–FRI 9 A.M.–4 P.M. // R

Gallery Talk: Heavy Metal

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E

7 / 9–7 / 13 Teacher Program: Art, Books, and Creativity Institute

8 / 8

Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler

7 / 13 March on Washington Film Festival Screening and Conversation: Two Dollars and a Dream

FRI 7–9 P.M. // R

Join us for Two Dollars and a Dream (52 min.), Stanley Nelson’s 1988 film about Madam C. J. Walker, America’s first female self-made millionaire. Screening followed by a panel discussion. $15 general. / 16 March 7

on Washington Film Festival Screening and Conversation: The Rape of Recy Taylor

MON 7–9:30 P.M. // R

Join us for a screening of Nancy Buirski’s 2017 documentary, The Rape of Recy Taylor (91 min.), about Taylor’s 1941 brutal assault by a group of white teenagers and the case against her assailants. Followed by a panel discussion. $15 general. 7 / 18–7 / 20 Teacher Program: Art, Books, and Creativity Intensive for Early Childhood Educators Designed for ABC Teacher Institute alumni who educate children ages 3–6, this intensive, three-day program explores adaptations of the ABC Curriculum and introduces strategies to inspire young learners. 7 / 18

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E

Gallery Talk: Heavy Metal

7 / 25

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E

Gallery Talk: Heavy Metal

EMILY HAIGHT, NMWA

WO M E N I N T H E A RTS

WED–FRI 9 A.M.–4 P.M. // R

9 / 19

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O

9 / 23

Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler Shop: MakeHER Mart

SUN 10 A.M.–8 P.M. // M A O

Part of the 2018 MakeHER Summit, meet local women artists and support small businesses—shop handcrafted arts and merchandise by up to thirty-five local women artists and artisans. Free with museum admission.

9 / 23

Fresh Talk: Women in the Creative Economy

SUN 4:30–8 P.M. // R

EMILY HAIGHT, NMWA

Part of the 2018 MakeHER Summit, join us for a Fresh Talk exploring how women are using the creative economy to access capital and opportunity. Featuring Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge; Nathalie Molina Niño of BRAVA Investments; Virginia Arrisueño of DeNada Design and Steadfast Supply; and Dionna Dorsey of District of Clothing. Includes museum admission and Catalyst cocktail hour. $25 general; $20 members, seniors, students. 9 / 26

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E

Gallery Talk: Bound to Amaze

KEY

F Free M

Free for members



Free for members and one guest

Free with admission

8 / 22

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E

8 / 29

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E

No reservations required

Reservation required at https://nmwa.org

Exhibition-related program

Gallery Talk: Heavy Metal Gallery Talk: Heavy Metal YASSINE EL MANSOURI

September / 2 Free 9

Community Day

SUN 12–5 P.M. // F M O

9 / 2

SUN 1–2 P.M. // F M O

Drop-In Tour: Fierce Women Discover fierce women who blazed trails as artists, activists, and innovators. Limited space—check in at the Information Desk.

SUMMER 2018

9 / 5

Gallery Talk: Heavy Metal

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E

9 / 12

WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E

Gallery Talk: Heavy Metal

Education programming is made possible by Mrs. Marjorie Rachlin, the Leo Rosner Foundation, SunTrust, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is provided by 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 programs initiative is made possible through leadership gifts from Denise Littlefield Sobel, the Dauray/Davis Family Fund, and the Susan and Jim Swartz Public Programs Fund. Additional support is provided by the Bernstein Family Foundation and The Reva and David Logan Foundation.

ON VIEW

Maria Helena Vieira da Silva

L’oranger, 1954

Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, L’oranger, 1954; Oil on canvas, 28 ¾ x 36 ¼ in.; Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon

Vieira da Silva helped to shape the field of expressive abstraction after World War II in Paris, where she lived and worked for nearly sixty years.

crisscrossing lines coalesce densely at the center of the composition, stretching sideways and sustaining our gaze through a space that is deciphered and penetrated by the viewer. Color is an integral part of this mental

construction that offers a vision of an orange orchard on a clear, bright day, blending earth, fruit, trees, and sky.” In L’aire du vent (1966), another Gulbenkian collection painting on view in June, Vieira da Silva interlaced heavier, more roughly drawn lines and restricted her palette to grays and blues, evoking a sense of force that contrasts with the ethereal quality of L’oranger. Vasconcelos notes, “In L’aire du vent, an urban painter registers her perception of a naturally invisible element—the wind.” NMWA’s special presentation also includes Janela, a wool tapestry that Vieira da Silva created on the occasion of the opening of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s headquarters in Lisbon in 1969.

Although she was best known as a painter, Vieira da Silva also created public art commissions and works in tapestry, scenography, stained glass, and illustration. Visitors may also view works by the artist from NMWA’s collection—The Town, a dazzling oil from 1955, and an untitled gouache (1962) in shades of red and yellow, an unusually bright palette for the artist. A gift to NMWA from Dian Woodner, the gouache will be exhibited at the museum for the first time in this installation of Vieira da Silva’s art. // Kathryn Wat is the chief curator at the

National Museum of Women in the Arts.

WO M E N I N T H E A RTS

The Embassy of Portugal in Washington, D.C., invited NMWA to participate in the “Month of Portugal in the United States” in June 2018, an initiative celebrating ongoing cultural, educational, and research exchanges between the two countries. Our museum is partnering with Museu Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon to present a select group of works by Portuguese-born artist Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908–1992). If you are able to visit NMWA’s collection galleries this June, you will enjoy seeing three works on loan from the celebrated Gulbenkian Museum—two oil paintings and a tapestry—alongside two works by Vieira da Silva from NMWA’s collection. Vieira da Silva helped to shape the field of expressive abstraction after World War II in Paris, where she lived and worked for nearly sixty years. She embraced a highly intuitive painting process, in which she instinctually built line, shape, and color into atmospheric, weblike compositions. Her fracturing of Renaissance-style perspective and pictorial space extends from turn-of-the-twentieth-century styles such as Cubism. Yet Vieira da Silva’s lines and lozengeshaped brushstrokes create a unique pulsating visual effect that draws the viewer into and through each composition. Ana Vasconcelos, curator of the Modern Collection at the Gulbenkian, describes L’oranger (1954), one of the oil paintings on loan to NMWA, as “an excellent example of the structural richness Vieira da Silva achieved in her work. Its

// Kathryn Wat

Elisabetta Gut, Libro-Seme (Seed-Book), 1983; Tropical fruit and pages of musical notes on paper, 3 ¼ x 3 ½ x 3 in.; NMWA, Gift of the artist; © Elisabetta Gut

PHOTO BY LEE STALSWORTH

S U M M E R 2 0 18

Bound to

Amaze Inside a Book-Collecting Career July 20 –November 25, 2018

A new exhibition at NMWA celebrates the vision of Krystyna Wasserman, curator emerita, who assembled the museum’s collection of more than one thousand artists’ books over a thirtyyear period. Bound to Amaze centers on her discovery of books created through inventive techniques and includes both visitor favorites and new acquisitions. In a recent conversation, Wasserman discussed the book arts collection with the museum’s chief curator, Kathryn Wat.

WO M E N I N T H E A RTS

Kathryn Wat

Katherine A. Glover, Green Salad, 2001; Vellum, acrylic on Tyvek, semi-precious beads, and ribbon, dimensions variable; NMWA, Museum purchase: Library and Research Center Acquisition Fund; © Katherine A. Glover

PHOTO BY LEE STALSWORTH

WAT/Q Krystyna, I do not know anyone more passionate

about books than you. Where does your interest come from? WASSERMAN/A I had many writers and publishers in my family in my homeland of Poland. My aunt, who, with her mother, inherited a well-respected publishing house in Kraków after the war, was always bringing and sending me books. My grandfather owned a printing plant in Łódź. My father was a socialist and worked for a newspaper, but, in his free time, he organized strikes in his father’s printing plant, where he met my mother, who worked as a book binder. All my life, books have been one of my favorite pastimes—antidotes to insomnia, an escape to better worlds, and an inspiration for my own poetry and short stories, written when I was young.

S U M M E R 2 0 18

Q Before you became the museum’s curator of book arts

in 2002, you directed NMWA’s library for many years. How did you begin the collection of artists’ books? A In 1983, I visited an exhibition of artists’ books at the Cleveland Institute of Art. I was mesmerized and enchanted, and I thought that NMWA’s library, which I was planning at the time, should include an exhibition space for artists’ books. That was the beginning of the library exhibition program, which continues today. For our first exhibition in September

1987, I acquired Caroline (1985), a rare volume of poetry and etchings by Meret Oppenheim (1913–1985). We also exhibited artists’ books by Mirella Bentivoglio (1922–2017) and Elisabetta Gut (b. 1934). Both artists read about the opening of NMWA in the Italian press, and each wanted to contribute a work. With NMWA’s founder, Wilhelmina Holladay, I pored over the slides and photographs they sent, and we selected À Malherbe (To Malherbe) (1975) by Bentivoglio and Libro-Seme (Seed-Book) (1983) by Gut. Q When you started the collection, were you looking pri-

marily at conventionally made books, or did you seek out unusual techniques and materials from the beginning? A I have always been very concerned with the visual appeal of the books because I wanted to exhibit them, and so I looked for originality and diversity of structures and materials. Accordion book structures, such as Dido and Aeneas (1989) by Claire Van Vliet (b. 1933), unfold to reveal all of their drama simultaneously. Green Salad (2001) by Katherine Glover (b. 1947) comprises a wooden salad bowl filled with green leaves of paper and a poem about the artist's son nestled inside the leaves. I have tried to find works like these, which project an artist’s idea through a book’s structure.

PHOTO BY LEE STALSWORTH

Right: Emily Martin, Desdemona in Her Own Words, 2014; Artist’s book with collagraphs, wire, wonder foam, flexi-cut, and grit on paper, 19 x 13 in.; NMWA, Purchased with the annual contributions of NMWA Book Arts Fellows; © Emily Martin

Q Many book artists in our collection draw inspiration

from other artists, especially writers and musicians. Is this particularly common in this genre? A Book artists often embrace several muses simultaneously, and their books demonstrate these relationships. Desdemona in Her Own Words (2014) by Emily Martin (b. 1953) is a creative collaboration with William Shakespeare. Martin excerpted all of the words spoken by Desdemona in the play Othello and substituted them with the lines she believes Desdemona should have said. Elisabetta Gut’s L’Uccello di fuoco (Da Stravinsky) (The Firebird (From Stravinsky)) (1985) is her visual response to Igor Stravinsky’s music for the ballet The Firebird. Her wordless collage—a colorful dance of flying paper cut-outs—evokes the atmosphere of the Russian folk tale that inspired the ballet. Q Is there a historical artist’s book that we don’t have in

the collection that you’d like to see us acquire? A I would love to find a copy of the scroll book La Prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France by Sonia Delaunay (1885–1979), created in 1913 in collaboration with French poet Blaise Cendrars. Delaunay’s multicolored abstract design illustrates Cendrars’s poem about a young woman who accompanied the poet on his Trans-Siberian journey. Delaunay depicted the spirit of the journey through color and rhythm rather than conventional images of the countryside. It is rare to see a copy of this book on the market. Another artist whose work I would love to add to the collection is Maria Lai (1919–2013). Her embroidered fabric books were a sensation at the Venice Biennale in 2017.

Q You and I worked together on exhibitions in which we

included artists’ books alongside photographs, sculptures, prints, and videos. Do you think it’s important that artists’ books be considered part of contemporary art practice rather than a separate category of making? A There are two schools of thinking, and NMWA embraces both. I like to present artists’ books together with other mediums. But at the same time, I am proud of the individual exhibitions of artists’ books we have presented over the past thirty years. NMWA’s 2006 exhibition The Book as Art was a big event in the book arts world. The featured artists maintained that ours was the most beautiful and important exhibition of artists’ books ever presented by a museum. Q You’ve retired from full-time work at NMWA. What

other activities are you enjoying now? A I am taking a class at the Italian Cultural Society as I try to learn Italian, and my newest interest is opera. I go to cinema simulcasts of all of the performances of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and I occasionally see the real thing, mainly in Italy. NMWA is one of my safe and happy harbors, and I return to the office frequently. It is a reassuring feeling to belong somewhere, and I am grateful that NMWA is still part of my life.

Kathryn Wat is the chief curator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Left: M. L. Van Nice, Swiss Army Book, 1990; Ink on paper, linen, wood, pen nib, and ribbon, 5 ½ x 24 ½ x 11 ½ in.; NMWA, Museum purchase: The Lois Pollard Price Acquisition Fund; © M. L. Van Nice

WO M E N I N T H E A RTS

PHOTO BY LEE STALSWORTH

Bound to Amaze: Inside a Book-Collecting Career, presented in theTeresa Lozano Long Gallery of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, is organized by the museum and made possible by Mrs. Marjorie B. Rachlin. Additional support is provided by Julie and Jon Garcia.

Below: Gladiola Garden by Effie Lee Newsome, illustrated by Loïs Mailou Jones; Washington, D.C.: Associated Publishers, Inc., 1940 24

Making a Living

Above: Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck, with seventeen paintings by Peggy Worthington; New York: Viking Press, 1947

Women Artists Illustrating Books Through July 27, 2018

SUMMER 2018

Sarah Osborne Bender

In the late 1800s, audiences in the U.S. and Europe, who were more literate than ever and had increasing leisure time, developed an appetite for illustrated text. Advances in printing made reproductions of illustrations easier over time, but mechanically reproduced photography and photojournalism did not take hold until the 1920s. Many women with artistic educations found opportunities working as illustrators, creating art for books, magazines, and printed ephemera. This kind of illustration could be done at home, instead of working in the field or in an office, as news illustrators might. Although it required professionalism in a day when women were not expected to have business skills, it was seen as suitable work for women, and it was often the case that they left this work behind once marriage or another source of financial support came along.

The themes of many of these late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century women’s illustrations were stereotypically and narrowly feminine territory: children, fantasy and romance, nature, and motherhood. Yet, as the twentieth century progressed, some women became illustrators as an element of their artistic careers. Illustration earned money, and it was a flexible and functional occupation for painters, printmakers, and authors working to break through as fine artists. Their illustrations strayed far from “feminine” themes and included social commentary, travel, humor, and serious literature. As they wrote books or tried to secure gallery shows, taught studio art, and raised families, these illustrators were independent businesswomen and freelance artists. They marketed themselves and managed their finances. They networked, pitched ideas, and wrote lots of letters to potential clients. The women artists whose work is on view in Making a Living all used business acumen and self-promotion to support themselves with their artistic talents. Some are still well known, including Loïs Mailou Jones, who

drew illustrations for a local Washington, D.C., publisher of children’s school books in the years before she had steady exhibitions and a distinguished professorship at Howard University. Others have faded from attention, such as Clara Tice, a bohemian in the Dadaist circles of New York City. Tice’s 1915 exhibition of erotic paintings was raided for indecency, yet she put her skills to work later in life illustrating newspaper sports pages. Bucking the turn-of-the-century myth that illustration was suitable work that a woman could do between domestic responsibilities, these women managed careers as illustrators, often while also seeking recognition for artwork that they created for themselves.

The New Yorker, July 18, 1931, cover illustration by Helen E. Hokinson The ladies depicted in New Yorker cartoons by Helen E. Hokinson (1893–1949) were so recognizable that they gave rise to the stereotype of the “Hokinson Woman.” These formidable midcentury, city-dwelling women populated the magazine beginning in 1925, soon after the first issue, when Hokinson sent in a cold submission that was accepted. Before her death in a plane crash en route to Washington, D.C., in 1948, New Yorker, July 18, 1931, cover illustration by Helen E. Hokinson

Hokinson was extraordinarily successful, having published nearly seventy covers and more than 1,800 cartoons for the New Yorker.

Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck, with seventeen paintings by Peggy Worthington; New York: Viking Press, 1947 Peggy Worthington, also known as Peggy Worthington Best, was an established painter and illustrator. She exhibited the paintings she created for a deluxe edition of Tortilla Flat at the Bonestell Gallery in New York in November 1947. As a reviewer for the New York Times described, they appeared “as vigorous and stripped as [Steinbeck’s] style.” After she divorced husband Marshall Best, Best moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where she ran an art gallery and offered drawing classes. Today she is remembered by little more than a footnote in the biography of Norman Rockwell, with whom she had a love affair.

Gladiola Garden by Effie Lee Newsome, illustrated by Loïs Mailou Jones; Washington, D.C.: Associated Publishers, Inc., 1940 Loïs Mailou Jones (1905–1998) worked as an illustrator with Associated Publishers of Washington, D.C., from 1936 to 1965, chiefly illustrating poetry and history books. During that time, she was also teaching in Howard University’s Department of Art and working to get her paintings into gallery and museum exhibitions. Books from Associated Publishers, for children and adults, illustrated a black American identity not presented by most commercial publishers of the day. An invoice illuminates the amount of work that the artist produced for one book, from full-page portraits to decorative elements. Sarah Osborne Bender is former director of the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

WO M E N I N T H E A RTS

These illustrators were independent businesswomen and freelance artists.

Invoice from Loïs Mailou Jones to Associated Publishers for illustration work, 1947; Loïs Mailou Jones Collection, Howard University, Manuscript Division

At the museum and online, NMWA visitors shared images and ideas about their favorite women artists

#5WomenArtists Social Media Engagement Hits New Heights Emily Haight

SUMMER 2018

“Can you name five artists? What about five women artists? And can you name five women artists of color?”

For the third year of NMWA’s award-winning #5WomenArtists social media campaign, the museum amplified the challenge. This year, in addition to asking social media users to name five women artists, the museum asked them to place a special emphasis on sharing the stories of women artists of color, who are often marginalized based on both race and gender.

“In this watershed era when influential men are losing their jobs due to sexual abuse and harassment, and women are speaking out with powerful #MeToo stories, discussions about gender inequity have renewed significance,” said NMWA Director Susan Fisher Sterling. “There is no better time than now to raise awareness that the art world also disadvantages women’s opportunities and advancement, with women artists of color experiencing a double disadvantage in an already challenging field.” The campaign continues to inspire discussion about gender imbalance in the arts, in the U.S. and internationally. Once more, our call to engage met with a resounding response.

Carrying the Conversation NMWA’s social media efforts were energized by other participating institutions. The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) partnered with NMWA for a special Instagram Stories swap. NMAAHC staff shared work by African American women artists in NMWA’s galleries on their account, while NMWA highlighted women artists on view in NMAAHC’s Visual Arts Gallery. Featured artists included Alma Thomas, Amy Sherald, Lorna Simpson, and Chakaia Booker. Some of the most rewarding responses came from comments and posts on social media. One Twitter user wrote, “Sad to admit I couldn’t name #5WomenArtists until I visited @WomenInTheArts museum today.” Another participant said, “My favorite hashtag so far this year: #5womenartists.” Metro-

TRACI CHRISTENSEN, NMWA

Top right: Following the Fresh Talk, which focused on gender parity in museums, attendees continued the conversation over Sunday Supper Left: At the museum’s fifth annual Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, attendees wrote and edited entries on significant women museum directors and gallerists

rail riders in Washington, D.C., responded to #5WomenArtists posters on their daily commutes, writing, “This poster gave me something to think about on my #metroDC journey home . . . Do you study the same old artists time and time again in your school?” The challenge also inspired other hashtags, including #5WomenHistorians, #5WomenComposers, and the Portuguese-language #5DonesArtistes.

More March Advocacy More advocacy efforts took place within the museum’s walls during March. For the fifth year, Art+Feminism led the global initiative to improve the Wikipedia representation of women artists and to train women editors. NMWA’s Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center hosted a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon on March 17, and reporters from the BBC stopped by to film participants at work. After four hours (and three boxes of coffee), twenty-eight volunteer editors created eight new Wikipedia articles and improved seventy-two existing entries. This year, NMWA focused on entries about women art museum directors and gallerists— a theme closely related to the month’s Fresh Talk, a public program discussing gender parity in museums. On March 18, the third annual Fresh Talk: Righting the Balance explored whether true gender parity in museums is possible. Laurence des Cars, director of the Musée d’Orsay, Paris; Frances Morris, director of the Tate Modern, London; and Eike Schmidt, director of the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, discussed European museum efforts to highlight the contributions of women artists. Stay Connected NMWA members help the museum to champion women artists all year long! Continue to stay connected with NMWA’s online efforts by following us @WomenInTheArts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Emily Haight is the digital editorial associate at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. //

WO M E N I N T H E A RTS

NMWA shared information about women artists and representation, including videos, quotes, and infographics. Other organizations joined in highlighting work by women in their collections and exhibitions. Recognizing the challenges in collecting data about women of color in the arts, NMWA staff raised the issue in an article published by Hyperallergic.

KEVIN ALLEN PHOTOGRAPHY

By the Numbers • 9,000 individuals participated, including more than 625 cultural institutions from 36 countries (an increase of 20% over last year’s campaign). • More than 17,500 tweets and 4,000 Instagram posts were shared. • More than 90 individuals and cultural organizations published blog posts about the campaign. • Major news outlets covered the campaign. The Observer called on participants to “Help the #5WomenArtists Social Media Challenge Succeed . . . By Making It Unnecessary” and The Washington Post’s women-focused publication The Lily presented profiles of five women artists of color represented in NMWA’s collection.

Museum News In Memoriam Former first lady Barbara Bush died on April 17, at age 92. In her memory, the museum revisited archival photographs and correspondence from NMWA’s opening ceremonies in 1987, at which Mrs. Bush cut the ribbon and welcomed attendees. In correspondence from the time, when her husband George H. W. Bush was vice president of the United States, Mrs. Bush graciously and enthusiastically agreed to take part in the events. Afterward, she wrote to NMWA Founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, “Many thanks for letting me share in your glorious opening . . . I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed my brief visit, and I will return and take a longer, less public look.”

PHOTO BY STEPHEN PAYNE

NMWA’s inaugural ribbon-cutting ceremony with Barbara Bush

Member News museum and its publications. For more information, or to join, call Director of Membership Christina Knowles at 202-7837984 or visit https://nmwa.org/ support/membership#circles.

PHOTO BY YASSINE EL MANSOURI

SUMMER 2018

The Circles 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

Couture Circle Launched to Support Rodarte The museum has formed a Couture Circle for all those interested in fashion and art. For a one-time gift of $5,000, you can join us as a founding member of the Couture Circle. All support underwrites NMWA’s first-ever contemporary fashion exhibition—read more about Rodarte in “Coming Soon” on the back cover. Trustee Ashley Davis, chair of the Couture Circle, leads this fundraising effort. For more information about joining and benefits, call Major Gift Officer Julia Keller at 202-783-7987 or email jkeller@nmwa.org.

Exhibition patron and Couture Circle member Christine Suppes in front of the display of Rodarte gowns at the recent opening of the exhibition Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

NMWA Legacy Society The Legacy Society recognizes and honors those who have made planned gifts to the museum. If you have included NMWA in your will or estate plans, please let us know so that we may personally thank you for your support and, with your consent, recognize you as a member of the Legacy Society. For more information, please visit nmwa.org/legacy, or contact Planned Giving Coordina-

tor Alexa Kaye at 202-266-2813 or plannedgiving@nmwa.org. Giving Tip If you are 70½ or older, you can make a tax-free distribution from your traditional or Roth IRA to NMWA. You can donate up to $100,000 each year without incurring income tax on your withdrawal—it’s an efficient way to support the museum.

Committee News

SPAIN arts & culture, with the Embassy of Spain in Washington, D.C. Blanca Muñoz is a renowned Spanish artist whose metal sculptures speak about physicalmathematical models and ethereal forms. On June 25, at 7 p.m., at the former residence of the Ambassadors of Spain, she joins NMWA Associate Curator Virginia Treanor for a panel discussion, “Around Spanish Contemporary Women Sculpture: The Work of Blanca

Embassy of Italy, with the Italian Institute of Culture in Washington, D.C. During the exhibition's opening week, Italian Ambassador Armando Varricchio will host a lunch for committee members and all artists. Ambassador Varricchio said, “Partnering with NMWA for Women to Watch 2018 offers the valued opportunity to recognize and celebrate the achievements of women in the arts in a significant and impactful way. This showcase of contemporary female international artists is a powerful and timely reminder of the crucial role played by women artists in shaping societies, ideas, and progress. With its long tradition and history of women in the visual, performing, and literary arts, Italy is proud to be part of this show through the works of Serena Porrati, curated by Iolanda Ratti of the Museo del Novecento and supported by the Italian NMWA Committee.” Embassy of Peru in the U.S. While Heavy Metal is on view at NMWA, the Embassy of Peru

Carolina Rieckhof Brommer, Self-portrait 3, 2004; Metal sponges and metal mesh, 98 ½ x 47 ¼ x 27 ½ in.; Courtesy of the artist

will host the exhibition Metal Bodies: Contemporary Peruvian Women Artists, June 28– September 16, 2018. Organized by the Embassy of Peru in the United States, the Ministry of Foreign Relations of Peru, the Peruvian Committee of NMWA, and under the curatorship of art historian Gabriela Germana, the exhibition presents work related to the body developed by a group of Peruvian women artists who work in

Blanca Muñoz, Sirenio, 2011; Stainless steel, 11⅞ x 25¼ x 15 in.; Courtesy of Marlborough Gallery Madrid

metal. The intention of the show is to present different paths for the exploration of the body, in relation to personal, historical, and social contexts. Likewise, the exhibition contextualizes the work of these artists within the general development of contemporary Peruvian sculpture since the 1960s and highlights their innovative contributions to the development of art in Peru. The exhibition features work by Cristina Gálvez, Marta Cisneros, Alina Canziani, Johanna Hamann, Hilda Cachi, Nani Cárdenas, Raura Oblitas, Carolina Rieckhof Brommer, and Nancy La Rosa. An opening reception will be held Thursday, June 28, at 6 p.m. Embassy of Chile in Washington, D.C. Julio Fiol, Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of Chile in Washington, D.C., and the board of directors of the Chapter in Chile of NMWA will host a lunch reception on Thursday, June 28, at the Residence of the Ambassador of Chile to celebrate their participation in Heavy Metal.

WO M E N I N T H E A RTS

Don’t miss Heavy Metal—Women to Watch 2018, opening June 28

Muñoz.” In this event, which is open to the public, Muñoz will discuss her work and her insights into the sculpture scene of Spain.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY NATALIA REVILLA

Diplomatic Support for Heavy Metal Heavy Metal—Women to Watch 2018, which showcases women artists from across the country and around the world in locations where the museum has outreach committees, has received great support from the diplomatic community. Organizations and embassies from Chile, Spain, Italy, and Peru are contributing resources and energy toward this project.

Supporting Roles 32

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Wilhelmina Cole Holladay—Chair, Winton S. Holladay—Vice-Chair, Martha Lyn Dippell—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, Cindy Jones—At Large (Immediate Past President), 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**, Lizette Corro, Ashley Davis, Betty Boyd Dettre, Deborah I. Dingell, Karen Dixon Fuller, Marian Hopkins, Sally L. Jones, Marlene Malek, Jacqueline Badger Mars, Juliana E. May, Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, Pamela Parizek, 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, Patti White **Ex-Officio Board list current as of July 1, 2018

SUMMER 2018

NMWA ADVISORY BOARD

Sarah Bucknell Treco—Chair, Noreen M. Ackerman, Sunny Scully Alsup, Kathe Hicks Albrecht, Jo Ann Barefoot, Gail D. Bassin, Arlene Begelman, Sue Ann Berlin, Catherine Bert, Brenda Bertholf, Nancy Anne Branton, Margaret C. Boyce Brown, Deborah G. Carstens, Paul T. Clark, Rebecca Chang, Donna Paolino Coia, John Comstock, Linda L. Comstock, Byron Croker, Lynn Finesilver Crystal, Liz Cullen, Verónica de Ferrero, Belinda de Gaudemar, Katy Graham Debost, Betty Boyd Dettre, Kenneth P. Dutter, Geraldine E. Ehrlich, Elva FerrariGraham, Lisa Claudy Fleischman, Rosemarie Forsythe, Jane Fortune, Anita Friedt, Claudia Fritsche, Julie Garcia, Lisa Garrison, Nancy Gillespie de La Selle, Barbara S. Goldfarb, Jody Harrison Grass, Anjali Gupta, Sue J. Henry, Anna Stapleton Henson, Caroline Rose Hunt, Kitty de Isola, Jan V. Jessup, Alice D. Kaplan, Janece Smoot Kleban, Arlene Fine Klepper, Doris Kloster, Nelleke Langhout-Nix, Cynthia Madden Leitner, Fred M. Levin, Gladys K. Lisanby, Sarah H. Lisanby, M.D., Nancy Livingston, Clara M. Lovett, Joanne

Ludovici, Maria Teresa Martínez, C. Raymond Marvin, Pat D. McCall, Dee Ann McIntyre, Cynthia McKee, Constance C. McPhee, Suzanne S. Mellor, Milica Mitrovich, Claudia Pensotti Mosca, Deborah E. Myers, Jeannette T. Nichols, Kay W. Olson, Katherine D. Ortega, Margaret H. Perkins, Patti Pyle, Drina Rendic, Barbara Richter, Elizabeth Robinson, Elizabeth A. Sackler, Stephanie Sale, Consuelo Salinas de Pareja, Steven Scott, Marsha Brody Shiff, Kathy Sierra, Ann L. Simon, Kathern Ivous Sisk, Geri Skirkanich, Dot Snyder, Denise Littlefield Sobel, Patti Amanda Spivey, Sara Steinfeld, Josephine L. Stribling, Susan Swartz, Cheryl S. Tague, Lisa Cannon Taylor, MaryRoss Taylor, Debra Therit, Deborah Dunklin Tipton, Marichu Valencia, Nancy W. Valentine, Sara M. Vance Waddell, Paula S. Wallace, Harriet L. Warm, Krystyna Wasserman, Island Weiss, Tara Beauregard Whitbeck, Linda White, Patti White, Betty Bentsen Winn, Rhett D. Workman LEGACY OF WOMEN IN THE ARTS ENDOWMENT CAMPAIGN

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. 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*, The Madeleine Rast Charitable Remainder Trust*, 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, Jr., 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, The Miller and Jeanette Nichols Foundation/ Jeannette T. Nichols, Nancy O’Malley*, Lady Pearman, Reinsch Pierce Family Foundation/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 (all lists as of May 15, 2018)

Shop NMWA online at https://shop.nmwa.org or call toll-free 877-226-5294

Heavy Metal—Women to Watch 2018 Catalogue The exhibition features twenty contemporary artists working in metal, ranging from large-scale installations to small objects for personal adornment. Softcover, 96 pages. $21.95/ Member $19.76 (Item #109)

MODERN MAKERS

Q&A with Jodi Kostelnik, owner of The Neighborgoods

What do you make? We make food-themed giftable goods, dish towels, baby onesies, art prints, notebooks, greeting cards, and buttons. We are based here in Washington, D.C.

Little People, Big Dreams: Frida Kahlo This inspiring and informative little biography tells the life story of artist Frida Kahlo in 32 illustrated pages. $14.99/Member $13.49 (Item #4116)

Organic Hand Lotion: Ruth Asawa This lotion was created through a collaboration between Under Aurora and illustrator Leigh Cox, and was inspired by sculptor Ruth Asawa, a creative visionary of her time. Scent profile grapefruit, litsea cubeba, and vetivert. Amber glass bottle with black pump, 4 oz. $25/Member $22.50 (Item #30758)

How did you get started? I had been running my own design business for twelve years and used to design anything and everything. I love baking, cooking, and food, and I wanted to switch the focus of my design business. So, five years ago I started doing my own illustrations for my website. I illustrated recipes. My cupcake recipe was one of the first designs that I screenprinted on a dish towel. I thought it would make a

Inspired by NMWA’s Collection These limited-edition tea towels are inspired by Amy Sherald’s painting They call me Redbone but I’d rather be Strawberry Shortcake (2009), and Faith Ringgold’s Jo Baker’s Bananas (1997). Screenprinted, 24 x 26 in. Sherald’s Strawberries Tea Towel $18/ Member $16.20 (Item #30790); Ringgold’s Bananas Tea Towel $18/Member $16.20 (Item #30791)

great gift for my friends and family around the holidays, and after I took a screenprinting class, it grew from there. What sparks your creativity? I love color, and I am inspired by other artists. I love cooking, baking, and going to the farmer’s markets—but the beauty of food and all the natural colors are so cool. I am also influenced by social media. I’m obsessed with Instagram—you can learn about so many different artists. Finding other people who also illustrate food is a lot of fun. It’s exciting to see how people approach the same thing in different ways.

WO M E N I N T H E A RTS

Guerrilla Girls Gorilla Pin This enamel pin in a collectible gift box features the gorilla masks worn by the artistactivist group the Guerrilla Girls, anonymous artists who use facts and humor to expose discrimination and corruption in art, politics, and pop culture. $16/Member $14.40 (Item #24117)

PHOTO BY RHIANNON NEWMAN

Museum Shop

1250 New York Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20005-3970

COMING SOON

Rodarte

Rodarte, Spring/Summer 2009 runway

November 10, 2018–February 10, 2019

runway videos, and video shorts, this exhibition offers an overview of the first thirteen years of the Mulleavys’ work through the lens of contemporary art and fashion.

// Rodarte is organized by the National

Museum of Women in the Arts. The exhibition is made possible by Christine Suppes with additional funding provided by Denise Littlefield Sobel, Northern Trust, and NMWA’s Couture Circle. Further support is provided by the Sue J. Henry and Carter G. Phillips Exhibition Fund.

Sisters Kate Mulleavy and Laura Mulleavy, founders of the innovative American luxury label Rodarte, established in 2005, are the first designers to be recognized with a solo exhibition organized by NMWA. Rodarte is known for its conceptual blend of high couture, modern femininity, and meticulous craftsmanship. The Mulleavys draw inspiration from art, film, and the natural landscape. Since its inception, Rodarte has drawn critical acclaim from the art and fashion worlds. Through a refined selection of looks from pivotal collections, as well as accessories,