Summer 2019
CHAMPION WOMEN THROUGH THE ARTS dear members and friends, As you will read, we have recently reinstalled the art on view in our collection galleries. With a fresh look again this year, we are showcasing new additions to the museum’s collection as well as some of our favorite objects that have not been on view lately. We are particularly eager to share works that are recent gifts to our collection from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, such as Niki de Saint Phalle’s polychrome marble Pregnant Nana (1993), on this issue’s cover. The most exciting aspect of the new installation is our curators’ insightful ongoing strategy of presenting works thematically rather than chronologically. We developed this concept two years ago, and it has been a resounding success. For our theme of artists’ visions of family, for example, we now display side-by-side works from different centuries and cultures that give a nuanced view of family life. These include straightforward family portraits, images of domestic tenderness, and depictions of delightful, malevolent, or other surprising interactions that illuminate the subject. Visitors enjoy making connections between seemingly dissimilar works and discovering their profound meaning. As I write, the exhibition Ursula von Rydingsvard: The Contour of Feeling is meeting with much critical acclaim and success. People are enchanted by her enigmatic, rough-hewn monumental wood sculptures. If you have the opportunity, please come see her art in person—it will be on view through July 28. If not, our website will give you a sense of how her large-scale works live and breathe in NMWA’s galleries. The assessment of our historic building is proceeding along apace, and I invite you to read more about what we have learned on page eight of this issue. thank you, as always, for your support.
MUSEUM INFORMATION
WOMEN IN THE ARTS
1250 New York Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20005
Summer 2019 Volume 37, 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. WEBSITE
https://nmwa.org BROAD STROKES BLOG
DIRECTOR
Susan Fisher Sterling EDITOR
Elizabeth Lynch ASSISTANT EDITOR
https://nmwa.org/blog
Alicia Gregory
MAIN
Louisa Potthast
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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 © 2019 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: Niki de Saint Phalle, Pregnant Nana, 1993; Carved and painted marble, 31 in. high; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift from the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Gift of Jeffrey H. Loria); Artwork © Niki Charitable Art Foundation, All rights reserved; Photo by Lee Stalsworth Director’s photo: © Michele Mattei
Susan Fisher Sterling The Alice West Director
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Contents
“Artists depict moments of humor, rivalry, and joy that shape family and community connections.” PAGE 10
// DEPARTMENTS
2 Arts News 4 Culture Watch 6 Education Report 7 Madeleine Rast Award: Teresa Lozano Long and Joe R. Long 16 Calendar 19 Mellor Book Prize: Carole Blumenfeld’s Marguerite Gérard: 1761–1837 24 On View: Power in My Hand: Women Poets, Women Artists, and Social Change 28 Museum News and Events 32 Supporting Roles 33 Museum Shop
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FEATURES
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No Stone Unturned: Assessing Our Historic Building
A team of architects and engineers has undertaken a comprehensive survey of the needs of NMWA’s historic building. marcia myers carlucci
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Remix: A Fresh Look for NMWA’s Collection The museum’s collection galleries feature a vibrant new installation highlighting themes—such as family, the natural world, and the built environment—that artists have explored from the sixteenth century to today. kathryn wat
↑ 20
More is More: Multiples
Artists’ multiples combine the temptation and affordability of retail with the artistry and creativity of fine art. hannah shambroom
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From Awareness to Action: #5WomenArtists
The fourth year of the #5WomenArtists social media campaign challenged participants to commit to specific actions to support women in the arts. alicia gregory
Arts News
Amy Sherald Paints the Town In Philadelphia, a Center City building is getting a makeover by artist Amy Sherald. In early May, the painter could be seen high above the 1100 block of Sansom Street in a cherry picker working on one of her signature portraits—this time five stories tall. The mural is part of Mural Arts Philadelphia, the nation’s largest public art program. In 2018, Sherald became the first African American woman to paint an official portrait of a first lady; her rendering of Michelle Obama is on view at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Two of Sherald’s works are on view in NMWA’s collection galleries.
Roberta Smith Wins Lifetime Achievement Award The Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation, based in Portland, Maine, has given its first lifetime achievement award to Roberta Smith, the co-chief art critic of the New York Times. The award recognizes Smith’s “impartial, accessible style” and her encouragement of her readership to look at art and form their own opinions. The Rabkin Foundation supports a program that gives grants annually to art writers. Smith’s prize comes with a $50,000 award, which she is donating to the Art for Justice Fund. In Memoriam: Mavis Pusey Jamaican-born abstract artist Mavis Pusey died April 20,
at age ninety. After leaving Kingston for New York City in the 1940s and beginning her career at the Art Students League, she found herself inspired by cityscapes, first in Manhattan and later in Paris and London, where she worked and exhibited. Pusey’s paintings and prints featured geometrical forms that expressed the process of urban growth, decay,
PHOTO COURTESY OF BROCK AND CO., CONCORD, MA
SUMMER 2019
PHOTO BY STEVE WEINIK, COURTESY OF MURAL ARTS PHILADELPHIA
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Above: Amy Sherald’s Philadelphia mural (in process)
destruction, blight, and rebirth. “I am inspired by the energy and the beat of the construction and demolition of these buildings— the tempo and movement mold into a synthesis and, for me, become another aesthetic of abstraction,” the artist said. Her iconic large-scale painting Dejygea (1970), first featured in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s landmark 1971 exhibition Contemporary Black Artists in America, was also featured in NMWA’s 2017 exhibition Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today.
Brazil’s Equitable Art World In Brazil, women artists have dominated the art world since the 1920s, enjoying recognition and market values equal to, if not exceeding, their male peers. Several factors may have contributed to the trend: an economic boom between 1945 and 1964; Brazil’s lack of a formal gallery or museum infrastructure until the 1970s (which made the art world more accessible); and a cultural trend of encouraging women and girls to take up arts and crafts (which led more women to enroll in art schools). In 2017, works by Adriana Varejão and Beatriz Milhazes garnered
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higher sale prices than those by other Brazilian artists—each accumulated more than $2.8 million in total sales. Art that Soars Citing NMWA’s campaign to promote under-recognized women artists in March, United Airlines launched “Her Art Here,” a contest for women artists to display their art on Boeing 757 airplanes. The airline has awarded two winners—Tsungwei
JOIN US!
Moo and Corinne Antonelli— whose designs will adorn aircraft that travel an average of 1.6 million miles per year, as well as four finalists whose work will be shown in the airline’s lounges. The planes with the winners’ artwork will take to the skies in fall 2019.
Above: Simone Leigh, Brick House, 2019; On view on the High Line Plinth through September 2020
Champion women through the arts with NMWA membership
WO M E N I N T H E A RTS
HANNAH ENSOR
In Memoriam: Barbara Hammer Feminist filmmaker Barbara Hammer died March 16, at age
seventy-nine. In her long career, she became renowned as a pioneer of queer cinema—her experimental films often followed lesbian relationships, and she explored issues surrounding the female body and sexuality. Her work has been widely exhibited at museums and film festivals. She said, “As a lesbian artist, I found little existing representation, so I put lesbian life on this blank screen, leaving a cultural record for future generations.” Hammer lived with ovarian cancer for thirteen years. She underwent intensive treatment and palliative care while making art related to her diagnosis.
PHOTO BY TIMOTHY SCHENCK; COURTESY OF THE HIGH LINE
Simone Leigh on the High Line New York City’s elevated outdoor walkway, the High Line, has opened a new section dedicated to art, and its first commission for the space is a towering sculpture by artist Simone Leigh. Debuting in April, Brick House is a sixteen-foot-tall bronze bust of a black woman with cornrows and a base that combines the forms of a skirt and a clay house. The work is the first large-scale piece in “Anatomy of Architecture,” Leigh’s ongoing series of sculptures that merge the human body with architectural forms from regions including West Africa and the American South. The figure prompts viewers to consider the architecture around them and the values, priorities, and customs it reflects.
Culture Watch EXHIBITIONS
CALIFORNIA
Viola Frey: Center Stage di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa On view through December 29, 2019
RM
This survey includes more than one hundred works by Frey, a fiercely independent artist who explored identity, class, consumerism, and environmental issues. FLORIDA
Sheila Hicks: Campo Abierto (Open Field) The Bass, Miami Beach On view through September 29, 2019
In a video installation, Reihana animates a French nineteenthcentury decorative wallpaper, disrupting historical narratives and challenging stereotypes.
Hayv Kahraman: Superfluous Bodies Honolulu Museum of Art On view through August 4, 2019 Kahraman uses artistic traditions from Europe and Asia to challenge representations of the female figure through themes of identity, memory, and exile.
HAWAII
ILLINOIS
Adaption II, 2012; On view at the Minneapolis Institute of Art
Imhof stages a new installation combining performance, painting, and sculpture; a central wooden pier raises questions about divisions and binaries. MINNESOTA
Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists Minneapolis Institute of Art RM On view through August 18, 2019
This exhibition lauds Native women artists, showcasing pottery, textiles, paintings, and photographs from the U.S. and Canada spanning more than 1,000 years. WASHINGTON
Cecilia Vicuña: About to Happen Henry Art Gallery, Seattle On view through September 15, 2019
RM
Multidisciplinary works by Vicuña explore discarded
PHOTO BY ZACHARY BALBER, COURTESY OF THE BASS, MIAMI BEACH
SUMMER 2019
MINNESOTA // Jamie Okuma,
2019, Oil and ink on linen;
On view at the Honolulu Museum of Art
Art Institute of Chicago On view through July 7, 2019
Large-scale fiber installations by Hicks connect social and environmental aspects of landscape, rooted in the museum’s context in South Florida.
Honolulu Museum of Art On view through July 14, 2019
HAWAII // Hayv Kahraman, To the Land of the Waqwaq I,
Anne Imhof: Sex
RM
Lisa Reihana: Emissaries
COURTESY OF THE DORIS DUKE FOUNDATION FOR ISLAMIC ART, HONOLULU, HAWAII
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© 2012 JAMIE OKUMA; PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ART
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FLORIDA // Sheila Hicks, Escalade Beyond Chromatic Lands, 2016–17; On view at The Bass
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BOOKS
and displaced materials, connecting conceptual art, land art, poetry, and feminist art practices.
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INTERNATIONAL FRANCE
Dora Maar Centre Pompidou, Paris June 5–July 29, 2019
UNITED KINGDOM
Faith Ringgold Serpentine Galleries, London June 6–September 8, 2019 Ringgold continually challenges perceptions of American identity and gender inequality through paintings, story quilts, prints, soft sculptures, and performances.
UNITED KINGDOM // Faith Ringgold,
American People #16: Woman Looking in a Mirror, 1966; On view at Serpentine Galleries PHOTO COURTESY PIPPY HOULDSWORTH GALLERY, LONDON; © 2018 FAITH RINGGOLD / ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK
RM North American Reciprocal Museum benefits for NMWA members at the Friend level and above
I Was Their American Dream Meet Malaka Gharib, a first generation American with a Filipino Catholic mother and Egyptian Muslim father who grew up in a multiethnic suburb outside of Los Angeles and spent summers in Cairo. Confused? So was Gharib, who illustrates her coming-of-age story in the charming graphic memoir I Was Their American Dream (Clarkson Potter, 2019). Gharib constantly negotiated customs, language, religion, and food—all while absorbing the ideals of white America through popular culture. While she often felt conflicted navigating clashing cultures, she made her way by blending faiths and food, finding friends among the punk kids in high school, and pursuing her dream of becoming a writer and artist. Her simple red, white, and blue illustrations are heartfelt and funny. They include interactive elements, such as a paper doll of the author with various outfits that highlight her code-switching in college. The book is a reminder to celebrate culture and all of our differences —something Gharib began to understand when she was voted “Most Unique” in her high school senior class. “In the end,” she writes, “I got the label I was searching for.” // Alicia Gregory
Ruth Asawa: Life’s Work “Techniques are simple to learn. Digesting them and making something that represents you will take a lifetime.” This quote from Ruth Asawa (1926–2013) opens the lead essay by Tamara H. Schenkenberg in Ruth Asawa: Life’s Work (Pulitzer Arts Foundation and Yale University Press, 2019). Schenkenberg’s focus on Asawa’s dedication and labor sets the tone for this catalogue, which documents a recent exhibition at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation. Asawa is famed today for creating sculptures from crocheted wire—often lobed or hourglass forms that hang delicately from ceilings, engaging the eye through their semi-transparent volumes and complex shadows. In addition to these works, the artist also completed several large-scale public art commissions and worked in California for decades as an arts educator and activist. In another essay, Helen Molesworth explores Asawa’s work through a feminist lens, examining her sculptures’ evocative formal qualities as well as their context within the artist’s social sphere, activism, and motherhood of six children. Molesworth asks, “Were Ruth Asawa’s family, their home, and these activities her art world?” // Elizabeth Lynch
The Age of Light The Age of Light (Little, Brown, 2019), by Whitney Scharer, is an engaging fictionalized account of the life of the model, Surrealist photographer, and wartime photojournalist Lee Miller (1907–1977). Scharer was first inspired by Miller’s images and the confidence yet vulnerability that they convey. Centering on the artist’s time in 1930s Paris and her relationship with the Surrealist Man Ray, her book avoids the trappings of a romance novel—it instead explores Miller’s experience working in male-dominated spheres and her struggle against the misconception of women artists as muses. “I’d much rather take a picture than be one,” Miller once famously said. Throughout the book, Scharer’s fictionalized Miller is true to this spirit: she is self-aware and fearless, yet also fragile. Miller confronts constant sexism and aspires to step out of Man Ray’s shadow as a photographer. With her camera, she creates Surrealist self-portraits and, in sobering passages, documents the atrocities of World War II as a correspondent for Vogue. The novel portrays Miller as a woman who wants to be recognized not just as a muse, but also as an artist in her own story. // Louisa Potthast
WO M E N I N T H E A RTS
This major retrospective presents the photographs of Maar, from her beginnings in Surrealism to her fashion and portrait photography.
Education Report
PHOTO BY K ATIE BENZ, NMWA
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Senior Educator Adrienne L. Gayoso leads visitors in a gallery talk focused on the museum’s collection
What? Conversation Pieces. When? Daily. June 2019 marks the fourth anniversary of the launch of Conversation Pieces, thirtyminute discussions that spotlight two works on view. Themes vary daily and are selected by staff or volunteer facilitators to introduce visitors to new or overlooked works; encourage close looking; and draw surprising and delightful connections between works of art. A favorite Conversation Piece poses the question, “What is portraiture?” and asks visitors to compare Lavinia Fontana’s Portrait of a Noblewoman (ca. 1580), a traditional depiction of a young sixteenth-century Bolognese bride, with Andrea Higgins’s Hillary (2002), an abstract representation of Hillary Clinton as the first lady of the United States. Pairing historic and contemporary
portraiture encourages visitors to consider the diverse ways that artists have addressed similar subject matter in different times and places. Conversation Pieces foster conversations between artworks that might not seem similar at first glance and among visitors who might not normally converse, opening the door for surprising discoveries and engagement. What? Gallery Talks. When? Weekly. A longstanding favorite, the museum’s Gallery Talks draw crowds interested in brief talks over their lunch break. Led by NMWA staff members, the thirtyminute talks begin at noon on
Wednesdays, feature different topics each week, and typically highlight three to six artworks. What? Fierce Women 2.0. When? Monthly. Fierce Women tours celebrate trail-blazing women artists and have been a popular staple of Free Community Days since July 2017. NMWA educators recently mined the reinstalled galleries to identify a new group of strong women artists to highlight in version 2.0 of this tour. Unveiled in January 2019, Fierce Women 2.0 tells the stories and features the artwork of eight artists from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Since their debut during the 2017 Women’s March weekend,
Fierce Women tours have captivated and inspired more than 1,800 visitors from around the world, including Azerbaijan, Canada, Chile, Germany, Lithuania, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States. What? Artists in Conversation. When? Once or twice annually. NMWA’s ongoing, innovative Artists in Conversation series invites women artists to give voice to their visual expressions by speaking in front of their own works. Since its inception in 2015, this intimate program has featured sixteen artists, including local legend Sylvia Snowden, Michelle Obama portraitist Amy Sherald, and, most recently, Pakistani American artist Ambreen Butt, whose work was featured in the exhibition Ambreen Butt— Mark My Words. On April 9, Butt enthralled a sold-out crowd with stories about her training in traditional Indian and Persian miniature painting, her laborious process of layering materials, and her motivation to create art to make sense of a chaotic world. One attendee said, “Ambreen is an absolute joy. Her work overwhelms me—I can’t imagine how long it takes her to complete a work. Lovely event!”
Ambreen Butt discusses her work with guests at a recent Artists in Conversation program
PHOTO BY LOUISA POT THAST, NMWA
SUMMER 2019
Gallery Learning: Opportunities to Converse, Connect, and Contemplate The museum provides guests with diverse options for exploring NMWA’s collection and exhibitions with volunteers, staff, and visiting artists. Learn about program types and check the calendar for upcoming events!
Fierce Women tour attendees enjoyed learning about “Lives and stories of the artists—great selection of different artists, varied styles,” and “the challenges the artists faced and how these hurdles influenced their artworks.”
Madeleine Rast Award 7
Above: NMWA Founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, Joe Long, and Teresa Lozano Long with Berthe Morisot’s Jeune Femme en Mauve (Young Woman in Mauve), the Longs’ recent gift to the museum PHOTO BY KEVIN ALLEN
Left: Mitch Long (right) accepts the Rast Award for the Longs from Board President Emerita and Endowment Chair Carol Lascaris and Trustee Mary V. Mochary
ON MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2019 ,
NMWA’s Board of Trustees presented the museum’s inaugural Madeleine Rast Award to Dr. Teresa Lozano Long and Mr. Joe R. Long of Austin, Texas. The Rast Award was established to honor outstanding individuals who have shown a lifelong commitment to championing women and the arts. NMWA Founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay says, “Terry and Joe have been with the museum since the beginning. Their regard for the mission and their friendship have been sources of support for over three decades. They are helping NMWA to right the
“Terry and Joe have been with the museum since the beginning. Their regard for the mission and their friendship have been sources of support for over three decades.” NMWA Founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay
balance for women in the arts through their engagement and generous philanthropy.” In the arts, education, and medicine, the Longs’ philanthropy in Texas is renowned. In 1999, their lead gift of $20 million transformed the Lester A. Palmer Auditorium into a world-class venue for performing arts. Renamed the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Center for the Performing Arts, it is now the home of the Austin Lyric Opera, the Austin Symphony Orchestra, and Ballet Austin. The Longs have also contributed $100 million to health institutions in The University of Texas System, particularly the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio, and supported firstgeneration students through the Long Scholars and Long Physicians programs. The Longs met when both were teachers in Alice, Texas. Teresa (Terry) Long grew up in Premont, Texas. As valedictorian of her high school, she attended UT Austin and became the first Hispanic woman to earn a doctorate in health and physical education at the university. Joe Long received his law degree from UT Austin and worked as an attorney with the State Securities Board and the office of the Attorney General of Texas, before transitioning into private banking. The Longs have been patrons of NMWA since its inception in 1987. Terry is a founding member of NMWA’s Texas Committee, which has helped to bring recognition to women artists in Texas for more than thirty years. In
2008, following their generous gift to the museum’s Legacy of Women in the Arts Endowment campaign, the museum named its Teresa Lozano Long Gallery in Terry’s honor. In 2017, in honor of the museum’s thirtieth anniversary, they donated one of the great works from their renowned art collection to NMWA: a quintessential portrait by Impressionist Berthe Morisot titled Jeune Fille en Mauve (Young Woman in Mauve) (1880). The March event provided a fabulous opportunity to celebrate the Longs and their philanthropy. Board President Emerita and Endowment Chair Carol Lascaris says, “We are so grateful to Madeleine Rast for planning her remarkable gift. Terry and Joe Long embody her spirit of championing women and the arts, and we are proud to recognize them as the ideal first recipients of this honor.” The Rast Award was established by the NMWA Endowment Foundation Board in honor of a major gift of $9 million from the Estate of Madeleine Rast. Born in Zurich, Switzerland, Rast (1924–2017) came to the U.S. as a young woman, settling in California. She worked hard to establish herself, eventually becoming a successful management auditor and investor. Rast’s bequest provided an avenue to combine her love for the arts, her staunch belief in women’s independence, and her financial prowess.
WO M E N I N T H E A RTS
PRESENTED TO DR. TERESA LOZANO LONG AND MR. JOE LONG
PHOTO BY MARGOT SCHULMAN
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SWETLAND PUBLISHING CO.
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No Stone Unturned Assessing Our Historic Building
SUMMER 2019
Marcia Myers Carlucci
When museum visitors enter NMWA’s Great Hall, they frequently ask, “What was this building?” They admire its august architecture and often learn, to their surprise, that it was completed in 1908 as a Masonic Temple, that it also was a movie theater, among other things, and that it was extensively renovated in the 1980s to serve as our temple to women in the arts. It has been our museum’s home for over thirty years and is one of the most beautiful buildings in Washington.
If Our Walls Could Talk The museum’s leadership team is firm in its resolve to care for this building, which is one of our greatest assets. In the last issue of this magazine, we wrote about the building’s recent history, especially the challenges we faced after a record-breaking blizzard in 2016 damaged the building’s roof. Fortuitously, at that time, we were able to mitigate the threat immediately because a preservation study was already underway. Led by architect Sandra Vicchio and Associates, a new team had begun creating a Facilities Preservation Plan to help define NMWA’s stewardship obligations for its historic home. Over the last several years, this team—including Sandra Vicchio, CVM Professional, Whiting-Turner, and other experts in the field—finished repairing the roof while undertaking a comprehensive survey of the building. One area of particular concern was the building’s envelope— the walls, windows, doors, and insulation that protect the museum’s interior. Through thermal imaging, they found excessive heat and vapor transfer through drafty windows and deteriorating stone façades. This indicates that the building’s envelope critically needs to be restored and its mechanical systems upgraded. The team also thoroughly assessed the museum’s nearly 80,000-square-foot interior and identified necessary renovations that must take place to comply with today’s standards and make the most of our building for the future.
Vicchio and her colleagues have delivered a comprehensive plan for essential improvements. To maintain our building, we must renew and clean the building envelope, enhance public spaces, undertake ADA accessibility improvements, ensure that temperature and humidity are held at stable levels in the galleries, refit art storage, reorganize office and support spaces, and upgrade technology. We also must bolster systems that will enhance security for art, visitors, and staff. Enacting these plans will restore the museum and provide all our visitors with an inspirational, twenty-firstcentury museum experience.
Women in Architecture and Engineering From the start, we have been proud to have prominent women on the team that has been assessing our building’s needs. Sandra Vicchio is principal architect of her firm and has more than twenty-five years of preservation experience. She has worked on historic buildings such as the Pratt Library and Washington Monument in Baltimore, and, in prior roles, on monuments including Monticello and Mount Vernon. At the engineering firm CVM Professional, Principal Tracy Marcotte is an expert in materials science
Enacting these plans will restore the museum and provide all our visitors with an inspirational, twenty-first-century museum experience.
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and moisture mitigation. Her knowledge has been crucial in assessing our building envelope and planning for new systems that will interact well with our landmark building. She is assisted by Project Engineer Janine Hildebrand, who has ten years of experience working on historic buildings. With these women on our team, and given our mission of recognizing women in all the arts, we wondered about women’s representation in the fields of architecture and engineering. Here are a few facts:
– According to the American Institute of Architects (AIA), a 2018 survey found that while nearly half of U.S. architecture school graduates are women, women make up only about 20 percent of licensed architects in the field and just 17 percent of partners or principals in architecture firms. – The AIA also found that, in 2015 and 2016, only 31 percent of full- or part-time faculty members in architecture were women. – An MIT sociologist found in 2016 that women receive about 20 percent of undergraduate engineering degrees, but they comprise only 13 percent of the engineering workforce.
Opposite: In April 1908, an illustration by Wood, Donn & Deming Architects of the new building’s north façade was published in the American Architect and Building News
Above: Envelope engineer Janine Hildebrand inspects cornice repair progress
Changes Afoot This is an exciting time at the museum! NMWA remains the only major museum in the world dedicated to celebrating the creative work of women—there is no other place where visitors can hear the stories of women and art that are told here. We are inspired by the women who are major players on our architecture and engineering team, and energized by the possibilities presented in their recommendations. In future issues of Women in the Arts, we will share more about our plans.
// Marcia Myers Carlucci is the Building Chair of the Board of Trustees of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
WO M E N I N T H E A RTS
SANDRA VICCHIO & ASSOCIATES
Women are gaining ground in both architecture and engineering, but as you can see, there is still much that needs to be done to increase women’s presence in these fields.
M I R X E EX I R M R E MI X I XRME XM I E R A Fresh Look for NMWA’s Collection
If it has been a few months since you visited NMWA, you will discover a vibrant new installation of the museum’s collection galleries on your next trip. This past December, the third-floor galleries briefly closed so that staff could remove all works of art on view, paint the walls, install energy-efficient LED lighting, and then position a fresh array of objects from the collection.
PHOTO BY KEVIN ALLEN
Kathryn Wat
Visitors enjoying the new gallery installation with (foreground) Louise Nevelson’s White Column (from Dawn’s Wedding Feast), 1959
Above: Mickalene Thomas, A-E-I-O-U and Sometimes Y, 2009; Plastic rhinestones, acrylic, and enamel on panel, 24 x 20 x 1 ½ in.; NMWA, Gift of Deborah Carstens
Right: Lavinia Fontana, Portrait of a Noblewoman, ca. 1580; Oil on canvas, 45 ¼ x 35 ¼ in.; NMWA, Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay; Funding for the frame generously provided by the Texas State Committee
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in 2017, the museum began exhibiting selections from its collection in thematic groupings that emphasize ideas explored by women artists from the late sixteenth century through today. The format allows us to highlight a greater range of works—mixing paintings, prints, photo-based works, and sculptures—than a traditional chronological presentation. The installation explores a range of themes, including family, nature, voyages, architecture, and artistic revolutions.
Trailblazing Artists Transformations of all kinds—stylistic, social, and ideological—are featured in the gallery titled Rebels with a Cause. A portrait of a Bolognese noblewoman by Lavinia Fontana (1552–1614)—regarded as the first woman in Western Europe to develop a professional career as an artist—is exhibited beside a portrait crafted from black rhinestones by Mickalene Thomas (b. 1971). Visitors enjoy comparing concepts of fashion and adornment in the Baroque era with those of the 1970s disco era—the period that inspires Thomas’s art.
PHOTO BY LEE STALSWORTH
© MICK ALENE THOMAS, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND LEHMANN MAUPIN ; PHOTO BY LEE STALSWORTH
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Nearby, a marble sculpture by Sarah Bernhardt (1844– 1923)—a famed stage actress in the late nineteenth century but also a highly skilled visual artist—seems to glow beside the exuberant oil painting Orange (1981) by Joan Mitchell (1925–1992). Although Bernhardt exhibited her sculptures in both Europe and the U.S., her accomplishments in the visual arts are rarely noted today. Similarly, critics have only recently begun to pay due attention to Mitchell’s work as an Abstract Expressionist painter. The long bands of brightly colored, lozenge-shaped brushstrokes in Iris, Tulips, Jonquils, and Crocuses (1969) by Alma Woodsey Thomas (1891–1978) also demonstrate women’s innovations in abstract painting in the twentieth century. Thomas was the first African American woman featured in a one-person exhibition at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art. She developed her signature painting style in her late 70s, after spending more than three decades teaching art in a Washington, D.C., junior high school.
© ZANELE MUHOLI; COURTESY OF THE ARTIST, YANCEY RICHARDSON, NEW YORK, AND STEVENSON, CAPE TOWN / JOHANNESBURG
Relatively Speaking Distinctions—and essential similarities—between historical and contemporary concepts about the family are the focus of the Family Matters gallery. Images created in previous centuries tend to be solemn and refined, in keeping with the traditional idea that family portraiture is a space for presenting tranquil relationships. Today’s artists examine a fuller range of familial experiences, depicting the moments of humor, rivalry, and joy that shape family and community connections. The Family of the Earl Gower (1772) by Angelica Kauffman (1741–1807) portrays British politician Granville LevesonGower and his wife and children as models of refined comportment. Dressed in neoclassical costumes, they rest quietly among marble busts, lyres, and other period props. The genial mood of this canvas and others (including French Impressionist Berthe Morisot’s 1880 portrait of a young woman, possibly a nursemaid in her household) is amplified in contemporary photographs on view in the gallery. Katlego Mashiloane and Nosipho Lavuta, Ext. 2, Lakeside, Johannesburg (2007) by Zanele Muholi (b. 1972) depicts a young female couple seated together with their legs and arms interlaced and looking off to the side in carefree laughter. They express relaxation and joy in front of Muholi’s camera,
Zanele Muholi, Katlego Mashiloane and Nosipho Lavuta, Ext. 2, Lakeside, Johannesburg, 2007; Chromogenic print, 30 x 30 in.; NMWA, Museum purchase: The Paul and Emily Singer Family Foundation with additional support from Nancy Nelson Stevenson
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despite the prejudice and violence often directed toward the LGBTQ community in South Africa. All of the families represented on the walls of this gallery overlook the spectacular sculpture in the center, The Stags (2008), by Australian artist Patricia Piccinini (b. 1965). Made from two customized motor scooters that appear to be sparing for herd dominance, the work embodies the clashes that sometimes agitate family relations.
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PHOTO BY KEVIN ALLEN
The new Family Matters gallery with (foreground) Patricia Piccinini’s The Stags (2008) and (background) Angelica Kauffman’s The Family of the Earl Gower (1772)
Graciela Iturbide, Mujer Ángel, Desierto de Sonora (Angel Woman, Sonoran Desert), 1979 (printed 2014); Gelatin silver print, 16 x 20 in.; NMWA, Gift of Cindy Jones
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© GRACIELA ITURBIDE; IMAGE COURTESY OF THROCKMORTON FINE ART, NYC
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Getting Out and Around The natural world is also the focus of The Great Outdoors gallery, which blends representational and conceptual images of nature. A seventeenth-century still life painting by Rachel Ruysch (1664–1750) that presents a dense matrix of meticulously rendered flowers and insects is paired with a contemporary photograph by Amy Lamb (b. 1944). Lamb’s Vase of Flowers I (1999) is directly inspired by historical still lifes, and both works of art present delectable images of the infinitely varied colors, textures, and shapes composing the earth’s terrain. The most powerful works in this gallery may be those that evoke how nature feels rather than how it appears to the eye. A second painting by Joan Mitchell, Sale Neige (1980), features broad stokes of lavender that cascade down over patches of black, cobalt blue, and purple in the bottom half of the canvas. The work’s French title translates to “dirty snow,” and its cool palette and thick, scumbled layers of paint cannily suggest the crustiness of snow coated with ice. Visitors have shared that they feel as though they can hear the crackly, crunching sounds this image might make. Equally powerful reflections of “place” mark the new Roots to Routes gallery. Many featured artists identify with a mother country, creating elegiac images that demonstrate their emotional connection to familiar locales and cultural traditions. A black-and-white photograph by Graciela Iturbide (b. 1942), a recent gift from past NMWA
Board President Cindy Jones, depicts a lone woman in the vast Sonoran Desert in Mexico. Her attire reflects traditions of her Native Seri people, suggesting the profound influence of her homeland. Nearby, the colorful story quilt Jo Baker’s Bananas (1997) by Faith Ringgold (b. 1930) depicts entertainer Josephine Baker. Baker immigrated to France from Harlem in 1925, seeking acceptance and respect not accorded her in the U.S. Ringgold, too, worked in France in the early 1960s, and her quilt expresses this gallery’s broader themes of exile, migration, and hybrid identities.
Visit for More Two additional themes—Built to Order and Space Explorers— compose other galleries in NMWA’s new collection installation. All of the newly reinstalled galleries are unified by a design featuring white and dark gray walls, with a few accent walls painted in rich blue and magenta. LED lighting, which emphasizes details and textures and also has a bit of a spotlighting effect, makes each work of art appear dazzling. As we led a tour group through the reopened spaces in January, one participant remarked that the galleries appeared “almost sacred.” Indeed, NMWA’s collection powerfully illuminates the museum’s focus on the revelatory vision of women artists worldwide. Kathryn Wat is the deputy director/chief curator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
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NEW TO THE COLLECTION
Works from the Corcoran Gallery of Art
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A Legacy of Women in Sculpture
© MARISOL; PHOTO BY LEE STALSWORTH
Established in 1869, the Corcoran Gallery of Art was one of the first private museums in the United States, and it existed for 145 years as an independent museum and college of art and
design. In 2014, the Corcoran transferred its college to the George Washington University and began to distribute works from its collection to museums and institutions in Washington, D.C.
NMWA is deeply honored to be among the organizations selected to receive these gifts. Works from the Corcoran now in NMWA’s collection augment its holdings, particularly in twentieth-century photography and sculpture. The museum’s new collection installation includes a number of important modern sculptures recently given by the Corcoran. The radical methods, forms, and materials developed by postwar women sculptors are just beginning to be studied collectively. The Corcoran’s gifts help NMWA demonstrate modernist women’s innovations within the medium of sculpture. On view in the Family Matters gallery is The Large Family Group (1957) by Venezuelan-American artist Marisol (1930–2016). Carved from wood, the sculpture is one of the artist’s earliest, and it shows her contribution to the emerging Pop art lexicon in the
1950s as well as her interest in pre-Columbian art. Dorothy Dehner (1901–1994) also used wood to create her Upright Keyboard #1 (1979), although she assembled it from found wood scraps. Her vertically oriented sculptures from this period resemble ladders, buildings, and scaffolding dominant in cityscapes. Exhibited in the Built to Order gallery, Dehner’s sculpture also bears a similarity to constructions made by her friend Louise Nevelson, whose work is on view nearby. As part of the Rebels with a Cause gallery, a luminous painted marble sculpture by Niki de Saint Phalle (1930– 2002) entitled Pregnant Nana (1993) embodies a joyful feminist spirit. “Nana” is French slang for “girl” or “chick,” and Saint Phalle’s figure (pictured on the cover) is reminiscent of fertility goddess sculptures made by ancient cultures. // KW
Museum visitors enjoying the Built to Order gallery with (foreground) Dorothy Dehner’s Upright Keyboard #1 (1979) and (background, left to right) Judy Chicago’s Pasadena Lifesavers Red #4 (1969–70) and Chakaia Booker’s Acid Rain (2001)
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PHOTO BY KEVIN ALLEN
Marisol (Marisol Escobar), The Large Family Group, 1957; Painted wood, 37 x 38 x 6 ½ in.; NMWA, Gift from the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Museum Purchase with funds provided by the Roger S. Firestone Foundation Fund, the FRIENDS of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, William A. Clark Fund, the gift of William E. Share [by exchange], The Women’s Committee of the Corcoran Gallery)
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EXHIBITIONS
© URSULA VON RYDINGSVARD, COURTESY OF GALERIE LELONG & CO. ; PHOTO BY JONTY WILDE
Ursula von Rydingsvard: The Contour of Feeling On view through July 28, 2019 More is More: Multiples On view through September 22, 2019 New York Avenue Sculpture Project: Betsabeé Romero On view through September 20, 2020 Power in My Hand: Women Poets, Women Artists, and Social Change On view through August 30, 2019, 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. Judy Chicago—The End: A Meditation on Death and Extinction September 19, 2019– January 20, 2020 Live Dangerously September 19, 2019– January 20, 2020
Ursula von Rydingsvard, OCEAN VOICES, 2011–12; On view in Ursula von Rydingsvard: Contour of Feeling
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Daily / Weekly / Monthly
KEY
Gallery Experience: Conversation Pieces MOST DAYS 2–2:30 P.M. // M A O
F Free M
Free for members
Free for members and one guest
Join us for thirty-minute conversations that spotlight two works on view. Check in at the Information Desk.
A
Free with admission
Gallery Talks: Lunchtime Talk Series
O
No reservations required
WEDNESDAYS 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O
R
Reservation required at https://nmwa.org
Bite-sized, staff-led talks encourage visitors to look closely and discuss works on view.
E Exhibition-related program
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.
June
6 / 2
Free Community Day
SUN
12.–5 P.M. // F M O
6 / 2
Drop-In Tour: Fierce Women 2.0
SUN 1–2 P.M. // F M O
PHOTO BY KEVIN ALLEN
SUMMER 2019
With a fresh installation of the collection, discover a new squad of fierce women who blazed trails as artists, activists, and innovators. Limited space—check in at the Information Desk.
Left: Visitors explore a collection gallery with (left to right) Nikki S. Lee’s The Ohio Project (8) (1999), Eve Sussman’s Themis in the Bird Cage (2005), and (foreground) Kiki Smith’s Breast Jar (1990)
Visit https://nmwa.org for reservations, a complete calendar of events, and more information.
6 / 2
SUN 2:15–3:15 P.M. // F M O E
Film Series: Contemporary Women Artists (3 of 3)
7 / 7
SUN 1–2 P.M. // F M O
Learn about artists whose work is on view in artistfocused films from Art21. This screening features Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, Kiki Smith, Valeska Soares, and Ursula von Rydingsvard.
6 / 5
WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E
6 / 12
Gallery Talk: More is More
7 / 8 – 7 / 12 Teacher Program: Art, Books, and Creativity Institute
Empower and inspire your students through art! Join NMWA educators, a professional book artist, and curriculum and literacy specialists for this annual intensive centered on NMWA’s Art, Books, and Creativity (ABC) curriculum. $30 materials fee. Full.
Young Learners Tour: Color-full Fun
SAT 10–11 A.M. // F M R
6 / 19
Gallery Talk: Ursula von Rydingsvard
WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E
7 / 10
7 / 17
Program: Art, Books, and Creativity Advanced Institute
SAT 11 A.M.–2 P.M. // R
6 / 26
MON–FRI 9 A.M.–4 P.M. // R
Designed for ABC Teacher Institute alumni, this biennial practicum expands participants’ toolkit of book formats, writing exercises, and ABC curriculum integration ideas. $30 materials fee. Full.
Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler
WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O
6 / 30
Gallery Talk: More is More
WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E
Designed for Cadette Girl Scouts, though open to interested students in grades 6–8, this program introduces bookmaking and satisfies all steps of the Cadette Book Artist Badge. $15.
Gallery Talk: More is More
WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E
7 / 22 – 7 / 26 Teacher
6 / 22 Scout Program: Cadette Girl Scouts’ Book Artist Badge Program
MON–FRI 9 A.M.–4 P.M. // R
Gallery Talk: Ursula von Rydingsvard
In this tour designed for children ages 3 to 6 and their guardians, participants become “Color Detectives” as they discover and explore color throughout the galleries.
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With a fresh installation of the collection, discover a new squad of fierce women who blazed trails as artists, activists, and innovators. Limited space—check in at the Information Desk.
WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E
6 / 15
Drop-In Tour: Fierce Women 2.0
Fresh Talk: Accessory to Action—Adorning Wakanda
SUN 7–9:30 P.M. // R
7 / 24
Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler
WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O
7 / 31
WED
Gallery Talk: More is More 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E
Douriean Fletcher, Marvel Comics’ first licensed jewelry designer and creator of the power-packed accessories for Black Panther, and Dr. Ayana Omilade Flewellen, postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, discuss gender equity in Wakandan society and our own. Ticket includes museum admission and Catalyst cocktail hour. $25 general; $20 members, seniors, students.
July
7 / 3
WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E
Gallery Talk: Ursula von Rydingsvard
7 / 7
SUN 12–5 P.M. // F M O
7 / 7
SUN 12–5 P.M. // F M O
Free Community Day
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Organized by the DC Art Book Collective, this curated event spotlights more than forty small presses, artists, and makers as they sell independently published zines, books, comics, and prints.
PHOTO BY KEVIN ALLEN
DC Art Book Fair
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PHOTO BY KEVIN ALLEN
September
Visitors enjoy Catalyst cocktail hour following a recent Fresh Talk
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KEY
F Free
O No reservations required
M Free for members
R Reservation required at
Free for members and one guest
A
Free with admission
9 / 1
Free Community Day
SUN
12.–5 P.M. // F M O
9 / 1
Drop-In Tour: Fierce Women 2.0
SUN 1–2 P.M. // F M O
With a fresh installation of the collection, discover a new squad of fierce women who blazed trails as artists, activists, and innovators. Limited space—check in at the Information Desk.
9 / 4
Gallery Talk: More is More
WED
12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E
9 / 11
WED
9 / 18
WED
E Exhibition-related program
8 / 4
Free Community Day
SUN
12.–5 P.M. // F M O
8 / 4
Drop-In Tour: Fierce Women 2.0
SUN 1–2 P.M. // F M O
9 / 18
9 / 22
SUN
WED
8 / 7
WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O
8 / 14
WED
8 / 17
Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler Gallery Talk: More is More
SUMMER 2019
Fresh Talk and Book Launch: Judy Chicago: New Views 4:30–6 P.M. // R E
9 / 25
WED
Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O
12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E
Young Learners Tour: Portrait Party
SAT 10–11 A.M. // F M R
In this tour designed for children ages 3 to 6 and their guardians, participants step into the shoes of portrait subjects in art and create their own self-portraits!
8 / 21
WED
8 / 28
Gallery Talk: New York Avenue Sculpture Project 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E
Celebrate NMWA’s exhibition of the newest work by iconic feminist artist Judy Chicago, The End: A Meditation on Death and Extinction, and the publication of the monograph Judy Chicago: New Views, featuring major bodies of work from throughout her career. The artist will be in conversation with Martha C. Nussbaum, University of Chicago philosopher and contributor to the book. Tickets will be released online this summer.
With a fresh installation of the collection, discover a new squad of fierce women who blazed trails as artists, activists, and innovators. Limited space—check in at the Information Desk.
Member Preview Day: Judy Chicago—The End 10 A.M.–2 P.M. // M O E
Join us for a special preview of Judy Chicago—The End: A Meditation on Death and Extinction. Visually striking and emotionally charged, the newest body of work by the feminist icon continues her commitment to challenge the status quo and advocate for change.
https://nmwa.org
August
Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O
Gallery Talk: New York Avenue Sculpture Project 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O E
Gallery Talk: Collection Sampler
WED 12–12:30 P.M. // F M O
// Education programming is made possible by the Marcia and Frank
Carlucci Charitable Foundation, the Laurie Nakamoto Trust, 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 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 funding is provided by the Bernstein Family Foundation, the Revada Foundation of the Logan Family, and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
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MELLOR BOOK PRIZE
Carole Blumenfeld’s Marguerite Gérard: 1761–1837
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The museum’s Suzanne & James Mellor Prize supports groundbreaking scholarly publications on women artists. The third book published with its sponsorship is Marguerite Gérard: 1761–1837 (Gourcuff Gradenigo, 2019), by Carole Blumenfeld. With assistance from the Mellor Prize, Blumenfeld’s manuscript was translated into English and released in both French and English editions, which will allow a new, larger audience to discover this remarkable artist. Blumenfeld expressed profound gratitude for the Mellors’ support. The book is the product of thirteen years of Blumenfeld’s research on Gérard, who was born in Grasse, France, and lived through the tumultuous French Revolution, the reign of Napoleon, and the Bourbon Restoration. She was a significant figure in the art world of late eighteenth-century Paris, but fell out of art historical recognition, remembered as a minor artist or merely as the sister-in-law and pupil of painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard. For much of her life, Gérard lived with the Fragonards in the Louvre, where she maintained a studio and built a commercially successful, decades-long career as a genre painter and portraitist. Blumenfeld traces the artistic relationship of Fragonard and Gérard. She analyzes details of several studies and paintings that show collaboration between the two artists, and discusses others that indicate the influences that each had on the other’s work. In many cases, their collaboration led to works being misattributed solely to Fragonard. In the book’s new
and exhaustively researched catalogue raisonné, Blumenfeld enthusiastically corrects the record to rediscover and reattribute Gérard’s art. Gérard painted many genre scenes—scenes of everyday life including women captivated by pets, children, lovers, musical instruments, or mysterious letters—influenced by the work of popular painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Blumenfeld demonstrates fascinating details about Gérard’s work, such as the way her mother-and-child compositions changed with
the political transitions of her time. Blumenfeld writes, “Far from being a follower of developments in genre painting, Marguerite Gérard was always an active player in the introduction of new ideas. . . . Rarely straightforward and unambiguous in their meaning, her paintings always allowed great freedom not only to the viewer, but also in the image that they reflected of herself.” Blumenfeld stresses that this ability to adapt to the ever-changing political climate was crucial, since “only those
who were able to navigate the new social codes were really active in the 1790s.” Even beyond Gérard’s political savvy, Blumenfeld writes, “One of the most interesting features that emerges from a study of her career is her constant desire to push her work in new directions, so that she would always be shown and considered as an innovator in her art.” // Elizabeth Lynch is the editor at
the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
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// Elizabeth Lynch
SUMMER 2019
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Yayoi Kusama, Puzzle, 2009 (based on Yayoi Kusama, Self-Portrait, 2008); 200-piece jigsaw puzzle, assembled: 16 x 11 in.; Published by RxArt; NMWA, Gift of Steven Scott, Baltimore
More is More
Multiples Multiples On view through September 22, 2019
PHOTO COURTESY OF RXART
Hannah Shambroom
Celebrated for their diversity of material, form, and function, multiples combine the temptation and affordability of retail with the artistry and creativity of fine art. This summer, the museum presents a selection of contemporary artists’ multiples, drawn primarily from the museum’s growing collection. More is More: Multiples highlights the medium’s exciting possibilities and appeal.
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“I think of them as an equal or variant to an artist’s work in printmaking, but more sculptural and often more affordable.” //
STEVEN SCOTT, NMWA PATRON
SUMMER 2019
have you ever gazed longingly at a work of art in a museum gallery and thought, “That would look great in my home”? With multiples, this desire for ownership can become a reality at a more accessible price range. The contemporary artist’s multiple—generally a three-dimensional object produced through industrial or commercial methods in a series of identical editions—inspires delight in curators, collectors, and shoppers alike. Admired for their clever visual elements as well as functional purposes, these objects are equally at home in museum collections, retail stores, and domestic spaces.
Consumer Culture Meets Accomplished Artistry People have eagerly acquired visually enticing, yet practical, objects in the worlds of both art and retail for centuries. In the twentieth century, the Fluxus movement aimed to democratize art through mass publication and widespread availability. This group of artists sought to upend the distinction between “high” and “low” art forms, and to blur the boundaries between art and life. The arrival of Pop Art in the mid-1950s further muddled this line. Artists adopted the techniques and imagery of advertising and popular culture, creating easily replicable works that featured recognizable forms and symbols such as familiar logos. Together, these
© THE EASTON FOUNDATION/VAGA
Third Drawer Down, Infant onesie, 2014 (based on Louise Bourgeois, Be Calm, 2005); Screenprint on cotton, 16 x 13 ½ in.; Produced in collaboration with The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and The Easton Foundation; Private collection
movements paved the way for contemporary multiples, works that inextricably link art and retail through design, production, and sale. From dinnerware to fashion accessories and games, multiples retain a high level of artistry while remaining true to their practical purposes. Artists often incorporate a signature image or style into the design of these pieces. Sunglasses designed by Barbara Kruger in 2013 display the message “Your gaze hits the side of my face,” a phrase present in several of the artist’s photo- and text-based works. A Louise Bourgeois-inspired infant onesie (2014) features the artist’s gradated oval Be Calm print (2005), a motif that has also been reproduced on tea towels and jewelry trays.
Creative Collaborations While traditional means of art-making include processes such as painting and sculpting to create unique works of art by hand, multiples generally use synthetic materials and industrial means of production to create replicable works. Because of this, artists commonly collaborate on these projects with established retail and design firms. For example, Kruger partnered with California sunglass company Freeway Eyewear to create her sunglasses, and the Bourgeois onesie was produced by Third Drawer Down, a multiples publisher
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
Above: Barbara Kruger, Sunglasses, 2013 (based on Barbara Kruger, Untitled [Your gaze hits the side of my face], 1981); Plastic, 2 x 5 1/2 in.; Manufactured by Freeway Eyewear; NMWA, Gift of Steven Scott, Baltimore, in honor of Chief Curator Kathryn Wat
Left: Jiha Moon, Lady in K-Garden, 2017; Porcelain, underglaze, and glaze, with takeout box packaging, 2 x 3 ½ x 3 ½ in.; Created for CUE Art Foundation; On loan from Adrienne L. Gayoso
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nestled inside a takeout box, further poking fun at misplaced conceptions of Asian cultures derived from Americanized versions of traditional cuisines. Moon, who was born in South Korea and now lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia, points out the cultural mashup present in her work: “I wanted to adapt current Korean popular culture into this old format of traditional ‘blue and white’ ceramic style. Of course, the fortune cookie itself is, ironically, not an Asian/Chinese tradition. It is an American invention from San Francisco.”
I’ll Take Two! While aesthetics may be a draw for some, for others, the allure of multiples comes from their relative affordability and availability. Many of these works may be purchased in museum shops or through online retailers, allowing buyers easy and instant access, and thereby broadening the collecting audience. Baltimore gallerist and NMWA patron Steven Scott, who has generously contributed to NMWA’s growing collection of multiples, notes that these works “can be an entry point to begin forming a collection.” While reproducibility is a marker of the medium, multiples are not simply copies or facsimiles of a work of art. Although often less costly and more readily available, they are original artworks themselves, desired as collectors’ items and enjoyed for their artistry as well as their practicality. Scott says, “I think of them as an equal or variant to an artist’s work in printmaking, but more sculptural and often more affordable.” As Scott points out, art aficionados know a good work when they see one, regardless of market price or number of editions. Multiples, in their many forms, delight viewers and users with wit, imagination, and ingenuity. With their playful purposes and artistic designs, multiples add a pop of color and fun to everyday life, enhancing daily activities with the glamour of fine art. // Hannah Shambroom is the curatorial assistant at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
More is More: Multiples, presented in the Teresa Lozano Long Gallery of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, is organized by the museum and generously supported by the members of NMWA.
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Finishing Touches Reproduced in limited or unlimited editions, each object in a series of multiples is nearly identical to every other, standardized through manufacturing processes associated with consumer goods. There are, however, exceptions to this general rule. Jiha Moon hand-painted each of the twenty editions of Lady in K-Garden (2017), an oversized porcelain fortune cookie featuring imagery of a woman in a traditional Korean dress, a plant, a text bubble, and Angry Birds. Though each cookie displays the same composition, there are slight variations in brushstroke, line placement, and size. In some cases, a multiple’s packaging complements the appearance or theme of the work inside. Moon’s piece comes
PHOTO COURTESY OF ARTWARE EDITIONS
with a longstanding partnership with The Easton Foundation, which manages Bourgeois’s artistic legacy. In some cases, an organization commissions an artist to create a work for charitable purposes, making it available to the public at an affordable price with proceeds benefiting a specific cause. RxArt commissions well-known artists to create editioned multiples; sales benefit its mission of placing contemporary art in stark healthcare facilities. The Yayoi Kusama puzzle (2009) is one such collaboration, with proceeds supporting the organization’s projects in hospitals. The playful piece transplants Kusama’s Self-Portrait (2008) onto a jigsaw puzzle, turning the iconic painting into an interactive game.
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ON VIEW
Power in My Hand Women Poets, Women Artists, and Social Change On view through August 30, 2019
SUMMER 2019
Poets and artists often hold one another in close communication, using words and images to transmit dispatches across national boundaries and extended time spans. But while ekphrasis—poetry that responds to the visual arts— is a common form of literature, ekphrastic writings about the work of women artists are less commonly known and celebrated than poetry responding to the artistic works of men. The poems and imagery in Power in My Hand: Women Poets, Women Artists, and Social Change, on view in the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center (LRC), spotlight poems that honor artists, art that honors poets, and direct collaborations between artists and poets. The works of twenty-one poets and twenty artists demonstrate women artists’ and poets’ shared yearning for free expression, touching on topics such as restrictive gender roles, human rights atrocities, protection of the environment, colonialism, and joy. Most frequently, the works respond to feminist poet and essayist Adrienne Rich’s challenge to uplift women’s culture. Rich implored women to “look afresh at, and then to describe for ourselves” the art created through the ages, and to “decode the difficult and complex messages left for us by women of the past.” Eight women artists, from Sofonisba Anguissola of the Renaissance to Frida Kahlo of the twentieth century, inspired sonnets from the eight poets who collaborated with Holly
PHOTO BY JENNIFER PAGE, BET TY BOYD DET TRE LIBRARY AND RESEARCH CENTER, NMWA
// Lynora Williams
Mother Monument (2018), by Holly Trestle Brigham and Maryann L. Miller, pays tribute to eight women artists through paintings and poetry
“What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open.” Muriel Rukeyser
Brigham and MaryAnn L. Miller to create the work Mother Monument (2018). In this obeliskshaped tower of an artist’s book, Brigham portrays the eight in black-and-white paintings, imposing her own visage on these groundbreaking creators, pairing each with a poem. Marilyn Nelson, for instance, in her Mother Monument contribution “Edmonia Lewis,” zeroes in on the nineteenth-century sculptor’s humanity. Nelson’s fourteen-line tribute reveals
that the poet is keenly aware of the personal challenges and sacrifices that the artist, a woman of color, overcame to create her works. Nelson closes her sonnet with these lines: Stone speaks to me in earth’s ur-ancient voice It tells me I’ll be known, but will no known home Masked like a bandit, I chip mute figures free to voice the beautiful agonies of history
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© LESLEY DILL
Lesley Dill, whose collage The Poetic Body—Gloves, Ears, Eyes (1992) is on view in the exhibition, has devoted much of her oeuvre to Dickinson, contending, “I think of words, especially poetry and especially Emily Dickinson’s…as a kind of spiritual armor.” Dickinson’s many facets are reflected in Sue Huggins Leopard’s artist’s book Past Surmise (2008), Annie Leibovitz’s photography, a study by Judy Chicago for her masterwork The Dinner Party, and the most recent work, a
Kollwitz, written more than twenty years after her death, Rukeyser wrote, What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open. These simple lines encapsulate the power invoked by critic and historian Lucy Lippard: “Making poetry out of politics, making art from lives lived outside of power, and making politics out of that art and poetry—these are the three solid dimensions, the third power of the women’s liberation movement.” // Lynora Williams is the director of
the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Above: Poet Nikki Giovanni at work in the 1970s, captured by photographer Susan Katz Below: Lesley Dill, The Poetic Body—Gloves, Ears, Eyes, 1992; Lithograph with letterpress and collage on paper, triptych, each page 18 ⅛ x 13 ⅛ in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Museum purchase: Members’ Acquisition Fund
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I took my Power in my Hand – and went against the World.
collection by British poet/artist Sophie Herxheimer from 2017. In 1996, the Nobel Committee honored literature awardee Wisława Szymborska for her “poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality.” Her contemporary and fellow Poland native Alina Kalczyńska saluted Szymborska the following year with bright, uncomplicated, airy collages inspired by the poet’s seemingly straightforward language, such as in “Portrait of a Woman,” shown in the LRC, an ironic take on male fantasies of the ideal woman. The exhibition also includes a 1900 etching by German artist Käthe Kollwitz, The Downtrodden, depicting the devastation of child mortality in turn-of-the-century Germany. In American poet Muriel Rukeyser’s 1968 five-poem sequence honoring
SUSAN K ATZ, “THE WOMAN I AM” COLLECTION, ARCHIVES OF WOMEN ARTISTS, BET TY BOYD DET TRE LIBRARY & RESEARCH CENTER, NMWA
Emily Dickinson’s poems are intimate, with flecks of subtle commentary running throughout. They have inspired hundreds of artists, including five represented in this exhibition, which takes its title from a celebrated Dickinson poem that begins,
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From Awareness to Action #5WomenArtists Alicia Gregory
PHOTO BY KEVIN ALLEN
SUMMER 2019
The art world’s gender disparity still persists, even in 2019. Researchers document it, panels ponder it, and women artists—especially women artists of color—experience it on a daily basis. At NMWA, each day is dedicated to championing the work of women artists through exhibitions, programs, and digital engagement, including our award-winning social media campaign #5WomenArtists. Launched in 2016, the campaign occurs each March in honor of Women’s History Month and asks social media users, “Can you name five women artists?” Surprisingly, many people can’t—or, that is, they couldn’t. During the campaign’s first three years, more than 11,000 individuals and 1,000 organizations enthusiastically answered that question, spotlighting amazing women artists working today, as well as those from history.
This March, in the fourth year of the campaign, the focus of #5WomenArtists shifted from raising awareness to calling on cultural institutions and individuals to commit to actions that will help right this gender imbalance. NMWA’s call to action listed ideas to inspire pledges: for example, organizations might survey the ratio of women artists in their collections, acquire a new work by a woman artist, or establish a scholarship for women artists. These intentional
Opposite: NMWA visitors snap a selfie with Kiki Kogelnik’s Superwoman, 1973; NMWA, Gift of the Honorable Joseph P. Carroll and Mrs. Carroll
Right: NMWA and Tate commissioned data journalist Mona Chalabi to create custom visualizations that detail the challenging realities for women artists; this animation shows the percentage of women among the highest-paid artists
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Individual participants pledged to: – “Buy work from living female artists and continue to legitimize the female perspective in the art world.” – “Integrate women artists into my lessons and curriculum.” – “Expose my son to art created by women.” – “Create a space for young women in the arts to feel comfortable sharing their work.” – “Create more opportunities for women artists to show, sell, and talk about their work.” Tate × NMWA Collaboration Additionally, this year NMWA teamed up with the U.K.-based Tate to expand the reach of #5WomenArtists. Tate has an ongoing commitment to increasing the representation of women across the arts sector and within its galleries at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, and Tate St Ives. In addition to hosting dedicated events during March and sharing the campaign on its digital channels, Tate staff members traveled to Washington, D.C., to collaborate with NMWA on using digital engagement to advance social change. Nell Burnham, Tate’s digital marketing production officer, said, “#5WomenArtists helped us reframe our social
media strategy, putting representation and diversity at the heart of what we present on our channels—not just for Women’s History Month but throughout the year.” Tate’s own public pledge is a significant one: to stage five major solo exhibitions featuring women artists across Tate galleries in 2020 and 2021. The planned exhibitions will highlight artists Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Paula Rego, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Maria Bartuszová, and Haegue Yang. March Advocacy at NMWA Throughout Women’s History Month, NMWA staff mobilized visitors. The Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center hosted its sixth annual Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, in partnership with Art+Feminism. During the event, forty volunteers improved seventy-four articles about women artists, with an emphasis on those who have used their art to effect social change. Also, NMWA’s Women, Arts, and Social Change initiative collaborated with the literary organization PEN/Faulkner on “Fantastic Women,” a reading and conversation featuring acclaimed women fiction writers who are expanding notions of gender, the body, and identity. The #5WomenArtists campaign has inspired other hashtags, including #5WomenHistorians, #5WomenComposers, and the Catalan-language #5DonesArtistes—this year we can add #5WomenWriters to the mix. Stay Connected NMWA members help the museum to champion women artists all year long! Keep connected with NMWA’s online efforts by following @WomenInTheArts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. // Alicia Gregory is the assistant editor at the National Museum of
Women in the Arts.
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From a #Hashtag to a Movement Our call this year was answered by more than 750 cultural institutions and 8,000 individuals—responses came from across the U.S. as well as 37 other countries on six continents. The campaign garnered 5,500 Instagram posts, 17,000 tweets, and countless inspiring pledges: – The Detroit Institute of Arts pledged to seek more opportunities to collaborate with local women artists on enriching programs and events. – The Seattle Art Museum pledged to feature an installation by a woman artist in its Olympic Sculpture Park. – The Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Malba) pledged to increase the representation of Latin American women in its collection until works by female artists account for at least 50% of acquisitions. – The National Portrait Gallery pledged to feature the stories of American women in its exhibitions, programs, and social media as part of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative.
MONA CHALABI
pledges could all help move the needle toward gender equity in museums, galleries, and auction houses.
Museum News
SUMMER 2019
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Director’s Circle Visits Colombia In March, the museum’s Director’s Circle took a trip to Bogota, Colombia. The group, led by NMWA Director Susan Fisher Sterling, visited galleries, artists’ studios, private collections, and museums, including the Museo del Oro and the Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellin. A special highlight of the trip was a visit with renowned Colombian artist Doris Salcedo. Salcedo led the group through her memorial and contemporary art center Fragmentos, Espacio de Arte y Memoria (Fragments, A Space of Art and Memory), in Bogota. This gallery space was commissioned by the Colombian government to commemorate the disarmament of the FARC paramilitary forces at the formal end of the country’s long civil war. After the FARC turned in 8,994 weapons—many tons of rifles, pistols, and grenade launchers— Salcedo had the armaments melted down and recast as tiles, which line the floor of this new space. She was assisted by women who were victims of sexual violence during the conflict, and who pounded the steel into the ruptured shapes of the tiles. Fragmentos is operated by the National Museum of Colombia, part of the Ministry of Culture. Within the space, they will commission and exhibit work that allows the public to reflect on the effects of the conflict. Bank of America Cardholders Welcome at NMWA through Museums on Us This year, NMWA is pleased to be participating in Bank of America’s Museums on Us program. Now in its twentysecond year, the program offers Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, and U.S. Trust credit
The Director’s Circle group with artist Doris Salcedo in her installation Fragmentos, Espacio de Arte y Memoria (Fragments, A Space of Art and Memory) in Bogota, Colombia
and debit card holders the opportunity to visit more than 225 cultural institutions in the United States free of charge on the first full weekend of every month. To see a complete list of participating institutions and to learn how to participate, please visit http:// bankofamerica.com/museum.
Museum visitors enjoying NMWA’s new collection galleries
NMWA Legacy Society The Legacy Society recognizes and honors those who have made a planned gift 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. Legacy gifts are vital to the important work that we do, and we hope to welcome you to this special group of supporters. For more information, please visit https://nmwa.org/legacy or contact Advancement Officer Alexa Kaye at 202-266-2813 or plannedgiving@nmwa.org.
Committee News The Georgia Committee Hosts Successful Annual Fundraiser The Georgia Committee of NMWA held its popular annual fundraiser, Collectors, Conversations + Cocktails (CC+C), to support NMWA’s Women to Watch exhibition series and general museum programming. CC+C took place on Sunday, February 10, and provided a special opportunity to view a rarely seen art collection in Atlanta. During the sold-out event, sponsors and patrons raised more than $122,000. NMWA’s Alice West Director Susan Fisher Sterling attended as a special guest and delivered remarks about the state of the museum, upcoming exhibitions, and the acclaimed Fresh Talk initiative. In addition to its fundraising success, the Georgia Committee’s event inspired fifty-four attendees to become members of the committee and the museum. Texas State Committee Holds Annual Meeting in Bryan–College Station The Texas Committee’s spring meeting took place March 21 to 23, in Bryan–College Station, Texas. Members Janice
In addition to its fundraising success, the Georgia Committee’s event inspired fifty-four attendees to become members of the committee and the museum.
Adams, Stephanie Sale, and Daisy White planned numerous events for the group, including a VIP visit to the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum and a reception at the Texas A&M University Board of Regents Annex. The meeting was conducted in the historic Queen Theatre in Bryan, where leaders announced the completion of the committee’s recent gift to NMWA: Beverly Penn’s sculpture Eight Months Time: Snowcap Hawthorne (2017), which appeared in Heavy Metal—Women to Watch 2018
Jean Astrop and event sponsor Lucinda Bunnen at the Georgia Committee’s annual CC+C fundraiser
with the Texas Committee’s sponsorship. Special guests at the meeting were NMWA Board Vice-Chair Winton Holladay, Susan Fisher Sterling, and preservation architect Sandra Vicchio. Twenty-one members attended the events. Les Amis du NMWA Invited to Art Paris Art Fair Members of Les Amis du NMWA were recently invited to attend the twenty-first edition of Art Paris from April 4 to 7, under the majestic glass roof of the Grand Palais. This year,
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the fair had a record 63,257 visitors and focused on two themes: women artists and the Latin American art scene. The twenty-five projects focusing on women artists were curated by the organization AWARE (Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions), which shared additional information about the historical context of these artists and their work.
Far right: Members of Les Amis du NMWA at the Art Paris Art Fair
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Right: Texas Committee members Stephanie Sale, Brooke Taylor, and Lynn Finesilver Crystal, with NWMA Board Vice-Chair Winton Holladay at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas
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Presentation of the Madeleine Rast Award in honor of Dr. Teresa Lozano Long and Mr. Joe Long 1. Myra Leo, Representative Sylvia Garcia, Mitch Long, and Monica Peraza 2. NMWA Trustee Gina Adams welcomes attendees 3. Lee Anne Geiger, William Geiger, and Leah Michelle Geiger 2.
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PHOTOS BY KEVIN ALLEN
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4. Henry Geneczko, Lawrence Gray, and Climis Lascaris
Opening Reception for Ursula von Rydingsvard: The Contour of Feeling 5. Ursula von Rydingsvard (at lectern) makes remarks at the exhibition opening 6. NMWA Director Susan Fisher Sterling, Ursula von Rydingsvard, and Fabric Workshop and Museum Director Susan Lubowsky Talbott
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7. Ursula von Rydingsvard (second from left) with her studio team
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PHOTOS BY KEVIN ALLEN
8. Assistant Curator Orin Zahra leads attendees on a tour of the exhibition
Fresh Talk: Writing the Balance 9. NMWA Director of Public Programs Melani N. Douglass welcomes attendees to a discussion about writing forgotten women back into history 10.
11. The speakers and attendees mingle over refreshments following the talk at Catalyst cocktail hour 9.
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PHOTOS BY KEVIN ALLEN
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10. Fresh Talk speakers: architect Hilary Sample, author/activist Jodie Patterson, and creator of the New York Times “Overlooked� series Amy Padnani
2019 Spring Gala 12. NMWA Board President Martha Dippell, Andria Morales, Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Ursula von Rydingsvard, NMWA Board Vice-Chair Winton S. Holladay, Robin Burton, and Amy Sturtevant
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13. Gala Honorary Chair Ambassador of Italy Armando Varricchio 14. Dr. Ivonn Szeverényi and Ambassador of Hungary Dr. László Szabó 12.
15. Jane Roberts and U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts
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16. Ursula von Rydingsvard (second from right) with Gala Co-Chairs Sara O’Keefe, Marcy Cohen, and Kristen Lund 17. Amy Baier, Kristen Lund, Ella Peters, Christal Golston, Jean-Marie Fernandez, and NMWA Trustee Cindy Jones
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18. Amanda Polk, Amra Fazlic, and NMWA Trustee Ashley Davis 19. Board President Emerita and Endowment Chair Carol Lascaris, first lady of Maryland Yumi Hogan, and Diane Schaefer 20. Geoffrey Etnire and NMWA Trustee Susan Goldberg
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21. Allan Holt, Avi Benaim, NMWA Trustee Nancy Duber, and Marc Duber
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PHOTOS 12, 14, 17, 19, 20, 21, AND 22 BY TONY POWELL; PHOTOS 13, 15, 16, AND 18 BY KEVIN ALLEN
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23. Marcy Cohen, Sara O’Keefe, Micaela Varricchio, and Kristen Lund
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22. NMWA Advisory Board members Denise Littlefield Sobel and Sunny Scully Alsup
PHOTOS BY PAUL MORIGI
Spring Gala Sponsors Receptions
Supporting Roles 32
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Wilhelmina Cole Holladay—Chair of the Board, Winton S. Holladay—ViceChair of the Board, Martha Dippell— President, Gina F. Adams—First Vice President, Susan Goldberg—Second Vice President, Dana Snyder— Treasurer, Rose Carter—Secretary, Pamela Parizek—Audit Chair, Marcia Myers Carlucci—Building Chair, Amy Weiss—Communications Chair, Carol Matthews Lascaris—President Emerita and Endowment Chair, Sheila Shaffer—Finance Chair, Ashley Davis—Government Relations Chair, Nancy Duber—Nominations Chair, Nancy Nelson Stevenson—Works of Art Chair, Susan Fisher Sterling—Alice West Director**, Janice Lindhurst Adams, Charlotte Clay Buxton, Diane Casey-Landry, Lizette Corro, Betty Boyd Dettre, Deborah I. Dingell, Anjali Gupta, Cindy Jones, Sally L. Jones, Marlene Malek, Jacqueline Badger Mars, Juliana E. May, Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, Mary V. Mochary, Jackie Quillen, Stephanie Sale, Julie Sapone**, Kathleen Elizabeth Springhorn, Jessica H. Sterchi, Joanne Stringer, Mahinder Tak, Annie S. Totah, Sarah Bucknell Treco**, Frances Luessenhop Usher, Ruthanna Maxwell Weber, Alice West, Patti White **Ex-Officio
SUMMER 2019
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, Margaret C. Boyce Brown, Deborah G. Carstens, Rebecca Chang, Paul T. Clark, Donna Paolino Coia, Elaine Cole, John Comstock, Linda L. Comstock, Beth Crane, Byron Croker, Lynn Finesilver Crystal, Liz Cullen, Verónica de Ferrero, Belinda de Gaudemar, Katy Graham Debost, Betty Boyd Dettre, Alexis Deutsch-Adler, Kenneth P. Dutter, Geraldine E. Ehrlich, Elva Ferrari-Graham, Lisa Claudy Fleischman, Rosemarie Forsythe, Anita Friedt, Claudia Fritsche, Barbara S. Goldfarb, Sally Gries, Diane Grob, Michelle Guillermin, Anjali Gupta, Pamela Gwaltney, Sue J. Henry, Anna Stapleton Henson, Kitty de Isola, Jan V. Jessup, Alice D. Kaplan, Janece Smoot Kleban, Arlene Fine Klepper, Doris Kloster, Malinda Krantz, Nelleke Langhout-Nix, Cynthia Madden Leitner, Fred M. Levin, Gladys K. Lisanby, Sarah H. Lisanby, M.D., Nancy Livingston, Bonnie Loeb, Clara M. Lovett, Joanne Ludovici, Patricia
Macintyre, Maria Teresa Martínez, C. Raymond Marvin, Ellen Stirn Mavec, 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, Monica T. O’Neill, Katherine D. Ortega, Margaret H. Perkins, Patti Pyle, Drina Rendic, Helena Ribe, Barbara Richter, Elizabeth Robinson, Tara Rudman, 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, Kathleen Elizabeth Springhorn, Sara Steinfeld, Josephine L. Stribling, Susan Swartz, Cheryl S. Tague, MaryRoss Taylor, Lisa Cannon Taylor, Brooke Taylor, Debra Therit, Deborah Dunklin Tipton, Marichu Valencia, Nancy W. Valentine, Sara M. Vance Waddell, Paula S. Wallace, Harriet L. Warm, Krystyna Wasserman, 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) Gina and Eugene Adams, 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 NMWA, Frances and William* 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 NMWA 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 (Board of Trustees list current as of July 1, 2019. NAB and Endowment lists as of May 15, 2019.)
Shop NMWA online at https://shop.nmwa.org or call toll-free 877-226-5294
Feminist Magnet Set Use these bold magnets to hang photos, memorabilia, or to-do lists on your fridge or file cabinet. Made in the U.S. with recycled material; 1 ¼ in. diameter. $12/Member $10.80 (Item #29832)
Marguerite Gérard: 1761–1837 Published through NMWA’s Suzanne & James Mellor Prize, this engaging and lavishly illustrated book brings to light the work of French painter Marguerite Gérard, the only female genre artist of her time. Softcover, 272 pages. $69.99/ Member $62.10 (Item #1356)
Modern HERstory Activist Blair Imani authors an inspiring and radical celebration of seventy women, girls, and gender nonbinary people changing the world. Hardcover, 208 pages. $17.99/Member $16.20 (Item #4227)
Women March! Puzzle Featuring a quote by Gloria Steinem and illustration by artist Jennifer Orkin Lewis, this puzzle celebrates the Women’s March on Washington. 500 pieces; 23 in. diameter. $25/ Member $22.50 (Item #29834)
“Thank You” Smile Tote This fun, reusable tote bag replaces single-use plastic bags and celebrates a more sustainable way of shopping. Machine-embroidered taffeta; 11 ½ x 22 in. $36/Member $32.40 (Item #27115)
“Girls” Neon Light Who runs the world? Brighten up any space with this neon reminder. LED tubing with clear acrylic back; 12 x 4 in. AC adapter included with on/off switch. $75/Member $67.50 (Item #30966)
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Feminist Newsprint Featuring illustrations of newsworthy activists and artists including Yoko Ono, Angela Davis, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Malala Yousafzai, and more, this print works as a poster or wrapping paper. 22 ½ x 29 ½ in. $10/Member $9 (Item #30973)
Rebel Girls Journal The journal to start revolutions! I am a Rebel Girl is filled with activities that challenge perspective, induce thought, and prompt action. Hardcover, 224 pages. $20/Member $18 (Item #5197)
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COMING SOON
© JUDY CHICAGO/ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK; PHOTO © DONALD WOODMAN/ARS, NY
Judy Chicago The End: A Meditation on Death and Extinction September 19, 2019– January 20, 2020
NMWA presents the newest body of work by iconic feminist artist Judy Chicago. Nearly forty works of painted porcelain and glass, as well as two large bronze sculptures, comprise The End: A Meditation on Death and Extinction. Through this series, the artist reflects on her own mortality and issues an appeal for compassion and justice for all earthly creatures affected by human greed. Chicago’s bold, graphic style viscerally
communicates the intense emotion she experienced while contemplating her own death as well as the deaths of entire species. Visually striking and emotionally charged, this series continues Chicago’s commitment to challenging the status quo and advocating for change. // Judy Chicago—The End: A Meditation
on Death and Extinction is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts and made possible by the MaryRoss Taylor Exhibition Fund.
Judy Chicago, Stranded, from The End: A Meditation on Death and Extinction, 2016; Kiln-fired glass paint on black glass, 12 x 18 in.; Courtesy of the artist; Salon 94, New York; and Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco