Women in the Arts Winter/Spring 2017 by Women in the Arts

WINTER/SPRING 2017

DIRECTOR’S LETTER

Dear Members and Friends, Thanks, as ever, for your support of the unique mission of the Women’s Museum as we champion women in the arts. This season, NMWA will host exhibitions that highlight great artists across time and genres. In this issue of Women in the Arts, you will read about the work and relationship of renowned Native American potter Maria Martinez and landscape photographer Laura Gilpin, Martinez’s mid-century contemporary. At the same time, our galleries will feature new ceramic sculptures by New Mexico artist Jami Porter Lara. This is Porter Lara’s first East Coast museum exhibition, and, as you will see, her art blends pottery traditions of the Southwest with contemporary concerns. In the Teresa Lozano Long Gallery, prints by Polly Apfelbaum pop with the artist’s signature use of vibrant color. The Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center showcases a re-creation of the library of philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, with a social media component in which we hope you will participate. This project was created with assistance from NMWA’s Paris committee, Les Amis du NMWA. In addition to a lively and diverse schedule at the museum, we also are pleased to be hosting a traveling exhibition at the esteemed Whitechapel Gallery in London. Terrains of the Body: Photography from the National Museum of Women in the Arts, is organized by NMWA and the Whitechapel Gallery. It is co-sponsored by NMWA’s U.K. committee in celebration of its tenth anniversary, and features work by seventeen contemporary photo and video artists from five continents. It is thrilling to share the museum’s mission and art with a wider public. As always, it is our privilege to share our programming with you—be it on-site, online, or abroad—in celebration of women’s cultural achievements. Thank you for your enthusiasm, support, and participation in the life of the Women’s Museum.

Susan Fisher Sterling The Alice West Director, NMWA

The National Museum of Women in the Arts brings recognition to the achievements of women artists of all periods and nationalities by exhibiting, preserving, acquiring, and researching art by women and by teaching the public about their accomplishments. MUSEUM INFORMATION Location: 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20005 Public transportation: Take metrorail to Metro Center station, 13th Street exit; walk two blocks north to corner of New York Avenue and 13th Street Website: https://nmwa.org Blog: https://nmwa.org/blog Main: 202-783-5000 Toll free: 800-222-7270 Member Services: 866-875-4627 Shop: 877-226-5294 Tours: 202-783-7996 Mezzanine Café: 202-628-1068 Library and Research Center: 202-783-7365 Magazine subscriptions: 866-875-4627 Hours: Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Sunday, noon–5 p.m. Closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day Admission: NMWA Members free, Adults $10, Visitors over 65 $8, Students $8, Youth under 18 free. Free Community Day is the first Sunday of every month. For more information, check https://nmwa.org. Women in the Arts Winter/Spring 2017 (Volume 35, no. 1) Women in the Arts is a publication of the NATIONAL MUSEUM of WOMEN in the ARTS® Director | Susan Fisher Sterling Editor | Elizabeth Lynch Digital Editorial Assistant | Emily Haight Editorial Intern | Francisca Rudolph Design | Studio A, Alexandria, Virginia For advertising rates and information, call 202-266-2814 or email elynch@nmwa.org. Women in the Arts is published three times a year for museum members by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20005-3970. Copyright © 2017 National Museum of Women in the Arts. National Museum of Women in the Arts®, The Women’s Museum®, and Women in the Arts® are registered trademarks of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. On the cover: Maria Martinez and Popovi Da, Blackon-black olla, 1963; Polished blackware pottery with matte paint, 7 x 8 in. diameter; Eugene B. Adkins Collection at Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, and Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman, L2007.7063 DIRECTOR’S PHOTO: © MICHELE MATTEI

Cover Story

Features

Departments

Arts News

New Ground: The Southwest of Maria Martinez and Laura Gilpin

Border Crossing: Jami Porter Lara

Culture Watch

Contemporaries and friends, potter Maria Martinez and photographer Laura Gilpin recast the midcentury Southwest as a dynamic environment that fostered creativity. Virginia Treanor, Christina E. Burke, and Catherine Whitney

Albuquerque-based Jami Porter Lara creates clay sculptures resembling an icon of modern life—the plastic bottle. Virginia Treanor

Education Report

Dedicated Donor: Clara Lovett

16 Calendar

Chromatic Scale: Prints by Polly Apfelbaum Polly Apfelbaum extends boundaries of color and technique in printmaking. Stephanie Midon

24 “Dead Feminists” Broadsides Broadsides by Chandler O’Leary and Jessica Spring combine feminist history with printing skill. Sarah Osborne Bender

22 On View From the Desk of Simone de Beauvoir 29

Museum News and Events Celebrating the Inaugural Suzanne & James Mellor Prize Publication

32 Supporting Roles 33 Museum Shop

26 Terrains of the Body Photography from NMWA’s collection is featured at Whitechapel Gallery, London. Kathryn Wat

WINTER/SPRING 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

ARTS NEWS

Arts News In Memoriam NMWA Director in Conversation at Art Basel On December 1, NMWA Director Susan Fisher Sterling participated in a panel discussion at Art Basel Miami Beach, “Why Is Gender Still an Issue?” Hyperallergic Senior Editor Jillian Steinhauer moderated the conversation with Sterling and fellow speakers Maura Reilly, director of the National Academy Museum and School, New York; artist Joan Snyder; and Paul Schimmel, vice president and partner at the gallery Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, Los Angeles. The standing-room-only conversation covered topics from statistics and historical trends to all-women shows and museums. Reilly presented statistics that she gathered for an Art News article last year, and Snyder said, “I think we’ve accomplished quite a bit” despite the art world’s glass ceiling. Sterling noted NMWA’s valuable role in providing a venue for shows that are cutting-edge or feature lesserknown artists: “We really believe in the idea of advocacy.” Her fellow panelists voiced agreement and approval when Sterling encouraged the audience—which included many collectors and museum professionals—to take more chances in viewing, buying, and showing work by women artists.

Painter, sculptor, ceramicist, muralist, and collage artist Georgia Mills Jessup died on December 24, 2016, at age ninety. Jessup was an influential advocate for the arts in Washington, D.C. She taught in the city’s public school system for thirteen years, became its art supervisor, and founded the forerunner to the Capital Children’s Museum. She was also the first artist-inresidence at the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Neighborhood Museum. Jessup was one of twenty-nine family members with professions in the arts. Her painting in NMWA’s collection, Rainy Night, Downtown (1967), captures the hustle and bustle of D.C.’s city center.

Riding in Style After nearly a century of stop-and-go planning, four new stations comprising New York City’s Second Avenue Subway line have opened. Each features a permanent installation by a single artist, including Sarah Sze at the 96th Street station and Jean Shin at the 63rd Street station. In Sze’s work, Blueprint for a Landscape, blue-and-white porcelain wall tiles depict architectural forms, everyday objects, and swirling wind patterns for commuters to discover and contemplate. Shin’s installation Elevated, based on archival photographs, depicts the now-demolished elevated line that ran there until 1940.

Joan Snyder, Paul Schimmel, Susan Fisher Sterling, Maura Reilly, and Jillian Steinhauer

COURTESY OFFICE OF GOVERNOR CUOMO

Artful Activism

Sarah Sze, Blueprint for a Landscape (detail), in the 96th Street subway station

WOMEN IN THE ARTS | WINTER/SPRING 2017

Women artists reacted to controversies arising from the presidential election through numerous projects. Artist and activist Carrie Mae Weems filmed a pro-Hillary Clinton video, and British artist Alison Jackson selfpublished spoof photographs of Donald Trump. Deborah Kass’s Andy Warhol-inspired print Vote Hillary and Barbara Kruger’s LOSER graced the covers of New York magazine. Several large-scale works also referenced the election: with the help of volunteers, PolishAmerican artist Olek crocheted a billboard consisting of 94,880 stitches in support of Clinton; the High Line in New York City presented a large-scale version of Zoe Leonard’s 1992 poem “I want a president”; and Natalie Frank and Zoe Buckman created a successful Kickstarter campaign to make a mural featuring politicians’ sexist statements from the last twenty years.

Winning Women Baltimore-based jewelry maker and sculptor Joyce J. Scott, who participated in the March on Washington Film Festival program at NMWA in 2015, won a 2016 MacArthur Fellowship—a “genius award”—for her work transforming craft into a platform for social and political commentary. Twelve of the twenty-three individuals awarded the $625,000, five-year grant were women, including theater artist Anne Basting, art historian and curator Kellie Jones, writer Maggie Nelson, poet Claudia Rankine,

artist and writer Lauren Redniss, video artist Mary Reid Kelley, and composer Julia Wolfe. Sculptor Helen Marten, whose work was featured in NMWA’s exhibition NO MAN’S LAND, received the 2016 Turner Prize as well as the inaugural Hepworth Prize. Another NO MAN’S LAND artist, Anicka Yi, won the 2016 Hugo Boss Prize for her conceptual, olfactory sculptures and installations. The two-person Australian video art collective Soda_Jerk, who exhibited at NMWA in 2014, received the $100,000 Ian Potter Moving Image Commission.

Hidden Figures Hit the Big Screen

JOHN D. & CATHERINE T. MACARTHUR FOUNDATION

Margot Lee Shetterly’s book Hidden Figures (William Morrow, 2016) shares the previously untold and inspiring story of the African American women who helped make space flight possible. Working in segregated office spaces during the 1960s, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, and Mary Jackson were instrumental in advancing the U.S. space program. In the Golden Globe-nominated film adaptation of Shetterly’s book released in December, actresses Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe portray the pioneering mathematicians, referred to at NASA as “human computers.” MacArthur Fellowship winner Joyce J. Scott

JOIN US!

Champion women through the arts with NMWA membership

WINTER/SPRING 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

C U LT U R E WAT C H

Culture Watch | Exhibitions California © SUSAN HILLER; COURTESY LISSON GALLERY

Jane and Louise Wilson, Noir Mont, 2006; On view at the J. Paul Getty Museum

Florida Susan Hiller: Lost and Found Pérez Art Museum Miami Through June 4, 2017

the viewer. This retrospective of her work from the 1970s to the present invites viewers to respond and physically engage with the works.

North Carolina Nina Chanel Abney: Royal Flush Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University February 16–July 16, 2017

Louisiana Senga Nengudi: Improvisational Gestures Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans March 16–June 18, 2017 Senga Nengudi, Nuki Nuki: Across 118th Street, 1982, 1982/2014; On view at the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans

Twin sisters Jane and Louise Wilson work collaboratively to create compelling photographs, videos, and installations that explore events and spaces resonating with power. Their “Sealander” series investigates human experience by presenting images of abandoned World War II bunkers in Normandy.

Susan Hiller, Psi Girls, 1999; Installation view

Susan Hiller’s Lost and Found is a newly commissioned video work featuring an audio collage of voices speaking in twenty-three languages. While utterances revolve around the theme of language, an oscilloscopic line gives visual form to the soundtrack, suggesting sound’s physicality and power to connect.

Jane and Louise Wilson: Sealander J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles February 14–July 2, 2017

Senga Nengudi’s sculptures occupy space much as a human form does—by projecting outward and reaching into the space of

Nina Chanel Abney, Untitled (FUCK T*E *OP) (detail), 2014; On view at the Nasher Museum of Art COLLECTION OF KAMAAL FAREED; IMAGE COURTESY KRAVETS WEHBY GALLERY, NEW YORK; © NINA CHANEL ABNEY

Nina Chanel Abney’s narrative figure paintings articulate the complex social dynamics of contemporary urban life. Her first solo exhibition features more than fifty paintings, drawings, and collages, comprising contemporary genre scenes as well as scathing commentaries on social attitudes and inequities.

Books “The question is far too interesting to be left alone,” writes Siri Hustvedt, in A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women (Simon and Schuster, 2016). The specific question she refers to—humans’ interpretation of their own minds—exemplifies the broad, gentle skepticism that Hustvedt brings to topics surrounding gender, art, and subjectivity. This collection is composed of essays written over four years, some for exhibition catalogue contributions or conference papers. Hustvedt, a novelist and wide-ranging author, has an avid and roving curiosity. One sparkling essay pays homage to Louise Bourgeois, the inspiration for the protagonist of her novel The Blazing World, and to the idea that art can have a life of its own in a viewer’s mind: “My Louise Bourgeois has stirred up the contents of my own dungeon, the muddy, aromatic, sadistic, and tender underground of dreams and fantasies that are part of every life.” She aims to bridge the worlds of art and science, often while recalling “extraordinary experiences I have had looking at works of art.”—Elizabeth Lynch 4

WOMEN IN THE ARTS | WINTER/SPRING 2017

Zadie Smith’s novel Swing Time (Penguin Press, 2016) tells the story of ambitious childhood best friends—bonded by the “shared shade of brown” of their skin and their love for dance—who mark time in the ways they grow up and grow apart. The unnamed narrator leaves their low-income council estate for college and starts her career as a pop singer’s assistant, traveling the world in luxury. Her old friend Tracey, whose dance talent once sparked the narrator’s envy, remains in their childhood neighborhood, lacking the same privileges, and sees her dreams come apart. Despite stark differences in opportunity, both young women face troubles and frustration, and both channel their unhappiness into self-destruction. Their conflicts result from longingrained dynamics with their parents, social hierarchies, and sharp provocations from peers. The weary narrator acknowledges that most are doing as well as they can “within the limits of being themselves.” Smith’s vivid writing and absorbing characters propel the story through the women’s persistent connection, personal triumphs, and overarching struggles with race, family, and identity.—Elizabeth Lynch

Tennessee

Monir Farmanfarmaian, Third Family— Heptagon (detail), 2011; On view at the Chrysler Museum of Art

Rotunda Projects: Nnenna Okore Memphis Brooks Museum of Art Through April 2, 2017 Nnenna Okore installation at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art

This exhibition showcases photography and video work by seventeen contemporary artists from around the world. Featured artists embrace the female body as a vital medium for storytelling, expressing identity and reflecting individual and collective experience.

Washington Jennifer West: Film is Dead… Seattle Art Museum Through May 7, 2017 Installation view of Jennifer West: Film is Dead…at the Seattle Art Museum

Shirin Neshat, On Guard, 1998; On view at Whitechapel Gallery

NMWA, GIFT OF TONY PODESTA COLLECTION; PHOTO BY LEE STALSWORTH

Monir Farmanfarmaian’s art reflects a life lived between two cultures;

Terrains of the Body: Photography from the National Museum of Women in the Arts * Whitechapel Gallery, London Through April 16, 2017

she combines Iranian folk art with the modern abstraction of New York City avant garde. This exhibition presents select works from her exhibition at the Guggenheim in 2015.

Monir Farmanfarmaian Infinite Possibility: Mirror Works and Drawings, 1974–2014 Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk March 16–July 30, 2017

International U.K.

PHOTO ROBERT DIVERS HERRICK; ARTWORK © MONIR FARMANFARMAIAN, COURTESY THE ARTIST AND HAINES GALLERY, SAN FRANCISCO

Nnenna Okore’s installation, suspended from the museum’s rotunda dome, is made from burlap, which she transforms through weaving, dyeing, teasing, and sewing. It exemplifies her abstract objects inspired by watching Nigerians perform daily tasks, incorporating textures, colors, and landscapes from her environment.

Virginia

Known for her experimental films and installations, Jennifer West transforms old film stock by eroding it with everyday household materials. A large-scale installation made of manipulated 70mm filmstrips spans nearly the full length of the gallery.

* Visit to see works from NMWA

Film “Why is a nice literary old lady. . . messing around with flying cat-owl superheroes and nightclubs for cat people, not to mention giant rat men?” asks Margaret Atwood in the introduction of her first graphic novel, Angel Catbird (Dark Horse Books, 2016). The five-time Booker Prize-winning novelist grew up reading comics and even dabbled in drawing her own. With the best elements of superhero storytelling, Atwood adds an educational twist. Environmental conservation statistics, provided by Nature Canada, share factoids about cat and bird care throughout the tale. With illustrations by Johnnie Christmas and colors by Tamra Bonvillain, Angel Catbird chronicles the adventures of Strig Feleedus, a scientist who accidentally splices himself with the genes of both a cat and an owl. “A walking, flying carnivore’s dilemma,” Feleedus is torn between his dueling natures to save birds and eat them. Thrust into an underground world of half-cats, Atwood’s sensitive

superhero struggles to protect his new network from a bioengineered rat army through a series of misadventures. The delightful, humorous, and spectacularly bizarre story continues in a second volume, to be released in February 2017. Fans of Atwood’s writing, comic book aficionados, and pet owners alike will agree with the author: “It’s been a hoot! Or a meow. Or both.”—Emily Haight

WINTER/SPRING 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

E D U C AT I O N R E P O R T

Education Report Book arts programs with Colette Fu In October, we featured artist Colette Fu (b. 1969) and her astonishing pop-up books with a workshop and lecture by the artist. Workshop participants explored Wanderer/ Wonderer: Pop-Ups by Colette Fu with the artist and learned about her process for wedding her photography with book-making. Then they had plenty of time to learn and practice a range of basic paper engineering techniques firsthand, with guidance from the artist. When asked what she enjoyed most about the experience, one participant noted: “So many things—the welcoming spirit of staff, the exhibition, the fact you support book artists and purchase her work, and a wonderful workshop.”

Artists in Conversation: NO MAN’S LAND Throughout the run of NO MAN’S LAND: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection NMWA welcomed artists featured in the exhibition to speak to guests of the ongoing “Artists in Conversation” series. In October, Rozeal (b. 1966) inaugurated this series. Her program proved to be a homecoming celebration for the Washington, D.C., native artist who recently moved back to the area. Guests at her program were

Fu also presented NMWA’s second annual Book Arts Lecture. She shared details about her development as a photographer and her first pop-up works. Fu’s earliest books touch on the architecture, history, and legends of Philadelphia, the city she calls home. Her more recent project, “We Are Tiger Dragon People,” a series of books combining photography and pop-ups, elucidates the cultures of China’s Yunnan Province, the ancestral home of her mother and a region of great ethnic diversity. The enthusiastic audience remained afterward for the opportunity to speak with the artist and to view and touch a selection of artists’ books she brought for the program.

entertained, enlightened, and educated as the artist spoke of her broad range of inspiration— from nineteenth-century Japanese woodblock prints to 1970s textiles, to contemporary popular culture. Rozeal’s deft storytelling and decoding of her deeply layered work Sacrifice #2: It Has to Last (after Yoshitoshi’s “Drowsy: the appearance of a harlot of the Meiji era”), 2007, made for a memorable evening. Argentinian-born Analia Saban (b. 1980) appeared in November to speak about her 2010 works Acrylic in Canvas and Acrylic in

Clockwise from top left: Analia Saban, Rozeal, Suzanne McClelland, and Mira Dancy talk with attendees about their art in NO MAN’S LAND

WOMEN IN THE ARTS | WINTER/SPRING 2017

Colette Fu presenting NMWA’s second annual Book Arts Lecture

Canvas with Ruptures: Grids. Now based in Los Angeles, the artist discussed her curiosity about why painting receives more attention than sculpture in the contemporary art world. This wondering led Saban to create her hybrid works—canvases pregnant with paint, seemingly ready to pop. Her pieces unconventionally occupy wall and floor space, thereby claiming both territories. By using acrylic and canvas in unexpected ways, she said, “My artwork opens up dialogue about the boundaries between these two mediums.” Two Brooklyn-based artists, Suzanne McClelland (b. 1959) and Mira Dancy (b. 1979), joined us in December. McClelland discussed the process behind her 1991 paintings Forever and Right. Though the works are abstract, McClelland revealed that they do have subject matter—written words and their implied sounds, and environmental conditions such as gravity and wind. Her works highlight the subtle colors and natural properties of materials like clay and charcoal. In sharp contrast to McClelland’s subdued palette, Dancy employs an barrage of bright colors that seemingly vibrate and—in the case of her neon work Street Ofelia (neon blue) (2014)—quite literally glow. These works entice viewers to come close and consume, like a moth to a flame, and yet prove dizzying after extended looking. In this push/pull, Dancy evokes enticing depictions of the female figure as an object and seeks to reclaim it, demanding deeper consideration and respect.

D E D I C AT E D D O N O R

Dedicated Donor | Clara Lovett

I believe that NMWA can play an important role in Washington, in the U.S., and globally.

r. Clara Lovett, president emerita of Northern Arizona University, is the creator of a new fund in support of emerging contemporary artists at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Lovett’s support cements a long familiarity—she first heard about the museum when the Holladays were working toward making their dream a reality—as well as a new close connection. She says, “I support NMWA not only because I admire its unique collection and the extraordinary leadership of its founder, but also because it can be so much more than a depository for treasures of the past. I believe NMWA can play an important role in Washington, in the U.S., and globally.” Lovett was born in Trieste, Italy, a city at the crossroads of Italian, German, and Slavic strands of European culture, where the arts flourished with the support of patrons in the city’s business community. Following her undergraduate education at the University of Trieste and Cambridge University in the U.K., she came to the U.S. to pursue a career in academia, earning master’s and doctoral degrees in history at the University of Texas, Austin. Lovett taught at Baruch College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, then moved to the Washington, D.C., area, where she held academic leadership roles as chief of the European Division at the Library of Congress, dean of arts and sciences at The George Washington University, and provost at George Mason University. In 1993, Lovett was named president of Northern Arizona University, where she served for eight years. Following her retirement from that position, she split her time between Phoenix and Washington, D.C., continuing her involvement with higher education as well as growing her engagement with the arts. As she describes, “Between 2001 and 2011, when my husband died, we spent most of our time in Arizona, engaged with the Phoenix community. I remained active in higher education issues, but both of us were very active in supporting the arts. My husband served on the board of the Phoenix Symphony, and we became

major supporters of that organization. I served on the board of trustees at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts.” During her time in Arizona, she became a friend of NMWA Advisory Board member Deborah Carstens, a longtime supporter of the museum, and when she moved back to D.C. she was interested in becoming more involved. She recalled her acquaintance with the Holladays in the 1980s: “I believe anyone who met Mrs. Holladay as an art collector, and heard her articulate her vision for the museum, would have been impressed by what she was trying to accomplish, by her level of knowledge, and certainly by the imagination of finding the right moment, the right mission, and even the right building in downtown D.C.” Today, she looks forward to NMWA’s future and support of emerging women artists. As part of the Director’s Circle, she has joined Director Susan Fisher Sterling and others on trips to Mexico City, Barcelona, and Berlin, where, she says, “The most interesting thing we do is visit the studios of current artists, and some private collections, to become acquainted with what artists are doing with different art forms, and how they relate to their society and to the world.” She is pleased to see NMWA’s growth over its thirty-year history. “The maturity of the organization over a short span of time has been very impressive. What intrigues me right now is that the museum is also beginning to plan and to move into the next phase of its history. The museum is very well poised to continue to take care and add to the historical collection, and at the same time develop its capability and reputation as a focal point for current artists. It’s exciting to be able to contribute some ideas and some financial support for the next thirty years of the museum.” NMWA Founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay says, “Clara Lovett has done us all a great service in establishing this fund for emerging artists. Her gift will enable NMWA to engage with artists who might not be recognized otherwise. This idea is central to our mission and we are truly grateful.”

WINTER/SPRING 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

NEW GROUND The Southwest of Maria Martinez and Laura Gilpin February 17â&#x20AC;&#x201C; May 14, 2017 Virginia Treanor, with contributions from Christina E. Burke and Catherine Whitney

Maria Martinez and Julian Martinez, Storage jar, ca. 1940; Polished blackware pottery with matte slip paint, 16 x 22 Âź in. diameter; Philbrook Museum of Art, Gift of Clark Field

Potter Maria Martinez (ca. 1887–1980) and photographer Laura Gilpin (1891–1979) were

celebrated artists and pioneers in their respective fields. They were also good friends in New Mexico over many decades. New Ground: The Southwest of Maria Martinez and Laura Gilpin pairs twenty-six ceramic pieces by Martinez with more than forty vintage photographs by Gilpin. These objects are united by their elegance and formal strength, as well as the impeccable skill and inspiration of their creators, who were moved by their mutual connection to the

landscape and history of the American Southwest.

Laura Gilpin, Maria Martinez Making Pottery, 1959; Gelatin silver print, 10 ¾ x 14 ½ in.; Eugene B. Adkins Collection at Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, and Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman

he artworks in New Ground present a perspective on the Southwest contrary to dominant nineteenth- and twentieth-century narratives, which typically cast the American West as a masculine place of staged romance or rugged conquest. Instead, these pieces offer documentary and physical connections between the land, the people, and their art-making traditions. The artworks in this exhibition overlap in content and display to underscore the artists’ relationship with each other, which transcended boundaries of place and culture. Maria Martinez Maria Martinez is one of the best-known Native American artists of the twentieth century. She belonged to the Tewa linguistic group and lived at San Ildefonso Pueblo, northwest of Santa Fe. Martinez is recognized internationally for the distinctive blackon-black pottery that she developed with her husband, Julian, based on the remains of ancient ceramics. In 1907, Edgar Lee Hewett, an archaeologist and the first director of the Museum of New Mexico (now the New Mexico Museum of Art), excavated shards of ancient Pueblo pottery at nearby Pajarito Plateau. Hewett encouraged Maria and Julian Martinez to experiment with various firing and painting techniques in order to create replicas of the artifacts. The earliest works made by Martinez and decorated by Julian were polychrome (multicolored), the most common type of pottery made at San Ildefonso Pueblo at the time. However, by 1921, the couple had mastered their process for making black-on-black pottery, a highly polished finish with matte-black designs that had

WOMEN IN THE ARTS | WINTER/SPRING 2017

been made by their Pueblo ancestors thousands of years before. Maria Martinez learned the fundamentals of pottery making at a young age from her maternal aunt. Once the clay dug from the earth had been prepared, Martinez formed snake-like coils of clay that she pinched together to create the basic shape of the pot. She then scraped and smoothed the coils together until the pot was the same thickness all the way around. When it was dry enough to handle, a thin layer of slip (watery clay) was applied over the pot, and then the surface was polished using a smooth, fine-grained stone. Tewa prayers were said while digging the clay as well as during the firing process, thanking the Creator and Mother Earth for the gift of the clay. The designs, initially made by Julian and later by other family members, were made using slip applied with a brush to the burnished but unfired pot. To achieve the gleaming surface of blackware, Martinez smothered the outdoor pit fire with cakes of dried manure. The dense, thick smoke and the lack of oxygen during firing turns the clay’s natural red color to black without affecting the polished surface. Martinez’s pots quickly grew in popularity, and her work was celebrated at art shows, expositions, and fairs nationwide. Her pots were in such demand by the 1920s that she began signing her work, the first Pueblo potter to do so. Despite using traditional techniques, the pieces Martinez was producing were very modern in appearance. The highly skilled construction and connection to the modernist aesthetic made her work widely popular. Over the years, Martinez perfected this black-on-black technique, and she went on to teach the process to members of her family and others in her community. Through her creative vision and craftsmanship, Martinez influenced generations of Native artists. She is recognized as a master artist, and her work is found in many major museum collections nationwide. Laura Gilpin Described during her lifetime as the “grand dame of American photography,” Laura Gilpin’s career spanned more than six decades. Throughout this time, she deftly used her chosen medium, black-and-white photography, to accentuate both the grand expanses of the Western landscape as well as the individual faces of the people who lived there. Through her elegant photographs, she emerged as a celebrated chronicler of the cultural geography of the American Southwest. Born in Colorado, Gilpin attended a Connecticut preparatory school to study music and later the Clarence H. White School of Photography in New York. Her earliest prints were soft-focused, romantic images that reflected Pictorialism, a popular movement in turn-of-the-century photography that sought to promote the medium as an art form. As photography advanced in the early decades of the twentieth century, Gilpin’s imagery also changed. She turned away from the

Pictorialist-inspired images she had been making and instead began taking “straight photographs,” images in crisp focus and with high contrast.

Gilpin focused her lens on the American life she came to know living and working among the Pueblo and Navajo peoples. Gilpin considered herself a landscape photographer, but her images chronicling people and their activities are perhaps her most distinctive work. Like other photographers documenting the American scene during the 1920s and ’30s, Gilpin’s portraits captured humanity and the changing conditions in rural America. She focused her lens on the American life she came to know living and working among the Pueblo and Navajo peoples. Gilpin’s Southwest is a peopled landscape and not a wilderness untouched by human hands. Gilpin got to know Maria Martinez and other Pueblo and Navajo people through her lifelong companion, Betsy Forster. Forster, a nurse, was initially hired to care for Gilpin during a severe bout of the flu in 1918, but the two remained together after Gilpin’s recuperation. In 1930 the pair moved from Colorado to New Mexico, where Gilpin planned to photograph the rugged terrain. Forster got a job as a field nurse with the New Mexico Association on Indian Affairs, a position through which she, and Gilpin, became intimately connected to the local Navajo community.

Laura Gilpin frequently turned her camera to art-making processes. She photographed artists creating objects such as rugs, jewelry, and pottery. She photographed Maria Martinez and her family during the many stages of making pottery, from processing raw clay to shaping bowls and jars, painting decoration, and firing the vessels. Gilpin never photographed anyone without their permission, and she frequently formed relationships with her subjects. In a field traditionally championed by men, Gilpin was one of the first women to capture the landscape of the West on film and to comment—through her imagery and in her writings— upon the interconnectedness between the environment and human activity. Hefting heavy camera equipment, she trekked great distances by foot, jeep, or plane to reach remote locations in pursuit of views, often flying dangerously low in airplanes to achieve her aerial shots. Unbounded by physical risks and societal restrictions, Gilpin pursued photography in the Southwest well into her eighties. Virginia Treanor is the associate curator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Christina Burke is the curator of Native and non-Western art and Catherine Whitney is the chief curator at the Philbrook Museum of Art. New Ground is organized by the Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Initial support for the exhibition was provided by Philbrook Exhibition Series Sponsors (2011–2013), in particular the Raymond and Bessie Kravis Foundation. The presentation of New Ground at the National Museum of Women in the Arts is made possible by the generous support of the Judith A. Finkelstein Exhibition Fund and the members of NMWA.

OPPOSITE: Maria

Martinez and Popovi Da, Polychrome olla, 1966; Polychrome pottery; 8 ½ x 10½ in. diameter; Eugene B. Adkins Collection at Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, and Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman

LEFT: Laura Gilpin,

Upper End of Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, ca. 1960s; Gelatin silver print, 10 ¾ x 13 ¾ in.; Eugene B. Adkins Collection at Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, and Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman

WINTER/SPRING 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

ADDISON DOTY

FEBRUARY 17– MAY 14, 2017

Border Crossing

Jami Porter Lara VIRGINIA TREANOR

ami Porter Lara (b. 1969) is an artist based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She hand-builds and pit-fires clay vessels resembling a ubiquitous icon of modern life—the plastic bottle. While some of Porter Lara’s works are the size and shape of plastic bottles, others are enigmatic, inspired by a variety of organic forms as well as ideas about nature, technology, and humanity. NMWA Associate Curator Virginia Treanor spoke with Porter Lara about the concepts behind her work. VT: When did you become an artist? JPL: I wasn’t an artistic kid. In college, a friend encouraged me to take a drawing class. It didn’t come naturally—you should have seen all the tortured drawings of apples and crumpled paper bags—but near the end of the semester something shifted. After college, I drew in my journals, and took a handful of weekend art classes, but never thought I could be an artist. In my fortieth year, I finally decided that it was finally time to try. I left my career as a consumer advocate and went back to school to study art full time. I’ve been a working artist ever since. Jami Porter Lara, LDS-MHB-6SBR-0916CE-01, 2016; Pit-fired clay, 10 x 6 ½ in. diameter; Courtesy Central Features Contemporary Art

VT: How did you learn to make pottery? JPL: I was doing a semester-long program traveling with sixteen other artists around the Southwest and parts of northern Mexico looking at iconic land-art works—human interventions in the landscape from the standpoint of artists. At the end of that time, we drove to a town in northern Mexico called Mata Ortiz. In the 1970s, there was a Pueblo pottery revival in Mata Ortiz. The people there started making ceramic pots that bore a lot of stylistic relation to the ancient pot sherds and artifacts found in that vicinity, from the Casas Grandes and Mimbres cultures. They locally sourced their materials and figured out how to make ceramic vessels in the same way as the people who preceded them. A group of us went to stay with accomplished potters Graciela and Hector Gallegos. We camped out in their horse pasture, and during the day they taught us their technique for hand-building ceramics. That included taking us into the mountains where they found their clay. They showed us how to soak the clay and filter it and then let it dry. They also taught us how to build out of coils and how to burnish with a stone. VT: What was the inspiration for the body of work on view in Border Crossing? JPL: During that semester-long program, when I was traveling around the Southwest and parts of northern Mexico, we spent eight days in the vicinity of the border in a fairly rural part of southern Arizona. We were in a rural area where the border patrol was very active, but people were also regularly crossing through. That was where I found two-liter bottles that people had been using to carry water and had left behind as they used up the water.

Jami Porter Lara, LDS-MHB-FFBR-0615CE-02, 2015; Pit-fired clay, 10 ¾ x 3 ¾ in. diameter; On loan from David and Shelle Sanchez

When I spent that time at the border and across the border, I was thinking about all of the different kinds of border crossers. Not just people, but also plants. And thinking about how we’ve drawn lines, how we have this idea of nature as a fixed state. Because if you have an idea of non-native or invasive, you’ve defined nature as a fixed ecosystem, that is un-evolving and that anything that crosses into it becomes a transgressor or a detractor. I’ve become preoccupied by that because I don’t think it’s true. Then I had that experience at the border, finding plastic bottles, and then seeing pot sherds at the ancient site of Paquimé near Mata Ortiz, and thinking about the interrelatedness of those things. In the beginning, for me, it was about the connection between the plastic bottles and the pot sherds and thinking about how they represented this unbroken lineage of people moving through the landscape. Initially, I wanted to create vessels akin to those that traditionally would have carried water across this landscape. The first plastic bottle form I made out of clay cracked during firing, because I didn’t really know what I was doing at the time. But that crack in the ceramic was what made me first think of these pieces as contemporary artifacts. So I was thinking of objects connected to the here and now. They are about a connection to the place I live through the materials and techniques used by the people who preceded me in this area, but they are also about looking un-nostalgically at where I am now, and thinking of the plastic bottle as the most iconic vessel of my time. I felt that that form needed to be engaged and represented as opposed to just rejected as trash.

Jami Porter Lara, Icon, AKA JMSMHB-2LBR-0913CE-03 (detail), 2014; Pit-fired clay, 12 x 4 ¼ in. diameter; On loan from Kenji Kondo ALL PHOTOS: ADDISON DOTY

WOMEN IN THE ARTS | WINTER/SPRING 2017

VT: Why is Border Crossing an appropriate title for this exhibition? JPL: Ultimately, I’m interested in the interconnectedness of all things, the “borderlessness” of all things. This project is about pushing against the edges and collapsing those borders or lines that divide people across time and culture, as well as perceived divisions between humans and nature and technology.

I felt that [the plastic bottle] form needed to be engaged and represented as opposed to just rejected as trash.

VT: Can you describe the various shapes of your vessels? JPL: In the beginning the forms were very biomorphic—I was looking for the nature in the plastic, but some of it was due to my own limitations at the time—it’s very difficult to make a symmetrical vessel. I was interested in something that might be evocative of a gourd-shape, and, of course, gourds were one of the earliest vessels used by humans. I was also making things that referred to more classical forms like the amphora, again trying to make a connection between the contemporary plastic bottle and the most ancient of iconic vessels in human history. Then I really wanted to start simplifying the forms, and I was getting better at constructing vessels that were more symmetrical and straighter. Consequently, they started looking rather totemic, and they were beginning to remind me of things that I saw represented in petroglyphs and pictographs. I wanted to push that

connection, and then I felt that they were becoming figurative in a different way. The top of the vessel’s neck is like a little head, its bottom is evocative of feet, and any kind of narrowing in the center is like a waist. Just as that gourd shape made me think of the connection to our shared human history of using gourds as vessels, the figurative pieces have a similar message about the continuity between what’s natural and what’s human and what’s technological. It’s this unbroken circle: we make plastic out of a natural substance [petroleum], the plastic is in the environment, and then it’s in our bodies, and the plastic in our bodies is actually changing us as a species, which will probably lead to a change in our material culture at some point. So I got interested in how those figurative pieces represented this kind of borderlessness. VT: What do you see as your role as an artist in our society? JPL: For me, making art provides the possibility of a kind of discourse that isn’t possible in conversation or argument. An artwork can carry and convey ideas into an open conversation. And that’s what I’m always looking for. I don’t want my work to be accusatory; I’m not pointing a finger at anyone. My work is not didactic; it’s an attempt to grapple with these complicated and messy issues that we are living with as humans. Virginia Treanor is the associate curator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Border Crossing is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The exhibition is made possible by the Clara M. Lovett Emerging Artists Fund, with additional support provided by the Judith A. Finkelstein Exhibition Fund.

Jami Porter Lara, selected works from Go On Now, 2016; Pit-fired clay, 108 sculptures, 3–6 x 2 ½–3 ½ in. diameter each; Courtesy Central Features Contemporary Art

WINTER/SPRING 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

CALENDAR

Calendar Most Days

EXHIBITIONS Border Crossing: Jami Porter Lara February 17–May 14, 2017

DAKOTA FINE

New Ground: The Southwest of Maria Martinez and Laura Gilpin February 17–May 14, 2017 Chromatic Scale: Prints by Polly Apfelbaum March 10–July 2, 2017 From the Desk of Simone de Beauvoir Through June 2, 2017

Maria Martinez and Julian Martinez, Storage jar, ca. 1940; On view in New Ground

GALLERY EXPERIENCE. Conversation Pieces. Join us for 30-minute “conversation pieces” most days at 2 p.m. These brief experiences spotlight two works on view. Check in at the Information Desk to learn more. Free with admission. No reservations required.

2|5

SCOTT LANGLEY

Bold Broadsides and Bitsy Books Through March 17, 2017, 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.

2 | 1–6 | 14

2 P.M.

WED 12–12:30 P.M.

GALLERY TALK SERIES. Lunchtime Gallery Talks. Bite-size lunchtime talks are offered most Wednesdays. Museum staff members facilitate interactive conversations, encouraging visitors to look closely and investigate the mediums, techniques, and themes of special exhibitions and works from the museum’s collection. Free. No reservations required.

SUN, 4–6 P.M.

2 | 1

Collection Selections

2 | 8

Collection Selections

2 | 15 Bold Broadsides and Bitsy Books

CULTURAL CAPITAL. Dead Man Walking. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the Washington National Opera (WNO) production of Dead Man Walking, with special guest Sister Helen Prejean in conversation with WNO Artistic Director Francesca Zambello. Based on Prejean’s memoirs, which also inspired the 1995 film, Dead Man Walking infuses its score with American popular styles and has been hailed as one of the most gripping and important new operas. The event will be followed by a reception. Free. Reservations required. Reserve online. Sister Helen Prejean

2 | 22 New Ground 3 | 1

Bold Broadsides and Bitsy Books

3 | 8

Border Crossing

3 | 15 Chromatic Scale 3 | 22 New Ground 3 | 29 Border Crossing 4 | 5

Chromatic Scale

4 | 12 Border Crossing 4 | 19 Collection Selections 4 | 26 Collection Selections 5 | 3

Chromatic Scale

5 | 10 Collection Selections 5 | 17 From the Desk of Simone de Beauvoir 5 | 24 Collection Selections

2 | 5, 3 | 5, 4 | 2, 5 | 7 & 6 | 4

5 | 31 Collection Selections

SUN, 12–5 P.M.

6 | 7

WED, 7:30–9:30 P.M. SHENSON CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERT. Catherine Manoukian, violin. Artistic Director Gilan Tocco Corn welcomes violinist Catherine Manoukian. Manoukian has been praised for her innate musicality and imaginative artistry on orchestral, chamber music, and recital stages. Her impressive accomplishments include guest performances with major North American and international orchestras, as well as performances as a recitalist on major stages from New York to Osaka. Free. Reservations required. Reserve online.

TONY BRIGGS

2|8

6 | 14 Collection Selections LAURA HOFFMAN, NMWA

FREE COMMUNITY DAYS. First Sundays. The first Sunday of every month, NMWA offers free admission to the public. Take this opportunity to explore current exhibitions as well as the museum’s newly reinstalled collection. For a complete schedule, visit the online calendar. Free. No reservations required.

Collection Selections

Polly Apfelbaum, Empress Shout, 2015; On view in Chromatic Scale

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

WOMEN IN THE ARTS | WINTER/SPRING 2017

ADDISON DOTY

MEMBER PREVIEW DAY. Border Crossing and New Ground. Be the first to experience two new exhibitions at NMWA. Border Crossing presents recent work by Jami Porter Lara, whose clay sculptures resemble an icon of modern life—the plastic bottle. New Ground features potter Maria Martinez and photographer Laura Gilpin, whose innovations recast the midcentury Southwest as a dynamic environment. Members enjoy double discounts (20%) in the Museum Shop and 15% off at the Mezzanine Café. Gallery talks every half hour, featuring Jami Porter Lara at 11 a.m. Free admission for members and one guest.

3 | 1–3 | 31

DAILY GALLERY SCAVENGER HUNT. #5WomenArtists. Can you name five women artists? This scavenger hunt challenges players to explore NMWA’s collection by looking closely at works on view and using the museum’s online and on-site interpretive resources. Follow the prompts to discover artists in the collection and snap a picture. Share your answers on Instagram, tag @WomenInTheArts, and include #5WomenArtists. Win a prize if your photo is chosen! Free with admission. No reservations required.

3|5

SUN, 1–3 P.M.

READING GROUP. At the Existentialist Café. Discuss At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails by Sarah Bakewell, following a viewing of From the Desk of Simone de Beauvoir. Consider Beauvoir’s circle of French Existentialists, their philosophy, and the historical and social context in which it developed. This enjoyable book weaves together biography, personal perspective, and accessible explanations of philosophical principles. Free. Reservations Required.

3 | 11

SAT, 10 A.M.–2 P.M.

Jami Porter Lara, selected works from Go On Now, 2016; On view in Border Crossing

COURTESY KIVALINA

ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL IN THE NATION’S CAPITAL. Kivalina. In its Washington, D.C., premiere, Kivalina (U.S., 2016, 61 min.), presents a candid portrait of an Inupiaq Eskimo tribe living on an island disappearing into the ocean. Weaving together observational storytelling and cinematic imagery, director Gina Abatemarco presents an evocative and rare portrait of one of the last surviving Arctic cultures. Conversation and reception follow the screening. Free; includes museum admission. Reservations required. Online registration will be available in midFebruary at http://dceff.org.

MARA KURLANDSKY, NMWA

SUN, 3–5 P.M.

3 | 22

COURTESY KONELI-NE

3 | 19

ART+FEMINISM. Wikipedia Edit-a-thon 2017. Celebrate Women’s History Month and help us improve Wikipedia articles about women artists. NMWA’s fifth annual edit-a-thon focuses on improving Wikipedia entries related to notable women artists and art-world figures. Training for new editors and refreshments provided. This event is part of the Art+Feminism global initiative to help correct Wikipedia’s gender imbalance. Registration required. Find more information and register online.

WED, 6:30–9 P.M.

ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL IN THE NATION’S CAPITAL. KONELINE: our land beautiful. In its Washington, D.C., premiere, KONELINE: our land beautiful (Canada, 2016, 96 min.), an art film with politics, drama, and humor, explores different ways of seeing—and being. It is a bold, experimental film from Nettie Wild, one of Canada’s leading documentary filmmakers. Conversation and reception follow the screening. Free; includes museum admission. Reservations required. Online registration will be available in mid-February at http://dceff.org.

3 | 23

THURS, 5–7:30 P.M.

TEACHER PROGRAM. Making Connections. Join fellow educators to make connections at NMWA! Learn about great women artists through interactive gallery experiences; explore the new thematic installation of the museum’s collection and special exhibitions Border Crossing and New Ground; develop and share classroom connections; and engage with museum educators and colleagues. Appetizers and drinks included. $10. Reservations required. Reserve online. DANIEL SCHWARTZ PHOTOGRAPHY

THURS, 10 A.M.–2 P.M.

EMILY HAIGHT, NMWA

2 | 16

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

WINTER/SPRING 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

WED, 7–9:30 P.M.

FRESH TALK. Ann Hamilton and Emily Pilloton—How can makers change the world? Ann Hamilton, an internationally renowned visual artist and selfdescribed maker, joins Emily Pilloton, designer, builder, educator, author, and founder of the nonprofit design agency Project H Design, to talk about hands-on learning and how the experience of making things can inspire the next generation. Shop booths featuring local makers before and after the Fresh Talk. $25 general; $20 members, seniors, students; price includes museum admission and Catalyst cocktail hour. Reservations required. Reserve online.

4|8

SAT, 11 A.M.–2 P.M.

GALLERY EXPERIENCE. Slow Art Day. Break out of your typical “go, go, go” routine and join a movement! Slow Art Day is an international event encouraging people of all ages to visit museums and look at art slowly. Participants look at five works of art for fifteen minutes each and then meet over lunch to talk about their experience. Simple by design, the goal is to focus on the art and the art of seeing. Museum staff will be present to provide you with artwork suggestions and questions to consider. Free with admission. Reservations recommended; see online calendar for more information.

KEVIN ALLEN PHOTOGRAPHY

4 | 21

FRI, 6:30 P.M.

BENEFIT EVENT. 30th Anniversary Gala. Join co-chairs Amy Baier, Kristin Cecchi, Jamie Dorros, and Board President Cindy Jones as NMWA kicks off its 30th-anniversary year with an extraordinary black-tie gala. The evening befits this important milestone birthday and celebrates the museum’s collection and inspiring founder. Proceeds benefit exhibitions and programming, allowing us to champion women artists past, present, and future. Please email gkaufman@ nmwa.org for ticket pricing, sponsorship opportunities, and more information.

4|2

SUN, 1–3 P.M.

PANEL DISCUSSION. The Many Faces of Simone de Beauvoir: Author, Philosopher, Feminist. Learn and engage in conversation about Beauvoir’s vast and lasting influence. Free. Reservations required. Reserve online.

4|6

THURS, 6:30–9 P.M.

ARTISTS IN CONVERSATION. Jami Porter Lara. Join artist Jami Porter Lara and guests in conversation over light refreshments. Porter Lara discusses her background, artistic process and philosophy, and works featured in Border Crossing during this informal and intimate in-gallery experience. Participants have ample time to explore the galleries, learn about Porter Lara’s work, and engage in small-group conversations. $25 general; $15 members, seniors, students. Reservations required. Reserve online.

4 | 19

WED, 7:30 P.M.

SHENSON CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERT. Lydia Brown, piano. Artistic Director Gilan Tocco Corn welcomes pianist Lydia Brown. Brown performs “William Bolcom Cabaret Songs” with stars of the University of Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music. Praised by the New York Times as “intensely expressive,” Brown has performed at notable venues across the country and has prepared several U.S. operatic premieres, including Émilie by Kaija Saariaho; Faustus, the Last Night by Pascal Dusapin; and the New York premiere of Elliott Carter’s What Next? Free. Reservations required. Reserve online.

5|7

SUN, 1–3 P.M.

READING GROUP. “The Woman Destroyed.” Following a viewing of From the Desk of Simone de Beauvoir, participate in a moderated discussion about Simone de Beauvoir’s short story “The Woman Destroyed” from the collection The Woman Destroyed, which includes three stories of complex women constrained by their circumstances. Free. Reservations required. Reserve online.

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

WOMEN IN THE ARTS | WINTER/SPRING 2017

LEIGH BUREAU

MICHAEL MERCIL

3 | 29

SHENSON CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERT. Susanna Phillips, soprano. Artistic Director Gilan Tocco Corn welcomes soprano Susanna Phillips. Alabama-born Phillips, recipient of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2010 Beverly Sills Artist Award, continues to establish herself as one of today’s most sought-after singing actors and recitalists. “The Woman’s Experience” includes the Washington, D.C., premiere of William Harvey’s Speaking for the Afghan Woman. Free. Reservations required. Reserve online.

6 | 14

WED, 7–9:30 P.M.

FRESH TALK. Who are the new superwomen of the universe? A new wave of superheroines is entering the comic universe, leading the fight for justice and dispelling traditional stereotypes. Speakers include Janelle Asselin, former writer for Comic Alliance and founder of Rosy Press; Carolyn Cocca, author of Superwomen: Gender, Power, and Representation; Ariell Johnson, founder of Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse in Philadelphia, the only blackwoman-owned comic book store on the East Coast; Ashley Woods, illustrator, graphic novelist, and artist for the Stranger Comics series “NIOBE: She is Life.” $25 general; $20 members, seniors, students; price includes museum admission and Catalyst cocktail hour. Reservations required. Reserve online.

FRESH TALK. How can the arts inspire environmental advocacy? Artists across disciplines and around the globe are creating works in response to climate change and other environmental issues. Can the arts inspire advocacy or change attitudes and behaviors? Joining the conversation are Ruth Little of Cape Farewell; Miranda Massie of the Climate Museum, New York; Jacqui Patterson of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program; and Laura Turner Seydel of the Captain Planet Foundation. Moderated by Kari Fulton, environmental justice advocate and journalist. $25 general; $20 members, seniors, students; includes museum admission and Sunday Supper. Reservations required. Reserve online.

6|4

WED, 7:30 P.M.

SUN, 4:30–8 P.M.

SUN, 1–2 P.M.

DROP-IN TOUR. Collection Selections. Attend a free, docentled drop-in tour exploring highlights from the museum’s collection. Free. No reservations required.

NASA’S SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION STUDIO

ARTISTS IN CONVERSATION. Amy Sherald. Join Baltimorebased artist Amy Sherald and guests in conversation over light refreshments. Sherald discusses her background, artistic process and philosophy, and works featured in the museum’s collection during this informal and intimate in-gallery experience. Sherald, winner of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery’s 2016 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, uses portraiture to explore the ways people construct and perform their identities. This program provides ample time for participants to explore the galleries after hours, learn about Sherald’s work, and engage in small-group conversations. $25 general; $15 members, seniors, students. Reservations required. Reserve online.

5 | 24

ZACHARY MAXWELL

5 | 21

TUES, 6:30–9 P.M.

ALICE MARWICK; COURTESY BLOOMSBURY PRESS

CHRIS KOJZAR, COURTESY AMY SHERALD

5|9

Lo¨ıs Mailou Jones, Arreau, Hautes-Pyrénées, 1949; NMWA

Education programming is made possible by the Leo Rosner Foundation with additional support provided by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, Wells Fargo, the Harriet E. McNamee Youth Education Fund, William and Christine Leahy, and the Junior League of Washington. The Women, Arts, and Social Change public program initiative is made possible through leadership gifts from Denise Littlefield Sobel, Lorna Meyer Calas and Dennis Calas, the MLDauray Arts Initiative, and the Swartz Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Bernstein Family Foundation, Marcia and Frank Carlucci, Deborah G. Carstens, the Ray and Dagmar Dolby Family Fund, and The Reva and David Logan Foundation. The Shenson Chamber Music Concert Series is made possible by support from Fred M. Levin and Nancy Livingston, The Shenson Foundation, in memory of Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson.

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

WINTER/SPRING 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

March 10–July 2, 2017

Chromatic Scale Prints by Polly Apfelbaum Stephanie Midon

n addition to her large-scale fabric and mixed-media installations, Polly Apfelbaum (b. 1955, Abington, Pennsylvania) produces dynamic prints characterized by vivid color and bold shapes. Her inventive woodblock techniques place her at the forefront of the medium. Chromatic Scale continues NMWA’s exploration of innovations in printmaking, a medium in which women have worked since the sixteenth century. The exhibition presents a focused survey of Apfelbaum’s recent prints, including Empress Shout (2015), in which the artist explores increasingly complex formal and chromatic relationships through a diamond and zigzag pattern. She was partly inspired to make this work through her study of the Cosmati family, who were renowned for their mosaic work in medieval Italy. In 2012, Apfelbaum won the Rome Prize, a prestigious award for emerging artists, and she completed a fellowship at the American Academy in Rome. While in Italy, she observed Cosmati mosaics firsthand. While referencing ancient Italian craft traditions, Empress Shout also offers a fresh perspective on themes that Apfelbaum has explored throughout her career, including Minimalism and Pop art. She explains, “I went to Rome thinking I would explore the patterned geometric mosaic floors made by generations of the Roman Cosmati family in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. I did go out of my way to see as many floor mosaics as I possibly could, but what I came back with instead was thinking about the Minimalists and color.”1 Apfelbaum employs elements of Minimalism in Empress Shout, including repetition, a grid, and geometric forms, through

WOMEN IN THE ARTS | WINTER/SPRING 2017

the composition’s rows of diamonds and zigzags. Other Minimalist motifs such as stripes feature in other prints by the artist, along with references to Pop art. The bold, simplified flower shapes featured in some of her prints often elicit comparisons to designs used by Andy Warhol. Because of her prints’ clean-edged shapes and even color, one might assume that Apfelbaum’s works are mechanically produced. In fact, they are meticulously handmade. Each print is created with carved woodblocks that are inked and placed individually on thick, handmade paper, and then pressed. Working closely with master printers at Durham Press in Pennsylvania, Apfelbaum has woodblocks cut from plywood in shapes based on her hand-drawn doodles. The blocks are also inked by hand in a broad but ordered spectrum of colors. To develop her compositions, Apfelbaum places the blocks intuitively in a process that is both controlled and spontaneous. She carefully pursues a precise balance of color and shape, but must work quickly so that the inks do not dry before she is finished. The performative element inherent to Apfelbaum’s printmaking connects to her wider oeuvre, including her “fallen paintings,” compositions of dyed synthetic fabrics that she places directly on the floor. Across Apfelbaum’s artistic practice, color is the hallmark. She sees color as both structural and emotional, arranging it in precise sequences to elicit a particular mood. Valuing the emotional power of color, Apfelbaum uses woodblocks to create shapes of rich, pure color in her prints. Her works on paper demonstrate an evolution of technique, as she has graduated

Polly Apfelbaum, Empress Shout, 2015; Woodblock print on handmade paper, 25 ³/8 x 25 ³/8 in.; Printed and published by Durham Press; Image courtesy of Durham Press

from using blocks inked with a single color to blending two or three colors on a block. Empress Shout and other recent prints display the artist’s “rainbow roll” technique, in which multiple colors are partially mixed when particular blocks are pressed onto the paper, achieving a continuous gradient effect. Empress Shout models the fundamental elements of Polly Apfelbaum’s prints. Through its bold forms and symphony of colors, the print reveals the ambitions of the artist, whose intuitive yet ordered process pushes the boundaries of printmaking and color theory.

Stephanie Midon is the curatorial assistant at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Note: 1. Stephanie Buhmann, “Polly Apfelbaum,” in New York Studio Conversations: Seventeen Women Talk about Art, (Berlin: Green Box, 2016), 92.

Chromatic Scale: Prints by Polly Apfelbaum, 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 Judith A. Finkelstein Exhibition Fund and the members of NMWA.

WINTER/SPRING 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

ON VIEW

From the Desk of Simone de Beauvoir Through June 2, 2017

Sarah Osborne Bender

From childhood to the end of her life, she wrote, at times compulsively, and sought out books and people to form or challenge her world view. In the first story of her collection The Woman Destroyed, one of her characters surely voices Beauvoir’s own thoughts when she says, “I just could not live without writing. . . . When I was a child, when I was an adolescent,

books saved me from despair.” The singularity of her focus on reading and writing, and the audacity of her ideas, generated a legion of inspired acolytes. Deirdre Bair’s exhaustive biography notes that in preparation for completing her university studies in three years instead of four, Beauvoir tackled an especially difficult Latin edition of Plutarch’s

©BETTINAFLITNER.DE

imone de Beauvoir was a feminist, an intellectual, an Existentialist, an activist, a traveler and adventurer, a philosopher, and a lover, but at all times in her life she was foremost a writer and reader. Her drive to record her own reflections and tell her own stories was inexhaustible, as was her appetite for books and intense conversation.

Bettina Flitner, Simone de Beauvoir in her studio, rue Schoelcher 12 bis, Montparnasse, Paris, March 1986

WOMEN IN THE ARTS | WINTER/SPRING 2017

Beauvoir’s Chain of Influences Beauvoir was inspired by . . . Little Women, Louisa May Alcott, 1868/1869 Beauvoir read Little Women by the time she was ten. She identified deeply with the character of Jo, the creative and independent March sister. In the first volume of her autobiography, Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter (1958), Beauvoir says that when she was developing The Second Sex, she projected the four sisters of Little Women into adulthood and used their personality types to form her ideas. Beauvoir wrote . . . America Day by Day, 1948 After feeling jealousy at Sartre’s first trip to the United States, Beauvoir soon arranged her own: a five-month lecture

Lives in just over two weeks. Work habits of this kind brought about her nickname, Le Castor, the beaver, a name she was called with affection by those in her inner circle. Numerous pictures exist of her reading and writing in her beloved Parisian Café Flore or Les Deux Magots, at the apartment of Jean-Paul Sartre as part of their daily ritual, or at her modest wooden desk. In addition to focusing on her own writing, she also served as Sartre’s editor for decades, reading and reworking his ideas, uncredited. She was also an editor for the cultural review Les Temps Modernes, which meant she read a constant influx of literary submissions. (“Every time I opened a manuscript, I had a sense of adventure,” she wrote in one of her memoirs.) In little more than a year between 1946 and 1948, Beauvoir researched and wrote The Second Sex, which would become one of the most important books ever written about women, while also writing and editing her book America Day by Day and editing a screenplay for

tour that began in New York in January 1947. This book is her travelogue, with characteristically self-centered, but highly detailed and obviously dazzled, accounts of New York City, Chicago, New Orleans, Las Vegas, and Hollywood. Always up for adventure, Beauvoir visited jazz clubs, smoked marijuana, gambled in casinos, and met and fell in love with Nelson Algren. Beauvoir inspired . . . Diaries, Eva Hesse, 2016 Hesse, a German-American artist born Jewish in Nazi Germany and raised in New York, was a driven, singular, and inspirational artist. Her diaries include not only ideas and plans for artworks, to-do lists, and financial ledgers, but also document her illness, brain tumors, and

Sartre called Dirty Hands, not to mention traveling and managing her often complex personal life. The ideas that she shared in The Second Sex had been turning over in her mind for some time, and she enjoyed immersing herself in library research and interviews with women in France and the United States. It came together in a two-part structure: “Facts and Myths” established the accepted history that prescribed women’s lives, and “Lived Experience” challenged those prescriptions with the lives and desires of contemporary women. When it came time to write, the chapters poured from her. As Bair describes, “The actual writing sometimes seemed little more than a daily exercise in which she transferred a portion of her convictions to a certain number of pages. She did feel more like a scribe than a creator.” A special presentation at NMWA evokes Beauvoir’s apartment on rue Victor Schoelcher, where she lived from 1955 until her death in 1986. Books of all genres lined the walls, and her desk

multiple surgeries, which took her life at age thirty-four in 1970. In several entries from 1964, Hesse transcribes passages from The Second Sex as she tries to bolster her artistic confidence. She quotes from Beauvoir: In boldly setting out towards ends, one risks disappointments; but one also obtains unhoped-for results; caution condemns to mediocrity. #BeauvoirSays The installation includes a social media feature—visit the museum to see a wall of testimonies from writers, artists, and others who were inspired by Beauvoir’s words and ideas. Write your own, and let us know what #BeauvoirSays to you.

and day beds were often piled high with books, papers, magazines, and works in progress. At the heart of From the Desk of Simone de Beauvoir is Beauvoir’s relationship with the written word and her legacy as a writer. The exhibition includes books that inspired her throughout her life, copies of many of the books she wrote, and materials—from essays to blog posts to comics—whose creators drew inspiration from her work, as well as an early manuscript called “Essai de la situation de la Femme” which became The Second Sex. Sarah Osborne Bender is the director of the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. From the Desk of Simone de Beauvoir is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts and generously supported by the Heather and Robert Keane Family Foundation and the FrenchAmerican Foundation—United States, with additional support provided by an anonymous donor and Susan Shaffer Rappaport. Furniture provided by Miss Pixie’s. Washington, D.C.

WINTER/SPRING 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

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Dead Feminists

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BROADSIDES ✼

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T H R O U G H M A R C H 1 7, 2 0 1 7

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Sarah Osborne Bender

he “Dead Feminists” broadside series on view in the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center features enchanting design details, engaging history lessons, and striking colors. The series, created by Chandler O’Leary and Jessica Spring, friends and collaborators from Takoma, Washington, has a cult following online and is the subject of a new book, Dead Feminists: Historic Heroines in Living Color (Sasquatch Books, 2016). O’Leary and Spring had only one broadside in mind when their series began: during the acrimonious 2008 presidential campaign, they were moved to print an illustration of Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s quote, “Come, come my conservative friend, wipe the dew off your spectacles and see the world is moving.” The edition of forty-four prints (in honor of the forty-fourth president) sold out quickly, sparking more ideas. They have since made twenty-four feminist broadsides honoring groundbreaking women—politicians, artists, scientists, and others. Librarians, archivists, and printmakers are likely familiar with the term “broadside.” But it’s not quite a household word. A broadside is a one-sided printed sheet whose purpose is to announce information when posted in a public space. Widely used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to spread news, make religious proclamations, or announce political manifestos, early broadsides were composed entirely of text and generally free of design flourishes. Later broadsides incorporate bold, eye-catching fonts and illustration, like the “Dead Feminists” series. The form was eventually replaced by other types of mass media and advertising.

WOMEN IN THE ARTS | WINTER/SPRING 2017

Women helmed presses in the United States going back to the 1700s. Some inherited businesses from fathers or spouses, but some women entered the business on their own. In fact, one of the most important documents in U.S. history, the first publicly distributed version of the signed Declaration of Independence, known as the Goddard Broadside, was printed in Baltimore by Mary Katherine Goddard in 1777. O’Leary and Spring continue a long tradition of women in printing. The two artists have built a fruitful collaborative process, with both women involved in nearly every stage. Spring generally completes initial research, identifying women to profile and quotes to use. O’Leary and Spring each keep a “wish list” of women to feature; their selections are also influenced by current events and news. O’Leary, referencing illustrations and typography, sketches out the design in pencil. Unlike traditional broadsides that used metal and wood typesetting (as Spring uses in other projects), O’Leary hand-draws detailed

Left: Chandler O’Leary at work on the broadside The Veil of Knowledge Opposite, left to right: Chandler O’Leary and Jessica Spring, Love Nest, 2012, and Keep the Change, 2012; Letterpress-printed broadsides, each 18 x 10 in.; Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center ALL PHOTOS: COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS

lettering. They render the designs in ink after discussions and brainstorming. Photopolymer plates deliver each individual color, since each requires a separate pass through Spring’s 1960s Vandercook Universal One printing press. Spring specializes in unconventional inks, such as the metallic ink made with real gold in the Common Threads (2015), broadside for Rywka Lipszyc, a Polish-Jewish Holocaust victim and diarist. Spring mixes inks to hone selected colors, part of what makes the prints so visually powerful. The artists select meaningful edition numbers for each set of broadsides. The broadside honoring anarchist activist Emma Goldman, titled Love Nest (2012), was printed in an edition of 126, marking the number of years since the Chicago Haymarket Riot, which inspired Goldman’s work. They sign and package the prints for sales to individuals and series subscribers. The Dead Feminists Fund is O’Leary and Spring’s way of sharing profits from the sales of the broadsides with nonprofits

related to each print’s subject. Through the fund, for example, they donated a portion of proceeds from the sale of Keep the Change (2012), the broadside on Shirley Chisholm, a presidential candidate and the first African American woman elected to Congress, to Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration, an organization in the district Chisholm represented. Their broadside honoring photographer Imogen Cunningham, Focal Point (2014), raised money for a program that introduced the practice of photography to at-risk youth in Seattle. The “Dead Feminists” broadsides series is on display in the Library and Research Center through March 17, 2017, as part of Bold Broadsides & Bitsy Books, along with a selection of miniature artists’ books selected from the museum’s collection. Sarah Osborne Bender is the director of the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. WINTER/SPRING 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

Terrains of the Body

On view at Whitechapel Gallery, London Through April 16, 2017

Photography from the National Museum of Women in the Arts Kathryn Wat

hen contemporary women artists aim their cameras at the female body (including their own), they embrace the figure’s singular ability to express identity, communicate individual and collective experiences, and give life to the imagination. From the time of photography’s invention, women have created visionary images of women. Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1879), for example, cast women in her photographic narratives based on biblical and allegorical stories. In the late twentieth century, women continued their pioneering work in photo-based art, including the development of video, which they often used to record their groundbreaking performance art. Contemporary artists’ photographs of the body are increasingly performative, filmic, and incisive in their ability to tell compelling stories. This spring, the National Museum of Women in the Arts shares works from its photography and video collections with Whitechapel Gallery, renowned for its innovative exhibitions and programs focusing on global modern and contemporary art. The exhibition Terrains of the Body is a partnership between Whitechapel, NMWA, and UK Friends of NMWA, the museum’s outreach committee based in London, which raises awareness about contributions to the arts by U.K.-based women. The exhibition features seventeen artists from five continents, reflecting the global scope of NMWA’s collection. Liberated by the feminist movement of the 1960s and ’70s, women artists worldwide realized that they could be both the creator and subject of their work. Marina Abramovi´c (b. 1946) makes a range of multimedia art, including videos and still

WOMEN IN THE ARTS | WINTER/SPRING 2017

photographs that incorporate themes from her performances. Her photograph The Hero (2001) derives from a performance in honor of her father, in which she sat astride a horse and tried to maintain control of a white flag whipped by a powerful wind. The bright hues of the photograph and the artist’s gallant pose convey a mood very different from the elegiac video made to record the performance, which Abramovic´ shot in black and white. In another self-portrait in the exhibition, Candida Höfer (b. 1944) warily tests the psychological essence of portraiture. She is known for her photographs of the interiors of public and institutional spaces. Her images rarely include figures, but Palazzo Zenobio Venezia III (2003), shot in a Baroque-era ballroom in Venice, features the mirrored reflection of the artist and her camera at the center. Höfer’s work most often implies human presence (“What people do in these spaces and what these spaces do to them is clearer when no one is present,” she observes), but in this work she subtly acknowledges her essential role as creator and interpreter. A number of artists in the exhibition photograph women in expansive series that appear documentary in nature. Yet artist Nan Goldin (b. 1953) relies on her subjectivity—and, in fact, the bonds of kinship or friendship—to create her photographs. As part of her epic work, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1981–96), Goldin made hundreds of images of her life in downtown New York City. She did not stage the photographs, but, fascinated by movie-making and fashion, Goldin and her circle made posing and picture-taking part of their daily lives.

PHOTO BY LEE STALSWORTH

Marina Abramovi´c, The Hero, 2001; Chromogenic print, 49 ½ x 49 ½ in.; NMWA, Gift of Heather and Tony Podesta Collection

Beginning in the 1970s, women photographers collapsed the boundaries between documentary and conceptual photography. They assumed roles and acted out a feminine masquerade for the camera (or asked their models to do so). Immersed in this directorial mode, artists today stage images of the figure to imaginative and poetic effect. Justine Kurland (b. 1969) stages her models by suggesting themes (seeking paradise, running away, or defending territory, for example) and asking them to interpret the scenarios for her camera. Set in lush topographies reminiscent of nineteenthcentury landscape painting, Kurland’s images present an Edenic world. Yet gathered together and similarly garbed, the women and girls she depicts seem to move in packs, gathered together in order to survive.

Photographs of fragmented, marked, and inverted figures innately provoke deep emotion. On Guard (1998) by Shirin Neshat (b. 1957) depicts hands—presumably a woman’s— tightly clasping an old-fashioned microphone. On one of the hands, she inscribed quotations of Farsi poetry, the texts forming a veil-like screen over the skin. Critical of any regime that would silence its citizens, Neshat’s imagery explores the dichotomies that shape world cultures—freedom and repression, language and silence, and woman and man. As artist-performers, Mwangi Hutter (Ingrid Mwangi, b. 1975; Robert Hutter, b. 1964) manipulate their bodies to interrogate prevailing ideas about race and gender. In four sequential photographs portraying parts of Mwangi’s body, her skin color is digitally altered to appear lightest at her head, gradually shiftWINTER/SPRING 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

LEE STALSWORTH

Left: Shirin Neshat, On Guard, 1998; Gelatin silver print with ink, 18 ¾ x 24 in.; NMWA, Gift of the Tony Podesta Collection. Right: Candida Höfer, Palazzo Zenobio Venezia III, 2003; Chromogenic print, 61 x 61 in.; NMWA, Gift of Heather and Tony Podesta Collection

ing to a dark hue at her feet. The images evoke the culturally ingrained practice of appraising and judging skin color as well as the histories of slavery. In the second photograph, Mwangi’s back appears to be scarred as if by a whip, and in the fourth image, her toes dangle in the air, an allusion to a hanged body. The exhibition also includes photographs from NMWA’s collection by Rineke Dijkstra, Anna Gaskell, Charlotte Gyllenhammar, Icelandic Love Corporation, Kirsten Justesen, Nikki S. Lee, Daniela Rossell, Eve Sussman and the Rufus Corporation, Janaina Tschäpe, Adriana Varejão, and Hellen van Meene. Artists in Terrains of the Body serve as role models, achieving agency through unceasing creativity and passionate inquiry into the elemental subject of the body. Their works are an essential part of NMWA’s collection and the story of women and art. This exhibition partnership enables us to share their stories—and NMWA’s—with museum visitors far beyond Washington, D.C. Kathryn Wat is the chief curator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Terrains of the Body is organized by Whitechapel Gallery and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The exhibition is supported by UK Friends of NMWA and Jacqueline Badger Mars.

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A Picture of Committee Support UK Friends of NMWA, the museum’s Londonbased outreach committee, is part of a network of national and international committees extending the mission of NMWA globally. Through innovative programming that includes lectures, exhibition and private collection tours, studio visits, and special events, the group champions the work of women artists with U.K. connections and offers a unique perspective on women’s contributions to the U.K.’s rich cultural landscape. The committee’s close relationship with numerous arts institutions in London motivated the development of Terrains of the Body. Inspired to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the committee’s founding, the group suggested to staff of NMWA and Whitechapel Gallery that an exhibition partnership would highlight the institutions’ mutual commitment to women artists. UK Friends of NMWA’s drive to build relationships and dedication to funding the exhibition project demonstrate their impassioned work on behalf of women in the arts.

MUSEUM NEWS AND EVENTS

Celebrating the Inaugural Suzanne & James Mellor Prize Publication

HINING A LIGHT on the intellectual,

artistic, and musical culture of the female monastic community at Paradies bei Soest, Jeffrey F. Hamburger and coauthors have completed the twovolume Liturgical Life and Latin Learning at Paradies bei Soest, 1300–1425, being released in March by the publisher Aschendorff. Published with support from NMWA’s Suzanne & James Mellor Prize for scholarly work on women artists, these volumes examine a group of little-known illuminated liturgical manuscripts from the Dominican convent of Paradies bei Soest, in northwestern Germany’s Westphalia region. The manuscripts’ inscriptions and imagery allowed the authors to understand the holdings of the nuns’ library as well as their creativity, learning, and ambition. Hamburger, the Kuno Francke Professor of German Art and Culture in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University, is a specialist in the history of the book in medieval Europe. His coauthors were Susan Marti, a fellow

art historian based in Bern; Eva Schlotheuber, a historian of female monasticism and the Middle Ages based in Düsseldorf; and musicologist Margot Fassler, based at Notre Dame. Hamburger says, “The result has been a collaboration among specialists not unlike the original teamwork of the nuns themselves.” Paradies bei Soest was founded in 1251/52 and formally incorporated into the Dominican order in 1287. Although the medieval buildings no longer stand, scholars can learn about the early history of the community through its founding documents. As Hamburger describes, “In contrast to the aristocratic complexion of convents belonging to older orders, at the outset the community of Paradies was heterogeneous in age and social background in ways that were typical of female foundations by the relatively new Dominican order. Many of these women would have been illiterate, but by the end of the thirteenth century, and certainly by the fourteenth century, the convent had achieved a remarkably high level of Latin learning closely linked to the performance of the liturgy.” In Liturgical Life and Latin Learning, Hamburger and collaborators examine “four complete liturgical manuscripts in Dortmund and Düsseldorf, ranging in date from ca. 1325 to ca. 1425, which represent the principal extant legacy of the nuns of Paradies. To these can be added fragments of several other liturgical books, some bound into the books in Düsseldorf, others scattered as far afield as Munich and Cambridge, Massachusetts.” What makes these works exceptional?

The nuns collaborated with professional artists on several works that demonstrate impressive Latin literacy and creativity. Hamburger says, “Most spectacular (in fact, the most extensively illustrated liturgical book from the entire Middle Ages) is the gradual on which the nuns collaborated prior to its completion ca. 1380. The study of this manuscript, which is distinguished by hundreds of illustrations ranging in size from large, fully painted historiated initials [the enlarged letters, embellished with decorative scenes and symbols, that begin sections of text] marking major feasts commemorating events in the history of salvation to tiny scribal initials closely linked to the literal or allegorical meaning of single phrases or words, constitutes the core of our book.” He says, “Although inscribed images represented a staple of medieval art, the corpus of inscribed initials in the manuscripts from Paradies are, as a whole, essentially without any parallel.” Music played a central role in the nuns’ liturgical creations and performances, as Hamburger describes: “The active nature of the nuns’ literary culture is perhaps most powerfully expressed in the music they composed, in the form of sequences, long rhyming Latin poems sung during the mass, for which they wrote not only the music, but also the poetic texts. No less apparent is their artistic acumen. . . . Taken together, the manuscripts from Paradies represent a remarkable accomplishment—one that required an astonishing degree of careful preparation and planning and one that should change the received picture of female piety and artistic production in the High and late Middle Ages in northern Europe.” The publication of these comprehensive and beautiful volumes is significant for the authors as well as the museum and funders Suzanne and James Mellor. Hamburger adds, “The museum and the Mellors have been extraordinarily supportive—and patient—and for that I, together with my fellow authors, am very grateful.”

WINTER/SPRING 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

Member News Thank you to the many members and friends who helped the National Museum of Women in the Arts meet our 2016 Matching Gift challenge! Once again, you have demonstrated your steadfast commitment to women artists and equal recognition in the art world through your support. Along with more than 1,120 loyal members and friends of NMWA, you contributed approximately $187,000. With a $75,000 match from The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation and members of NMWA’s Board of Trustees, more than $262,000 will go straight to work, supporting the museum’s exhibitions, publications, and outreach. Because of our loyal members, every day, every program, and every gallery wall is dedicated to women artists at NMWA. Thank you!

Save the Date for Member Preview Day Be among the first to explore Border Crossing:

KEVIN ALLEN PHOTOGRAPHY

Matching Gift Challenge Met!

NMWA Chief Curator Kathryn Wat leads a tour of the recent exhibition NO MAN’S LAND

Jami Porter Lara and New Ground: The Southwest of Maria Martinez and Laura Gilpin. Member Preview Day is Thursday, February 16, 10 a.m.–2 p.m. There will be tours throughout the day, featuring Jami Porter Lara at 11 a.m.

Entrance is free for members with one guest. The Museum Shop will offer double discounts (20%) and the Mezzanine Café will have a special 15% discount for our members!

In September, the Arkansas State Committee met in Bentonville at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art to listen to renowned feminist artist Judy Chicago in conversation with Curator Chad Alligood. During this sold-out event the two discussed Chicago’s work and her commitment to the power of art in advancing intellectual and social change. The talk also included a book signing and a reception hosted by the committee at the nearby 21c Museum Hotel. The Massachusetts State Committee toured the Harvard Art Museum exhibition Doris Salcedo: The Materiality of Mourning in November. The evocative array of works was a response to grief, oppression, and political violence in Colombia and beyond. The exhibition also highlighted the dynamic between Salcedo’s painstaking handmade process and the materiality of objects. The New Mexico State Committee held a tribute event for Jill Cooper Udall to celebrate her many years of arts advocacy. Udall, an accomplished lawyer, has served on the boards of many institutions and was also appointed by President Obama to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. 30

WOMEN IN THE ARTS | WINTER/SPRING 2017

NMWA Director Susan Fisher Sterling, artist Judy Chicago, and Mayor Javier Gonzales of Santa Fe were also in attendance. Proceeds fund the committee’s scholarship program, which helps young women artists in New Mexico work toward undergraduate arts degrees. In October, Les Amis du NMWA hosted a roundtable discussion entitled “Cherchez Les Femmes: Recognizing Women Artists Today.” Launched by Susan Fisher Above: Judy Chicago and Chad Alligood with members of the Arkansas State Sterling, participants Committee at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. included Fabrice Hergott, Below: Susan Fisher Sterling speaks to Les Amis du NMWA and guests at the director of the Museum discussion hosted at the Mona Bismarck American Center of Modern Art of the City of Paris; Camille Morineau, co-founder and president of AWARE artist Elsa Sahal. They discussed the status of (Archives of Women Artists, Research & women artists in France and the United States Exhibitions); Floriane de Saint Pierre, business as well as initiatives to increase women artists’ leader and art collector; and contemporary prominence in galleries and public institutions.

MONA BISMARCK AMERICAN CENTER; BOGDAN-MIHAI DRAGOT

Committee Activities

DONALD WOODMAN

Committee News

MUSEUM NEWS AND EVENTS

Museum Events Opening reception for NO MAN’S LAND: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection

2 IMAGES 2–4 KEVIN ALLEN PHOTOGRAPHY

1. NMWA Founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay and collector Mera Rubell with artist Li Shurui in front of her work 2. Attendees are welcomed by NMWA Director Susan Fisher Sterling and collectors Mera and Don Rubell 3. Rubell Family Collection Director Juan Roselione-Valadez leads an exhibition tour 4. Lisa Marie Thalhammer, Christina Waddler, Jenny Walton, Sheldon Scott, NO MAN’S LAND artist Rozeal, Philippa Hughes of the Pink Line Project, and Miles McKenna

FRESH TALK: Liz Ogbu & Swoon— How do we build to better?

KEVIN ALLEN PHOTOGRAPHY

5. Kriston Capps of The Atlantic’s CityLab moderates a conversation with artist Caledonia Curry (Swoon) and urbanist Liz Ogbu 6. Swoon describes her communitybased artwork 7. Attendees enjoy activities at the Catalyst cocktail hour following the conversation

FRESH TALK: Righting the Balance—How can the arts advance body politics?

MARGOT SCHULMAN

8. Moderator Tanya Selvaratnam, Katie Cappiello, Aishah Shahidah Simmons, and Emma Sulkowicz present and talk about addressing issues of sexism and sexual violence through their art 9.-10. Attendees enjoy a communal Sunday Supper and have fun with photo props at a selfie station

WINTER/SPRING 2017 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

SUPPORTING ROLES

Board of Trustees

Legacy of Women in the Arts Endowment Campaign

Wilhelmina Cole Holladay—Chair, Winton S. Holladay— Vice Chair, Cindy Jones—President, Gina F. Adams— First Vice President, Susan Goldberg—Second Vice President (Community Relations), Joanne C. Stringer— Treasurer, Nancy Duber—Secretary, Mary V. Mochary— Finance Chair, Amy Weiss—Nominations Chair, Nancy Nelson Stevenson—Works of Art Chair, Marcia Myers Carlucci—Building Chair, Carol Matthews Lascaris—President Emerita and Endowment Chair, Dana J. Snyder—At Large, Susan Fisher Sterling— The Alice West Director*, Janice Lindhurst Adams, Pamela G. Bailey, M. A. Ruda Brickfield, Charlotte Clay Buxton, Rose Carter, Diane CaseyLandry, Mary Clark*, Lizette Corro, Ashley Davis, Betty Boyd Dettre, Deborah I. Dingell, Martha Lyn Dippell, Karen Dixon Fuller, Sally L. Jones, Marlene Malek, Jacqueline Badger Mars, Juliana E. May, Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, Jacqui Michel, Marjorie Odeen, Jackie Quillen, Andrea Roane, Sheila Shaffer, Kathleen Elizabeth Springhorn, Jessica H. Sterchi, Mahinder Tak, Annie S. Totah, Sarah Bucknell Treco*, Frances Luessenhop Usher, Ruthanna Maxwell Weber, Alice West

We wish to thank all of the supporters of the Legacy of Women in the Arts Endowment Campaign, whose generosity guarantees that NMWA will endure and forever inspire for generations to come. Although we can only list donations of $10,000 and above due to space limitations, NMWA is grateful to all donors to the endowment.

*Ex-Officio

NMWA Advisory Board Sarah Bucknell Treco—Chair, Noreen M. Ackerman, Sunny Scully Alsup, Jean Astrop, Jo Ann Barefoot, Gail Bassin, Susan G. Berk, Sue Ann Berlin, Catherine Little Bert, Brenda Bertholf, Eva M. Borins, Nancy Anne Branton, Amy Sosland Brown, Margaret Boyce Brown, Deborah G. Carstens, Eleanor Chabraja, Paul T. Clark, John Comstock, Linda Comstock, Lynn Finesilver Crystal, Liz Cullen, Verónica de Ferrero, Belinda de Gaudemar, Betty Dettre, Elizabeth J. Doverman, Ginni Dreier, Kenneth P. Dutter, Gerry E. Ehrlich, Patrice Emrie, Elva Ferrari-Graham, Lisa Claudy Fleischman, Rosemarie Forsythe, Jane Fortune, Claudia Fritsche, Julie Garcia, Lisa Garrison, Barbara S. Goldfarb, Jody Harrison Grass, Claudia Hauberg, Sue J. Henry, Anna Stapleton Henson, Caroline Rose Hunt, Jan Jessup, Alice D. Kaplan, Arlene Fine Klepper, Doris Kloster, Nelleke Langhout-Nix, Fred M. Levin, Gladys Kemp Lisanby, Sarah H. Lisanby, M.D., Nancy Livingston, Maria Teresa Martínez, C. Raymond Marvin, Pat McCall, Debby McGinn, Dee Ann McIntyre, Cynthia McKee, Suzanne Mellor, Eleanor Smith Morris, Claudia Pensotti Mosca, Deborah E. Myers, Jeannette T. Nichols, Kay W. Olson, Katherine D. Ortega, Margaret Perkins, Patti Pyle, Madeleine Rast, Drina Rendic, Barbara Richter, Elizabeth Robinson, Geri Roper, Elizabeth A. Sackler, Stephanie Sale, Steven Scott, Marsha Brody Shiff, Ann L. Simon, Kathern Ivous Sisk, Geri Skirkanich, Salwa J. Aboud Smith, Dot Snyder, Denise Littlefield Sobel, Patti Amanda Spivey, Kathleen Elizabeth Springhorn, Sara Steinfeld, Jo Stribling, Susan Swartz, Cheryl S. Tague, Lisa Cannon Taylor, MaryRoss Taylor, Deborah Dunklin Tipton, Nancy W. Valentine, Paula S. Wallace, Harriet L. Warm, Island Weiss, Tara Beauregard Whitbeck, Patti White, Betty Bentsen Winn, Rhett D. Workman (all lists as of December 15, 2016)

Endowment Foundation Trustee ($1 million+) Anonymous, Betty B. and Rexford* Dettre, Estate of Grace A. George, Wilhelmina C. and Wallace F.* Holladay, Sr., Carol and Climis Lascaris, Estate of Evelyn B. Metzger, The Honorable Mary V. Mochary, Rose Benté Lee Ostapenko*, Madeleine Rast, The Walton Family Foundation Endowment Foundation Governor ($500,000–$999,999) Noreen M. Ackerman, P. Frederick Albee and Barbara E. Albee*, Catherine L. and Arthur A. Bert, M.D., J.W. Kaempfer, Nelleke Langhout-Nix, Joe R. and Teresa L. Long, James R. and Suzanne S. Mellor, National Endowment for the Humanities, Drs. A. Jess and Ben Shenson*, MaryRoss Taylor, Alice W. and Gordon T. West, Jr. Endowment Foundation Fellow ($200,000–$499,999) Catharina B. and Livingston L. Biddle, Jr.*, Marcia Myers and Frank Carlucci, Costa del Sol Cruise, Kenneth P. Dutter, Estate of E. Louise Gaudet, Lorraine G. Grace*, William Randolph Hearst Foundation, Estate of Eleanor Heller, Fred M. Levin and Nancy Livingston/The Shenson Foundation, in memory of Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson, Dorothy S. Lyddon*/Seven Springs Foundation, Marlene McArthur and Frederic V. Malek, Victoria J. Mastrobuono*, Sea Goddess I and II Trips, Alejandra and Enrique Segura, Sheila and Richard Shaffer, Clarice Smith Endowment Foundation Counselor ($100,000–$199,999) Janice L. and Harold L. Adams, Nunda and Prakash Ambegaonkar, Carol C. Ballard, Baltic Cruise, Eleanor and Nicholas D. Chabraja, Clark Charitable Foundation, Hilda and William B. Clayman, Julia B. and Michael M. Connors, Martha Lyn Dippell and Daniel Lynn Korengold, Gerry E. and S. Paul* Ehrlich, Jr., Enterprise Rent-A-Car, FedEx Corporation, Geiger Family Foundation, Barbara A. Gurwitz and William D. Hall, Caroline Rose Hunt/The Sands Foundation, 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 McElveen-Hunter, Irene Natividad, Jeannette T. Nichols, Nancy O’Malley*, Lady Pearman, Reinsch Pierce Family Foundation by Lola C. Reinsch and J. Almont Pierce, Julia Sevilla Somoza, Marsha Brody Shiff, June Speight*, Kathleen Elizabeth Springhorn, Mahinder K. and Sharad Tak, Sami and Annie Totah Family Foundation 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, Evan and Cindy Jones Foundation, I. Michael and Beth Kasser, William R. and Christine M. Leahy, Louise C. Mino Trust, Zoe H. and James H. Moshovitis, Joan and Lucio A. Noto, Marjorie H. and Philip Odeen, Nancy Bradford Ordway, Katherine D. Ortega, Margaret H. and Jim Perkins, Ramsay D. Potts*, in honor of Veronica R. Potts, Elizabeth Pruet*, Edward Rawson, Jane S. Schwartz Trust, Jack and Dana Snyder, Judith Zee Steinberg and Paul J. Hoenmans, Susan and Scott Sterling, Nancy N. and Roger Stevenson, Jr., Jo and Thomas Stribling, Susan and Jim Swartz, Elizabeth Stafford Hutchinson Endowed Internship—Texas State Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, William and Frances Usher, Elzbieta Chlopecka Vande Sande, Betty Bentsen Winn and Susan Winn Lowry, Yeni Wong Endowment Patron ($25,000–$49,999) Micheline and Sean Connery, Sheila ffolliott, Georgia State Committee of NMWA, New York Trip, Mississippi State Committee of NMWA, Northern Trust, Estate of Mary Marvin Breckinridge Patterson, Chris Petteys*, Lisa and Robert Pumphrey*, Elizabeth A. Sackler, Estate of Madoline W. Shreve, Patti Amanda and Bruce Spivey, Sahil Tak/ST Paper, LLC, In honor of Alice West, Jean and Donald M. Wolf, The Women’s Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts Endowment Sponsor ($15,000–$24,999) Deborah G. Carstens, Stephanie Fein, Martha and Homer Gudelsky*, Sally L. Jones, Louise H. Matthews Fund, Lily Y. Tanaka, Liz and Jim Underhill, Elizabeth Welles, Dian Woodner Endowment Friend ($10,000–$14,999) Carol A. Anderson, Julia and George L. Argyros, Mrs. Joseph T. Beardwood, III, Catherine Bennett and Fred Frailey, Susan G. Berk, Mary Kay Blake, Booz Allen Hamilton, Lynne V. and Richard Cheney, Esther Coopersmith, Darby Foundation, Jack J. Dreyfus, Jr.*, Patricia M. and Clifford J. Ehrlich, Mary Page and Thomas B. Evans, Lois Lehrman Grass, Anna Stapleton Henson, Alexine C. and Aaron G.* Jackson, Jan Jessup, Pamela Johnson and Wesley King, Helga and Peter-Hans Keilbach, Howard and Michelle Kessler, Ellen U. and Alfred A. King* , Jacqueline Badger Mars, C. Raymond Marvin, Clyde and Pat Dean McCall, Edwina H. and Charles P. Milner, Evelyn V. and Robert M.* Moore, Harriet Newbill, Estate of Edythe Bates Old, PepsiCo., Inc., Anne and Chris Reyes, Savannah Trip, Mary Anne B. Stewart, Paula Wallace/ Savannah College of Art and Design, Marjorie Nohowel Wasilewski, Jean S. and Gordon T. Wells * Deceased

WOMEN IN THE ARTS | WINTER/SPRING 2017

MUSEUM SHOP

Museum Shop

Modern Makers: Q&A with Eva Calonder, owner of Printed Wild

Dead Feminists: Historic Heroines in Living Color This gorgeously illustrated book

What is Printed Wild?

combines feminist history with artistic vision. Based on the “Dead Feminists” broadsides series on view at NMWA, this illuminating look at 27 women who’ve changed the world features a foreword by Jill Lepore. Hardcover, 192 pages. $24.95/Member $22.46 (Item #4065)

Printed Wild is a line of handcrafted goods with patterns inspired by nature. I make accessories like pouches and clutches, but also totes and home décor products like pillows.

NMWA Stainless Steel Commuter Tumbler Great for commuting to work or for traveling, with a sleek design that fits comfortably in your hand and car cup holders. Stainless steel with open-and-close lid; hand-wash only. $16.95/ Member $15.26 (Item #30527)

I always start from an original drawing. I cut stencils, carve linoleum blocks, and draw intricate nature scenes. After I have a design, I scan and edit it in Photoshop. Then the final design is transferred onto a silkscreen. I also make all the bags, which involves cutting fabric or leather, ironing, and sewing.

ADRIANA REGALADO AND MALIK CHERRY, NMWA

How do you begin a new project?

Eva Calonder, Printed Wild

What inspired your limited-edition NMWA product? In NMWA’s galleries, I loved May Stevens’s SoHo Women Artists (1978), which portrays an incredible group of New York City-based women artists from the 1970s. I drew directly from the painting, combining the patterns I saw in it.

NMWA Drawstring Backpack

For more about Calonder and other Modern Makers, visit https://nmwa.org/blog.

It’s in the bag! Drawstring backpack provides handy storage when you’re out and about. 100% nylon; zippered front pocket. $6.95/Member $6.26 (Choose Blue or Red, Item #306)

Limited-Edition Slim Clutch by Printed Wild This clutch features a hand-drawn motif inspired by May Stevens’s painting SoHo Women Artists (1978). Screenprinted pattern on certified organic fabric; handcrafted in the District. 11 ½ x 4 ¾ in. $58/Member $52.20 (Choose Roses, or Waves, Item #26134)

Women Know Everything

More than 3,000 quotations on feminism, fashion, marriage, friendship, history, and more! Each page offers wisdom and wit from legendary women, including Jane Austen, Madonna, Toni Morrison, Ellen DeGeneres, and Naomi Klein. Softcover, 480 pages. $16.95/Member $15.26 (Item #29462)

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NATIONAL MUSEUM of WOMEN in the ARTS 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20005-3970

COMING SOON

Revival June 23–September 10, 2017

n celebration of NMWA’s 30th anniversary in 2017, Revival offers a new look at the nature of spectacle. The exhibition presents contemporary sculptors and photobased artists whose arresting aesthetics and intense subject matter spur viewers into a transcendent encounter with the art object. These artists favor figurative or highly allusive imagery, yet they center their works on the unconscious, ferreting out the unspoken through disquieting referents including fragmented bodies, peculiar creatures, and wayward children. The exhibition features artists who engage space to generate intensity. Large-scale sculpture, photographs, and video installations create immersive, mesmeric environments. Smaller, painstakingly fabricated works draw viewers in to deliver strong sensorial impact. Featuring works by Louise Bourgeois, Lalla Essaydi, Alison Saar, and others, Revival illuminates how women sculptors, photographers, and filmmakers regenerate their mediums to profound expressive effect.

Women’s History Month at NMWA During March, visit the museum for programs including: • Daily, Gallery Scavenger Hunt. Explore the museum’s collection and participate in the social media campaign #5WomenArtists. • March 11, Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, 10 a.m.–2 p.m. Help write and improve Wikipedia articles on women artists. • March 29, Fresh Talk conversation and Catalyst cocktail hour. Ann Hamilton and Emily Pilloton talk about inspiring the next generation through the experience of making things.

Maria Marshall, Future Perfect, 1998; Iris print, 56 x 39 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Heather and Tony Podesta Collection