Mickalene Thomas, "A-E-I-O-U and Sometimes Y;" Plastic rhinestones, acrylic, and enamel on panel; 24 x 20 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Deborah Carstens

Akin to the “Most likely to-” entries in a yearbook, portraits featured in Trove present women and men who enact a range of identities—from intellect to free spirit, rebel to aristocrat, and innocent to vamp. This work A-E-I-O-U and Sometimes Y, 2009 by Mickalene Thomas is a perfect example of portraiture.

Rather than those of authors or playwrights, the portraits most familiar to us today are those of Hollywood-based celebrities. The women portrayed by Mickalene Thomas (American, b. 1971) exude the glamour we expect of stars, and Thomas’s paintings are inspired by pop art and 1970s black culture.

Working from a digital projection of a photo booth snapshot, Thomas outlines her subject’s contours in black rhinestones. At first glance, the glossy pink panel looks perfectly uniform, as if machine-made. Closer inspection reveals subtle color variations and paint layers that confirm Thomas’ s creative presence. The painting  above is based on an Andy Warhol-style photo booth snapshot of one of Thomas’s frequent models.

Mickalene Thomas © 2011, Lamont Hamilton, Courtesy of the Artist

In her own words… “I feel like the rhinestones in my paintings are like that really glossy lipstick that women wear. It’s another level of masking, of dressing up.”

Thomas titles many of her works after songs. “A-E-I-O-U Sometimes Y” was a dance club and MTV hit by the two-man group Ebn-Ozn. Check out the video of this 1983 hit.

TROVE” The Collection in Depth closes this weekend on Sunday, January 15.

The focus of a journey could be the exploration of a new territory or a spiritual journey in search of internal peace. It could also be the need to assuage one’s desire for friendship, love, or adventure or, simply, finding an inspiration for creative work. My trip to Germany and Italy in September 2011 was focused on viewing works created by women, on meeting artists, particularly book artists, and on cultivating old friendships. 

Part V: Women Artists of Rome

 In 1985, when the National Museum of Women in the Arts was still located in its temporary headquarters on MacArthur Boulevard in Washington, D.C., (the museum opened in its present location in 1987) we received a letter and a package of photographs of artists’ books and libri oggetti (book-objects) from Italian artists Mirella Bentivoglio and Elisabetta Gut, offering to donate any work we liked to the museum’s collection. Mrs. Holladay and I reviewed the photographs. We loved the works and decided to select Bentivoglio’s A Malherbe and Gut’s Libro-seme (Seed-book). They were the first foreign artists who donated artists’ books to the collection, and we were very excited and grateful for the gift. Subsequently both artists donated many more works to NMWA, and both were given solo exhibitions: Bentivolio in 1999, The Visual Poetry of Mirella Bentivoglio and Elisabetta Gut in 2010, Books Without Words.

Mirella Bentivoglio, A Malherbe (To Malherbe), 1975; Onyx, 5 3/8 x 7 1/8 x 2 1/4 in.

Mirella Bentivoglio is an extraordinary person of many talents. She is best known in Europe for her exploration of the relationship between language/word and image. Unlike most poets, Bentivoglio presents poetry “liberated” from the traditionally printed page. The artist plays with words, breaks rules of syntax, detaches words from phrases, and isolates letters from words. The results of these experiments—concrete and visual poems—are perceived as symbols and metaphors. She also creates unique artists’ books, often made from unusual materials such as marble, wood, and earth, and publishes limited-edition portfolios. She is a renowned sculptor and performance artist. Her public sculpture, The Egg of Gubbio, has been celebrated for years by the citizens of that small Umbrian town. She curated many exhibitions of women artists in Italy and all over the world, and she has participated in the Venice Biennale 10 times, as well as in over 900 solo and group exhibitions. Her concerns, often reflected in her work, are protection of the environment and critique of conspicuous consumerism and thoughtless waste. For her 90th birthday, next year, the National Gallery of Contemporary Art in Rome will present a retrospective exhibition of her work. Most recently, in November 2011, the Museum of Modern and Conteporary Art of Trento and Rovereto (MART) celebrated her major gift, Donation Bentivoglio, of over 300 works of visual poetry and artists’ books by Italian and foreign artists from her private collection.

Bentivoglio has lived dangerously. As a young woman after the World War II, she and her future husband, then a law student, participated in the anti-fascist demonstrations in Northern Italy in Pavia and Milan. One of their favorite anti-establishment activities was whistling in the theaters in Milan, which at the time produced a conservative repertoire that was supportive of the establishment. To protest, a group of students would go to the theater every night, with camouflaged whistles in their pockets; they whistled from many seats located all over the theater during the performance. They were known as “The Whistlers”—Bentivoglio assured me that it was a good tactic, because the following season the theater’s program included Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. “The Whistlers” then relaxed and stopped whistling.

 Bentivoglio is an extraordinary cook. Her fennel salad with oranges and walnuts, her delicious vegetable stews made of eggplants and tomatoes, and homemade pastas with pesto are some of the best dishes I have ever tried anywhere in the world. If weather permits, meals are served on her balcony overlooking a beautiful garden marked by the cypress trees. When the sun goes down, it is like being inside a landscape of a Renaissance painting. This September it was too cold to eat on the balcony, and we sat in her small, blue-wallpapered dining room, eating from beautiful blue china dishes set on a blue tablecloth. My present to her was a blue apron, which she said inspired this blue lunch.

Like many artists, Bentivolio sees in works of art the details invisible to the eyes of other mortals. An example of her poetic imagination occurred in the post office. She noticed a bunch of labels with the sign “fragile,” the sign we often attach to parcels with glass dishes or other delicate contents. Bentivoglio took some of the labels and made a book titled “The World after September 11” (presently in NMWA’s exhibition Trove, until January 15, 2012.) She found the sign “fragile” as the word defining the world after September 11, 2001. “We are surrounded by potential symbols,” says Bentivoglio, “to be discovered in moments of poetic insight and preserved with the help of forms, words, and materials.”

Bentivoglio’s research has brought recognition to many forgotten women artists, in particular to those who were active in the futurist movement. She co-authored, with Franca Zoccoli (as I have mentioned in Part I of my report from Rome), a 2008 book, Le Futuriste Italiane nelle Arti Visivi and published a 2010 portfolio, Futurismo ex Novo (Futurism Anew) describing and reproducing the verbo-visual poetry of Marietta Angelini (1868–1942) who was a maid and lover of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876–1944), the founder of futurist movement. Angelini’s poetry known as ”parole in liberta” (words in freedom) is a kind of a private diary in which she alludes to her sexual adventures with Marinetti and depicts a busy life of a woman in a domestic space. Futurismo ex Nove has been recently donated to NMWA.

Elisabetta Gut, L’uccello di fuoco (Da Stravinsky) (The Firebird (From Stravinsky)), 1985; Paper cutout, wood, and collage; 8 ½ x 11 x 2 ¼ in.; Gift of H.G. Spencer in honor of Lorraine Grace

Elisabetta Gut’s recent exhibition Books Without Words, in 2010, was enthusiastically received by NMWA’s visitors. Many recorded their impressions in the exhibition guest-book, which the artist asked us to photocopy and send to her to Rome. Gut reported that reading and rereading visitors’ remarks is the best medication she knows for her gloomy days and blue moods. It uplifts her spirits instantaneously. Among the visitors to the show was Joseph Eisenberg, Cultural Director of Maitland Regional Art Gallery, in Maitland, Australia, who fell in love with Gut’s art. He asked NMWA to travel the show to Australia, but we had already arranged the return of the exhibition toRome and it was not possible. Mr. Eisenberg persisted, and in October this year he and his curator went to Rome to select the works for Gut’s 2012 exhibition in Maitland. When I visited the artist this September, Gut showed me her new works, which will travel to Australia for the Maitland show. They were pure poetry and magic, and I wished I could present another exhibition of her works at NMWA.

Elisabetta Gut at home

Even though I had been to Rome before, I had never seen Bocca della Verita (the Mouth of Truth) located in the portico of Santa Maria in Cosmedin Church. It was a sentimental journey inspired by one of my favorite films, Roman Holiday, with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. In one of the movie’s scenes, Peck puts his hand into the stone “mouth of truth,” which is supposed to bite the hand of a liar. The line of tourists was too long to verify my truthfulness, but my curiosity was assuaged. I also made a pilgrimage to Via Margutta 51, where Peck, who played the role of an American journalist in love with a princess (Hepburn), lived in a modest apartment. It had not changed much since 1953, when the film was made.

The Mouth of Truth

The other news of interest to our bloggers might be the information about a Georgia O’Keeffe exhibition (October 4, 2011–January 22, 2012) taking place in Rome in Palazzo Cipolla on Via del Corso. The show is curated by one of her biographers, Barbara Buhler Lynes. Another great woman painter, Artemisia Gentileschi, enjoys great glory in Milan, where an exhibition of her 40 major works is on view in Palazzo Reale (Royal Palace) through January 29, 2012.

Finally, I would like to share with you the recipe for my new favorite drink, which I tried for the first time this year in Italy. If you take a walk in the afternoon inVenice, you will notice in almost every outdoor cafe people sipping red liquid from their glasses. This is a Spritz, a mixture of Prosecco and Campari, with a slice of orange and some ice. Cin-cin!

—Krystyna Wasserman is the curator of book arts at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Nicole Vanasse's "Goldilocks"

Textile collage artist Nicole Vanasse, the winner of the 2010 Library Fellows Award (a biennial award that funds an artist’s creation of a book in an edition of 125), met with the members and gave a presentation describing the inspiration and process behind her winning book, Goldilocks. Then she unveiled the finished work for the first time, to the delight of the members.

Nicole Vanasse showing her artist book "Goldilocks"

Inspired by the classical children’s story, events from her childhood, and her cat, this creative, interactive book tells the tale of the Bear family meeting an unconventional Goldilocks. Suitable for children and adults alike, the story beautifully portrays the way that wondrous relationships can sneak up and catch people when they aren’t looking. The outside features an invitingly tactile faux-fur cover, perhaps bringing to mind a cuddly cat. Readers can pull out the hand-cut cards—tucked into pockets facing the illustrations—that tell the story. The reproductions depict original textile collage panels that Vanasse made over a four-year period, which were transferred to pliable, matte-finished canvas and applied directly as book plates to fleece pages.

For ten months, Vanasse laboriously sewed, cut, and bound each of the 125 copies by hand. Since she was new to the book binding process, she researched various binding techniques on the internet, and selected a sewing technique in order to securely ties the pages without bunching the material. She chose to do the assembly herself in order to carry on the centuries-old tradition of mothers making soft books for children.

NMWA Library Fellows Meeting

Vanasse’s presentation wasn’t the only highlight of the meeting. Kerry McAleer-Keeler, the Director of Corcoran College’s Art and the Book Program, presented a slideshow of impressive student book art projects and spoke about Corcoran’s unique program. The program prepares students with scholarship, technique, and professional guidance, providing opportunities for success in the book art and bookmaking fields. Situated inWashington,D.C., the graduate program compliments NMWA’s renowned artists’ books program and exhibitions.

—Jennifer Page is the library assistant in the Library and Research Center at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

The focus of a journey could be the exploration of a new territory or a spiritual journey in search of internal peace. It could also be the need to assuage one’s desire for friendship, love, or adventure or, simply, finding an inspiration for creative work. My trip to Germany and Italy in September 2011 was focused on viewing works created by women, on meeting artists, particularly book artists, and on cultivating old friendships. 

Part IV: Rome

Franca Zoccoli, an art critic and art historian who has been NMWA’s friend and supporter for many years, invited me to visit her in Rome. In 1999, she came to Washington to see the museum and to deliver a lecture on contemporary Italian women artists. Her special interests include American art and Italian women futurists, and she has written and published books on both subjects. Her recent volume, Le Futuriste Italiane nelle Arti Visivi (2008), co-authored with Mirella Bentivoglio, met with enormous acclaim in Italy, receiving rave reviews. Franca knows everything and more that a visitor might wish to learn about art and the city of Rome; she also makes the best lasagna. In her residential neighborhood, Parioli, we wandered on Sunday morning around the large park known as Parco di Villa Glori, watching graceful amazons and children riding horses and ponies. The park celebrates the memory of the Italian heroes who died for their country. We also explored the new Parco della Musica, designed by Renzo Piano, where the neighborhood people listen to music in three large concert halls and watch plays in the Roman-inspired outdoor theater. And we visited museums I had never seen before, MACRO and MAXXI.

The Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome (MACRO) opened in 2002 in a transformed former Peroni beer factory. MACRO collects and presents Italian art since the 1960s. An exhibition of Bice Lazzari: L’Equilibri dello Spazio (The Balance of Space) was one of the major exhibitions on view in September 2011. Thanks to Franca Zoccoli’s friendship with the artist’s family, a painting by Bice Lazzari (1900–1981) Misure Doppio Ritmo (1967) was given to NMWA. The exhibition is part of the project known as MACRO Roots of Contemporary Art, designed to introduce to a new generation of museum-goers some important artists whose work and activity laid down the foundations of contemporary art in Rome. The installation includes Lazzari’s paintings and drawings, in addition to sketchbooks, photographs, documents, and additional works stored in cabinet drawers that visitors can pull out and study in depth. Lazzari’s work, described as “harmonious signs suspended in space combining lyricism and expressiveness with rational inquiry” was strongly influenced by poetry and music. The artist was part of the European avant-garde of the ’20s and ’30s. She has been credited as one of the precursors of Minimalism in Italy.

The MAXXI, in Rome

The newest museum in Rome, the beautiful National Museum of XXI Century Arts, known as MAXXI, which was designed by Iraq-born star of international architecture Zaha Hadid, opened in May 2010. Hadid won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004—the first woman so honored—and the Stirling Prize in 2010 for the best new European building, the Evelyn Grace Academy in South London (U.K.), a concrete-and-glass structure housing a secondary school in an underprivileged part of London. Presently, Hadid is engaged in designing the Eli and Edy Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University in East Lansing, scheduled to open on April 21, 2012.

The interior of the Zaha Hadid-designed MAXXI

MAXXI is an extraordinary building. Its fluid and sinuous design is reminiscent of the flow of a river, which reflects Hadid’s intention to create “a fluid construct comprising a series of streams—converging, overlapping, then changing course.” As one explores the museum, the winding paths and ramps of the building and the open exhibition areas feel more like a walk along the river than perusing traditionally enclosed gallery spaces. MAXXI took an industrial area occupied by a set of military barracks and transformed it into a new arts district. The plaza leading to the museum has become a neighborhood playground. Children play in sandboxes and climb artificial hills. In the heat of the summer they look for shade under the petals of the large red glass flowers, illuminated at night (see photo). The pavement of the plaza is covered with paths of colorful drawings and paintings by an artist from India. People from the neighborhood sit on the stone benches, chatting, reading, and drinking lemonade.  MAXXI Plaza on that late summer night remains in my memory as the most community-oriented museum space I have ever seen in any city.

Outdoor space at MAXXI

The Foundation MAXXI, sponsored by the Italian Government, is made up of two parts—one devoted to the visual arts and the other to architecture (MAXXI Architettura and MAXXI Arte). MAXXI Architettura recently collaborated with the Museum of Modern Art PS1 in New York on the Young Architect Program (YAP), which features the work of talented young architects from all over the world through a competitive process. The outdoor projects of both MAXXI and MoMA PS1 often are designed by the winners of the competition. MAXXI ARTE includes more than 300 works by international artists, which are displayed on rotation together with temporary exhibitions focused on leading contemporary masters. Sol LeWitt (1928–2007) an American conceptual artist known for simple geometric sculptures and wall drawings, has been prominently featured among them.

—Krystyna Wasserman is the curator of book arts at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, "Thanksgiving at Plymouth," 1925, Oil on canvas, 30 x 39 1/8 in., National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay

On view in NMWA’s current exhibition, Trove: The Collection in Depth, is Thanksgiving at Plymouth, painted by Jennie Augusta Browncombe in 1925. As last-minute pies are baked and extended friends and family gather, this painting not only brings to mind the tradition of Thanksgiving, but also reframes the story within the context of memory.

In the painting’s details, Brownscombe depicts the deeply entrenched rituals of our Thanksgiving myth—Plymouthsettlers and the Wampanoag tribe together, sharing in an autumn harvest feast. Women carry baskets filled with potatoes while roasted pheasants lay across the white-clothed table. This image lends to the nostalgic air of this time-honoredNew Englandscene of 1621, or what has historically been deemed “The First Thanksgiving.”

As few contemporary Americans realize while celebrating this holiday, the scene also reveals colonial revivalism andAmerica’s tradition of idealizing the past, thus creating an “invented tradition.” Thanksgiving did not appear as a holiday until 1863, when, after a 35-year-long campaign by Sarah Josepha Hale (the woman who penned the rhyme “Mary had a Little Lamb”), President Abraham Lincoln decreed the last Thursday in November a holiday, in attempt to unify the warring states.

Artists such as Brownscombe have re-created this vision, playing on shared experiences of collective memory, often in lieu of historical accuracy. Although Brownscombe’s research into the subjects portrayed proves her investment in the painting, the discrepancies of the Wampanoag clothing (using Sioux headdresses from the Plains tribes) and log cabin in the background (rather than straw and mud houses that would have been historically correct) demonstrate her reliance on the collective memory of the Pilgrim feast.

However, Brownscombe’s work provided exactly the sentiment that Lincolnhoped would prevail as the Civil War raged. She created an emotional moment of solemnity and gratitude, freezing an event that continues to have profound reverberations for Americans. This collective memory appears in various guises throughout Trove, and Brownscombe’s painting portrays only one instance in history of second-hand memories.

Elizabeth Keith, Gentle in Ceremonial Dress, 1920; Gouache, 13 1/2 x 16 1/2; Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena

During this time, Keith travelled across Asia, with the assistance of a network of missionaries and educators. In China, Korea, and the Philippines, Keith painted watercolors of the fascinating scenes she saw. When she returned to Tokyo a year later she held a small exhibition of the watercolors, which caught the attention of the Japanese print publisher Watanabe Shōzaburō. He persuaded Keith to allow his carvers and printers to produce woodblock prints of some of her paintings. As Keith told the story in her book Eastern Windows:

“A few years ago in Tokyo I held an exhibition of water-colour sketches portraying the everyday life of the Koreans. It was the first exhibition of Korean subjects ever held there. The leading colour printer, then a stranger to me, came to the exhibition and strongly advised me to have my water-colour of ‘East Gate, Seoul by Moonlight,’ made into a colour print. He declared that it would be a great success. I took his advice and he was right, for the subject is still the most popular of my prints.”

—Elizabeth Keith, Eastern Windows, 1926

Keith had never created a woodblock before, so she spent the following two years studying the technique and soon began carving and printing her own works without the aid of Watanabe’s artisans. Keith continued to travel and produce prints that she sold to Asian as well as Western audiences. In an unpublished interview from 1935, Keith describes the allure of woodblock prints:

“The cutting and printing of blocks is now so common that children learn it at school. The process is demonstrated yearly in Tokyo when any exhibition of prints is being shown; it is even made an attraction at fashionable garden parties for foreign travelers. It holds no secret; the method is known to all. Nevertheless, whenever I have a show of colour prints, I am besieged by people who want to know how it is done.”

—Elizabeth Keith, “An Interview,” unpublished manuscript, 1935

Elizabeth Keith, Waiting for the Fight, 1924; Color woodblock print, 8 1/4 x 18 3/4; Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena

Keith lived in many places and seems not to have stayed in any for very long. In the last decades of her life she lived in England, where she studied color etching; then returned to Japan until the end of World War II, when she moved to the United States. Dr. Kendall Brown, curator of Visions, describes Keith’s intent to create an Orient which she connected with emotionally. In her paintings, woodblock prints, and colored lithographs, Keith sought to capture with ethnographic accuracy the customs and costumes of vanishing Asia.

She lived in the U.S. until her death in 1956, although she maintained a strong connection with Asia, holding an exhibition in Tokyo during the last year of her life. Her talents have become much appreciated and many of her prints—now quite rare—are in public collections and museums. In her lifetime, she had the satisfaction of seeing her prints depicting Asian life acquired by the British Museum, the Musee Guimet in Paris, the National Gallery of Canada, the Honolulu Academy of Arts, and, as an important part of the Murray Warner collection at the Museum of Art at the University of Oregon, the lender of many of the prints on view at NMWA in Visions of the Orient.

—Danielle Vartabedian is the communications and publications intern at the National Museum of Women in the Arts

On the cover, Amy Lamb’s Vase of Flowers I (1999) is currently on view in Trove: The Collection in Depth (on view through January 15), an exhibition that provides a fresh focus on NMWA’s collection, exploring subjects that have been frequently depicted in art. This color-saturated, highly detailed work by Lamb, a contemporary photographer, reflects one of Trove’s themes, “Flora and Fauna.”

On view in Trove: Maria Sibylla Merian, Plate 70 (from "Dissertation in Insect Generations and Metamorphosis in Surinam", second edition), 1719; Hand-colored engraving on paper, 11 x 16 1/8 in.; Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay

Vase of Flowers I is presented near an 18th-century oil painting by Rachel Rusych that also portrays flowers in a container, prints by 17th-century artist Maria Sibylla Merian that emphasize plants’ and animals’ intricate anatomy, and artists’ books that show how the written word can be consumed as sustenance. These juxtapositions showcase the diverse mediums and methods that women artists have used to depict plants and animals over time.

Trove also includes works that respond to themes of landscape, portraiture, family relationships, and memory. Each section—the show incorporates painting, sculpture, photography, artists’ books, silver, works on paper, and more—highlights universal themes and unique artistic responses, and celebrates, as Curator Kathryn A. Wat describes, “the richness of the museum’s collection.”

Lilian Miller, East Mountain, Kyoto Dusk, c. 1928; Ink on paper, 10 5/8 x 9 5/8 in.; Scripps College, Claremont, California; Gift of Robert and Marilyn Ravicz

Also featured in the fall issue, Visions of the Orient: Western Women Artists in Asia 1900–1940 (on view through January 15) is organized by the Pacific Asia Museum with the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Curator Kendall Brown contributed an article to Women in the Arts to describe the exhibition, which features striking imagery by four women artists—Helen Hyde, Bertha Lum, Elizabeth Keith, and Lilian “Jack” Miller—who went to Asia to learn techniques like woodblock printing and then created prints and paintings for Western audiences. As Brown describes, the show “addresses Orientalism, diverse creative reactions to Asia, and women artists’ struggles to build careers in the early 20th century.” The work reflects each artist’s personal interpretation of Asia: Hyde’s work often depicts serene, domestic settings; Lum’s pieces are full of ghostly and magical “exotica,” Keith sought to construct an “authentic” Japan by presenting its customs and costumes, and Miller’s version of Asia is powerful and atmospheric.

On view in 25 x 25: May Stevens, Soho Women Artists, 1978; Acrylic on canvas, 78 x 142 in.; Museum purchase: The Lois Pollard Price Acquisition Fund

Also in the fall issue, you’ll read about 25 x 25, a presentation of donated artwork that highlights the growth of the collection over the past quarter century. Another special work that NMWA visitors will see when they visit the museum in its 25th-anniversary year is Georgia O’Keeffe’s Jack-in-Pulpit—No. 2, on loan from the National Gallery of Art. In addition, an article by Director of the Library and Research Center Heather Slania showcases one of the LRC’s special collections, the works of artist Doris Lee.

To read the full text of these intriguing articles, as well as to discover museum news and events information, pick up a copy of Women in the Arts by visiting NMWA or becoming a member today!

—Elizabeth Lynch is the editor at the National Museum of Women in the Arts

The focus of a journey could be the exploration of a new territory or a spiritual journey in search of internal peace. It could also be the need to assuage one’s desire for friendship, love, or adventure or, simply, finding an inspiration for creative work. My trip to Germany and Italy in September 2011 was focused on viewing works created by women, on meeting artists, particularly book artists, and on cultivating old friendships. 

PART III . Bologna

Home of the oldest university in Europe (1088) and the capital of tortellini, Bologna is also the birth place of Lavinia Fontana (1552–1614) and Elisabetta Sirani (1638–1665), two of the best-known “old mistresses.” Fontana was the favorite painter of the noblewomen and created two of the oldest paintings in the NMWA collection, Portrait of a Noblewoman and Portrait of Costanza Alidosi, which are excellent examples of this genre. Of the two artists, Fontana is now given more recognition, judging by the number of her works on museum walls during my September 2011 visit to the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna.

Lavinia Fontana, Portrait of Costanza Alidosi, c. 1595; Oil on canvas, 62 x 47 3/8 in.; Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay

Fontana’s somber Ritratto della Famiglia Gozzadini (1584) (Portrait of the Gozzadini Family) was commissioned by the Bolognese aristocrat Laudomia Gozzadini. At the time the portrait was painted, Laudomia’s father, a senator, and her sister Ginevra were dead. The painting underscores Laudomia’s role as the legitimate heir to the family’s power and fortune. The portrait, as Vera Fortunati, a feminist art historian from the University of Bologna, observed,” is a kind of domestic alterpiece dedicated to the household gods.” Ritratto di neonato nella culla (1583) (Portrait of a Newborn in the Cradle), also on view, portrays a less common subject for a painter of that period. The baby’s aristocratic background is depicted through exquisite white clothing and inlaid cradle; however, the cradle is reminiscent of a catafalque and it has been observed that the painting may depict a deceased newborn. Fontana was the mother of eleven children and painted several children’s portraits, but as Vera Fortunati suggests quoting from P. Aries Padri e Figli nell’ Europa Moderna, 1960, “the appearance in the sixteenth century of the portrait of a dead child represents a very important moment in the history of feelings.” Both paintings travelled in 1998 to Washington for NMWA’s exhibition Lavinia Fontana of Bologna, 1552–1614 (February 5–June 7, 1998).

Fontana was also the first woman to paint alterpieces at the time of Counter-Reformation and the growing power of the Catholic Church. One of her altarpiece paintings, San Francisco di Paola blessing the Child has been also on view in the Pinacoteca Nazionale. Birth of the Virgin Mary can be seen in Santissima Trinita church and Madonna Enthroned with Child and Santa Caterina of Alexandria, Cosma, Damiano e il Committente Scipione Calcina in the church of San Giacomo Maggiore, among other churches of Bologna.

Donatella Franchi, A Clotilde, 2009; Mixed media, 8 x 8 1/2 inches; Gift of Lynn M. Johnston

I sorely missed Fontana’s tender Ritratto di Gentildonna con Bambina (Portrait of a Noblewoman with a Young Girl (ca.1590–1595) in which a mother passes a bound in red velvet book to her small daughter. This painting was an inspiration for a contemporary artist of Bologna, Donatella Franchi, in creating the artist’s book A Clotilde (currently on view in NMWA’s exhibition Trove). The book is devoted to her mother, who died at the age of one hundred. Franchi says, “In my memories of her as young woman, she always holds a book in her hands. To overcome the anguish that her fragility and dependence occasionally caused me, I focused on her most characteristic gestures. Her hands, delicately turning the pages or resting on them, appeared to be bathed in the same light as the great tradition of artistic portraits. The Pinacoteca painting depicting a mother passing a book to her daughter is one of them. Now that my mother is no longer here, it is with great intensity that I harbor within me the force of this legacy.”

Via Urbana, Elisabetta Sirani's birthplace

Elisabetta Sirani (1638–1665) lived on Via Urbana 7, a quiet arcaded street. There is a plaque on the building that says: “Nell giorno VIII gennaio 1638 qui nacque Elisabetta Sirani emulatrice delsommo Guido Reni” (On the day of January 8, 1638 Elisabetta Sirani, the rival of the great Guido Reni (1575–1642) was born [in this building].) It is a slightly chauvinist inscription. It defines Sirani as emulatrice of Guido Reni rather than remembering her as an independent talent and an accomplished painter of religious and historical scenes. Guido Reni would never be described as a “rival” of Sirani or any other artist on the wall of the building he was born or lived in. In the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna the only Sirani painting on view was Sant’Antonio di Padova in adorazione del Bambin Gesu (1662). I was disappointed that San Girolamo (1660) and Maddalena (1660), some of her greatest works, were nowhere to be seen.

Elisabetta Sirani, Virgin and Child, 1663; Oil on canvas, 34 x 27 1/2 in.; Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay; Conservation funds generously provided by the Southern California State Committee of NMWA

Sirani’s life was the subject of gossip. Young and beautiful, she died at the age of 27 at the peak of her successful career. A poisoning by a domestic servant Lucia Tolomelli was rumored, but I was assured by scholars that the autopsy proved that the artist died of stomach ulcers and a perforated stomach. She was working too hard to support her family and it did not help that her father, also a painter, kept and controlled all of her earnings.

Massimo Pulini's book on Ginevra Cantofoli

In Donatella Franchi’s library, I discovered a book by Massimo Pulini Ginevra Cantofoli: La nuova nascita di una pittrice nella Biologna del Seicento. Ginevra Cantofoli (1608–1672) was a talented pupil of Sirani and an excellent painter whose work was often attributed to Guido Reni and other artists. Pulini identified many works by Cantofoli, among them a portrait of Sirani (in a private collection in Bologna.) She particularly excelled in sensitive and idealized paintings of women. Her Sibilla (Busto di Ragazza) is in the Hermitage, another Sibilla (Donna con Turbante) in the Louvre collection, and Berenice is in Galeria Borghese in Rome. In Bologna, none of her paintings is on view, even though Pulini’s book lists the large canvas Vergine Immacolata col Bambin Gesu (190 x 117 cm.) in the collection of the Pinacoteca in Bologna. Cantofoli’s paintings deserve to be known and seen. The magistrates of the city of Bologna should pay more attention to the legacy of their women artists to maintain the historical importance of their city as the legendary world’s capital of women artists from the Renaissance to the 18th century.

Santo Stefano church, in Bologna

Angela Lorenz is another contemporary artist in Bologna whose artist’s books are in NMWA’s collection. Often referring to the female heroines of the past, she is currently working on an installation, Victorious Secrets, inspired by the mosaics of 380 A.D. in Villa Armorina in Sicily representing women wearing bikinis. Lorenz is an American from New England who married an Italian man photographer (who is also the owner of the best gelateria in Bologna). Unlike most art historians, guidebook writers, and tourists, she is not concerned with what the women are wearing, but what they are doing. Lorenz creates mosaics made of buttons, a traditional material used by seamstresses, which she stores in large boxes in her studio. After thorough research, she discovered that the women portrayed are the athletes and the winners of the Olympic games. Unlike the men who performed naked, women participated in the Olympics every other year and wore bikinis. She is currently creating a triptych which will show women throwing discus, playing ball, and lifting weights.

—Krystyna Wasserman is the curator of book arts at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Check back soon for additional posts on her travels.

The focus of a journey could be the exploration of a new territory or a spiritual journey in search of internal peace. It could also be the need to assuage one’s desire for friendship, love, or adventure or, simply, finding an inspiration for creative work. My trip to Germany and Italy in September 2011 was focused on viewing works created by women, on meeting artists, particularly book artists, and on cultivating old friendships. 

PART II . Berlin and Hannover

Karla Woisnitza in her home studio

Karla Woisnitza, a painter and book artist, has several works in NMWA’s collection. She grew up in East Germany and lived there until the unification in 1989. Karla has had many solo exhibitions in Germany; most recently she has shown her paintings and drawings in Mannheim Kunsthalle. She invited me to her studio and home to review the new artist’s book that she has been working on for the last five years, which NMWA is acquiring. Each page is filled with the exquisite abstract ink drawings, rendered in a repetitive and highly decorative pattern of signs. Her work is peopled by distorted figures somewhat inspired by the ubiquitous graffitti in Berlin. Near Woisnitza’s studio, on the corner of Lychener and Raumerstrasse, is Frida Kahlo Restaurant, a building painted vibrant blue, just like the Blue House and Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City.

The Kahlo Restaurant

There are many splendid museums in Berlin, but some of them ignore completely women artists. A magnificent exhibition of Italian Renaissance portraiture, at the Bode Museum, Gesihter der Renaissance: Meisterwerke Italienischer Portrait-Kunst, did not include one work by a woman. The Gemäldegalerie has a very few works by women on view, among them a painting by Sofonisba Anguissola of her mother Bianca Ponzone Anguissola, a beautiful self-portrait by Anna-Dorothea Therbusch, Angelica Kauffmann’s Bachante, and Elisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun’s angelic portrait of Prince Heinrich Lubomirski. In the Neue Nationalgalerie, among the works of art created between the years 1900–1945, there is a large painting by Lotte Laserstein, Evening over Potsdam, as well as numerous works by Hannah Höch, Natalia Goncharova, Paula Modersohn-Becker, and Marianne Werefkin. Visiting museums in Europe, for centuries bastions of male art, one observes the growing visibility of women artists in the 20th and 21st centuries. The “old mistresses” are mostly forgotten, an affirmation that NMWA’s mission is significant. 

My second stop in Germany was Hannover. I went there to see my old friend Prof. Dr. Ruth von Ledebur, a retired professor of English literature whose special interest has been Shakespeare. My friendship with her dates to the 1970s and 1980s, when we used to go with our husbands to international conferences. While they were busy with their meetings we found time to drive around Europe and visit museums. Thanks to her, I discovered works by Judith Leyster in Haarlem. We took a streetcar to downtown Hannover and explored two superb museums, the Sprengel Museumand the Landes Museum. Sprengel is best known for its collection of works and the Archive of Kurt Schwitters, including his famous

Niki de Saint Phalle's Nana figure

architectural sculpture-room installation known as Merzbau, which was created between 1920 and 1937, destroyed during World War II, and reconstructed by Peter Bissegger in 1983. Schwitters was almost singlehandedly responsible for the development of the Hannover Dada, one of the centers of the Dada movement in central Europeafter World War I. His artist-friend Hannah Höch (who was part of Berlin Dada group) is also well represented by numerous assemblages, collages and drawings.

Niki de Saint Phalle (whose work has been showcased in NMWA’s New York Avenue Sculpture Project) is exceptionally popular in Hannover. Her La Grotte, Nana figures and other large public sculptures are on permanent display in the Great Garden of the Herrenhausen, and the Sprengel museum includes several galleries of her prints, drawings and sculptures. The Landes Museum (Hannover State Museum) celebrates Paula Modersohn-Becker. Three galleries are devoted to her paintings, including Girl in a Black Hat.

—Krystyna Wasserman is the curator of book arts at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Check back soon for additional posts on her travels.