Bice Lazzari, Grigio + Giallo (Gray and Yellow), 1966; Acrylic on canvas; Courtesy of Archivio Bice Lazzari

Born in Venice, Lazzari, who would become one of Italy’s most revered modern artists, was discouraged from studying the figure in art school in the 1910s because of her gender. She pursued the visual arts regardless, adopting the informel style, the prevailing movement in abstract European painting in the mid-twentieth century.

Bice Lazzari (left) and Acrilico K, 1979; Acrylic on canvas; Both images courtesy of Archivio Bice Lazzari

As her career developed, she further simplified her imagery, drawing or painting grids, lines, rows of dots and dashes, and irregular shapes against a monochromatic background. Though her marks are exact and rigorous, Lazzari created her compositions freely and drew by hand. The lines and forms in Lazzari’s compositions create rhythms that interact, emphasizing the play between surface and depth, and brilliantly bringing her works to life.

Bice Lazzari: Signature Line is on view at NMWA May 10–September 22, 2013, as part of 2013—Year of Italian Culture in the United States, an initiative organized by Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Italy, Washington, D.C. This exhibition presents a selection of 25 paintings and drawings from the Archivio Bice Lazzari in Rome.

Naoko Matsubara’s Tree Spirit

The exhibition catalogue featured in this post, Tree Spirit: The Woodcuts of Naoko Matsubara (Royal Ontario Museum, 2003), features about 60 pieces of her work out of a collection of 177 at the Royal Ontario Museum, created over four decades between 1957 and 1996. This collection comprises only a small sample of her overall oeuvre, which consists of well in excess of 1,000 pieces.

Naoko Matsubara, Plum Blossoms, 1985; black woodcut print (single block, pine, on pure kozo paper), 68.6 x 49.5 cm.; As featured in Tree Spirit

Matsubara was born and raised in Japan; she now lives in Canada, where she is still producing woodcut prints. Throughout her life, she has been extremely active as a printmaker, with at least 75 solo national and international exhibitions. Her distinctive style integrates East Asian pictorial traditions with Western geometric abstraction.

Tree Spirit illustrates Matsubara’s artistic development over the years, from monochromatic to bold color, from organic forms inspired by nature to abstract geometric forms. Readers will also have the opportunity to learn about Matsubara’s background and the recurring themes in her work. The catalogue has been produced in full color with wonderful reproductions of many of her pieces, organized by theme.

We welcome all to stop by to look at this beautiful book in person. The Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center is open to the public Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–noon and 1 p.m.–5 p.m. If you’re touring the museum’s exhibitions, the library makes a great starting point on the fourth floor! In addition to the beautiful books and comfy reading chairs, visitors enjoy interesting exhibitions of artist’s books, archival manuscripts, and rare books. Reference Desk staff are always happy to answer questions and offer assistance. We hope to see you soon!

—Jennifer Page is the Library Assistant at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Anna Ancher, Interior with Clematis, 1913; Skagens Museum

Interior with Clematis (1913), for example, reduces Anna Ancher’s studio—her only private room—to a table, flowers, and a large window. She leaves the space ambiguous by eliminating both herself and expected objects. In contrast, Ancher depicts her husband surrounded with signifiers of his profession and social status. These differences underscore Anna Ancher’s independence and the modern orientation of her art.

In Ancher’s paintings of Michael, he emerges as a successful, well-fed, bourgeois artist. In Breakfast before the Hunt (1903) he eagerly attacks an ample morning meal. Nearby, his gear signals the imminent excursion, and the dog sits alert in anticipation. Her detailed rendering of the table setting and the upholstery announce Michael’s financial achievement as the provider of a comfortable home. His prosperity is also evident in The New Hunting Boots (1903), where he contentedly stretches his stockinged feet across the big parlor rug. The gold chain of a pocket watch outlines his full, round belly. His boots’ soft, supple leather gleams. Finally, in Ancher’s 1920 portrait of Michael in his spacious studio, he appears with brushes in hand, dressed in vest and coat as if to meet a wealthy client. Giant canvases and heavy furniture surround him. Ancher’s hint of a painted seascape on the wall alludes to the paintings of fishermen that built Michael’s career.

Anna Ancher, The new hunting boots, 1903; Skagens Museum

Ancher does not invite viewers to feel the same familiarity with her personal space. Although her studio was adjacent to Michael’s in the house, its character appears opposite. In Evening Sun in the Artist’s Studio (after 1912), her focus on tactilely rendered light indicates neither her profession nor her gender. The modest proportions, austere furnishings, and the absence of painter’s tools obscure Ancher’s celebrity as the 1913 recipient of Denmark’s prestigious Ingenio et Arti award.

In creating these images, Ancher implies that her role is observer, rather than subject. While Ancher signified Michael’s bourgeois masculinity, she omitted references to herself as his female counterpart, imperceptibly reversing gender roles. Like most middle-class males in this period, Michael could traverse freely the boundaries separating the public arena from the private zones of the home.¹ Ancher’s letters reference Michael’s travels while she remained in Skagen; her own trips abroad were always in his company.² In these paintings, however, he is home and she is absent.

Ancher’s refusal to define herself in relationship to the home distinguished her from Scandinavian women colleagues. For example, Norwegian Modern Breakthrough author Amalie Skram described feminine spaces with stifling details of shaded lamps, velvet sofas, embellished screens, large stoves and lingering smells.³ Furthermore, Ancher continued to engage professionally in the public sphere, marketing her work through exhibitions and dealers, unlike Marie Krøyer in Skagen or Karin Bergöö Larsson in Sweden. Both those women interrupted their painting practices to produce decorative domestic objects for their homes. Remarkably, Anna Ancher’s physical absence from her representations of home quietly asserted liberation from its traditionally restrictive boundaries.

—Alice Price is a PhD candidate at Temple University, Tyler School of Art. She can be reached at alice.price@temple.edu.

Notes:
1. Suzanne Singletary, “Le Chez-Soi: Men ‘At Home’ in Impressionist Interiors,” in Impressionist Interiors ed. Janet McLean (Dublin: National Gallery of Ireland, 2008), 30-51.
2. Lise Svanholm, ed., Breve fra Anna Ancher [Letters from Anna Ancher], Denmark: Gyldendal, 2005, 99-102.
3. See for instance Amalie Skram’s description of Marie Hansen’s house in Constance Ring (Norway, 1888). Trans. Judith Messick with Katherine Hanson (1988; repr. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2002), 91.

Kicking off the tour with Michael Ancher’s Christmas Day 1900, visitors learned that earlier sketches included male family members and table clutter such as coffee cups and cakes. Their omission in the finished painting highlights “what this family is about—it’s about the women.” Anna is shown at the far right, with her daughter Helga, her mother, and two sisters.

Her family’s support was crucial in her success. With mutual respect as artists, Michael and Anna collaborated on Judgment of a day’s work, in which they painted each other’s portraits. “You see them as equals,” says Jensen. Only after marrying Michael did Anna get her own studio, to which she did not allow visitors access. “She got good reviews but didn’t want people to see the works before they were finished.”

Other artists who came to Skagen stayed at the inn run by Anna’s family—the only one in town. Pausing at the serene Portrait of mother (Mrs. Ane Brøndum), Jensen says Anna’s devout mother “welcomed [the artists] to the hotel,” even though “they drank and they had parties and that’s not what she believed in.” Joining this bohemian group was the famous painter P.S. Kroyer. Michael Ancher was initially “afraid [Kroyer] would take over,” but the pair became friends. An attractive locale for artists, the seaside town had “cheap models and relatively cheap accommodations.”

Anna Ancher, A field sermon, 1903; Skagens Museum

Of Anna Ancher’s breakthrough works, Jensen says, “the outside really doesn’t interest her that much.” Her interior paintings, in particular, are “more about the color and light than anything else,” a style that Jensen characterizes as “typical Anna.” One exception, Anna’s largest painting, A Field Sermon, depicts Skagen’s religious life.

Jensen ranks Anna as “the closest to a Nordic Impressionist of the Skagen painters.” Her stunning preparatory studies (or “painted diaries,” as Jensen calls them) showcase Ancher’s remarkable interpretation of light and color. Light is often the only subject in her works, as is the case in Interior. Without figures or furniture, the composition is “very modern—there’s no story. It’s all about color and light.”

Ancher was an innovative artist—as Jensen characterizes, “It’s really Anna Ancher who was the modern one of the colony.”

—Emily Haight is the member relations assistant at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Click here for Nanna Ditzel: Part 1 of 2!

One of Ditzel’s “Stairscapes”

The 1960s were a time of great experimentation for Nanna Ditzel, particular in her choice of media, which included polyester, fiber glass, wicker, cane, teak and foam rubber, as well as her color scheme, which often incorporated vibrant reds and blues, as well as sharply contrasting patterns of black and white. Nanna additionally experimented in split-level floor seating, featuring low-lying chairs and cushions for Danish homes that often featured sunken or raised platforms in their living spaces. An example of Nanna’s split-level seating experiments is the “stairscape” she created in 1966 for the showroom of the Danish firm Unika-Voev, for whom she designed various textiles. In the realm of textile design, one of Nanna’s most enduring innovations is the simple yet durable 1965 pattern Hallingdal, still produced and distributed by Kvadrat and used widely throughout Denmark.

Ditzel’s Butterfly Chair

In 1968, Nanna entered into a marriage and artistic partnership with fellow designer Kurt Heide. The couple lived in England together for fifteen years, where they founded the company Interspace International Design Center, a firm specializing in jewelry, textiles and furniture that still enjoys its reputation as a leading international furniture house. After Heide’s death in 1985, Nanna returned to Copenhagen and began working for Fredericia, a leading Danish design manufacturer renowned for its exquisitely made furniture. Two of Nanna’s most popular designs were created during her tenure with Fredericia: Bench for Two (1989)—a sculptural, plywood piece adorned with mesmerizing black and white geometric patterning that won a gold medal in Japan’s 1990 International Furniture Design Competition—as well as her vibrant Butterfly Chair (1990), a dramatic, red and black piece that cleverly evokes inspiration from the natural world. These two designs boosted Fredericia’s reputation as a producer of cutting-edge designs.

In the 80s and 90s, Nanna took an active role in the leadership of many Danish art and design organizations. In 1995, she received the “Order of the Dannebrog,” one of the highest honors that can be awarded to a Danish citizen. She was elected Honorable Royal Designer in London in 1996, and received the lifelong Artists’ Grant from the Danish Ministry of Culture in 1998. In 1999, she was awarded the Bindesbøll Medal to honor her contributions to Danish design. Up until her death in 2005 at age 82, Nanna Ditzel continued to design and exhibit her work. Her furniture, textile and jewelry designs continue to receive international acclaim, and are revered as the work of one of the most inspired Danish cultural icons of the 20th century.

—Raphael Fitzgerald is an art historian and researcher.

Nanna Ditzel

At the end of World War II, Denmark emerged as the standard-bearer for a revolutionary wave of furniture design hallmarked by a profound simplicity and practical functionality designed to fit the needs of small-scale European living spaces. Although Danish design was largely the realm of men, Nanna Ditzel (nee Hauberg, 1923–2005) emerged as one of the most successful and influential Danish designers, male or female, of the 20th century. A virtuoso designer of furniture, jewelry, and textiles, Ditzel produced a staggering oeuvre during her six-decade career. Her work—known for its sleek style, innovative mediums, and bold color choices—has had a lasting impact. Many of her designs are still in production by Danish firms, while other works continue to fetch high prices at auction.

Born in Copenhagen, Nanna enjoyed a family atmosphere that fostered passionate interest in the arts and design. One year after graduating high school in 1942, she studied carpentry at the Copenhagen School of Arts and Crafts; in 1944, she attended the prestigious Danish Royal Academy of Art, graduating with a degree in architecture while also studying philosophy and nurturing an interest in art history. At the Royal Academy, Nanna met her future husband, Jørgen Ditzel (1921–1961), with whom she shared a romantic, artistic, and professional partnership. Even before marrying, the couple jointly exhibited their work many times in various competitions, winning a silver medal for their furniture designs at the Copenhagen Cabinet Maker’s Exhibition in 1945.

Nanna Ditzel’s Hanging Chair, 1959

Beginning in the 1950s, Nanna and Jørgen began designing silver jewelry for the well-known Danish silversmith Georg Jensen; their pieces became very popular (some are still produced today), boasting sleek, modern forms, asymmetry, and curvature designed to complement and fuse with the human body. In 1956 the couple was awarded the prestigious Lunning Prize for their jewelry designs; with money from the prize, the couple traveled to Mexico to seek inspiration for further work. Through the rest of the 1950s, Nanna and Jørgen successfully designed furniture and textiles and went on to win three silver medals and one gold medal at the Milan Triennale furniture design competition.

One of the Nanna and Jørgen’s most recognizable collaborations is their 1959 Hanging Chair, nicknamed “Egg Chair,” a design notable for its organic, rounded shape, hanging construction, versatile indoor/outdoor use, and its primary medium of wicker. Still produced and sold today through Italian and Japanese companies, Hanging Chair has become an iconic image of modern Danish design. Tragically, Nanna and Jørgen’s creative partnership ended abruptly when Jørgen died at age 40, leaving Nanna with a family to raise (the couple had three daughters together: Dennie, born 1950, and twins Lulu and Vita Vita, born 1954) as well as a studio to run. Resiliently, Nanna carried on and continued to enjoy an extraordinarily successful career marked by numerous international solo exhibitions.

—Raphael Fitzgerald is an art historian and researcher.

With a history as varied as the museum’s collection, NMWA’s building is a work of art in itself. Designed in a Renaissance-revival style, the six-story structure embodies orderliness and civic grandeur. Constructed by one of D.C.’s most prominent architectural firms (and famed architect Waddy Wood), the building was received landmark status in 1984. Purchased by NMWA in 1983, the building opened as a museum in 1987 after extensive renovations.

Ironically, the building was originally constructed as a Masonic Temple—women were not allowed entry.  Masonic symbols, such as carved squares and compasses, can still be seen in the museum’s architecture. The clearest symbols are on the building’s façade, particularly those in a frieze above the fourth floor. Visitors may spot some vestiges within the walls as well.

Before showing art, the building showed movies. In 1916, a first-floor theater began showing silent films. In the 1940s and early 1950s the Pix Theater ran racy “exploitation films” until resulting controversies caused their lease not to be renewed. Seven years later, the Town Theatre opened and played blockbuster films like Hitchcock’s Psycho until its closing in 1983.

The wedge-shaped building was also home to several small offices and shops during its first 20 years. A dentist, an insurance agent, and a uniform supply outfitter all operated on the second floor above the movie theater. From 1910 through ’21, the upper floors contained George Washington University’s law library, and a USO canteen was housed in the basement during World War II.

NMWA today

In 1997, the museum incorporated an adjacent property to create the Elisabeth A. Kasser Wing. The space now houses NMWA’s gift shop and sculpture gallery—more palatable uses than its past function as the “D.C. Pleasure Parlor.”

Although visitors can’t take advantage of the building’s previous functions by watching movies or getting their teeth cleaned, they can enjoy NMWA’s collection of art by many of the world’s most significant women artists. The building itself is seen as an embodiment of the museum’s mission—it is a place for women artists—and funds for vital roof repairs will ensure the continued integrity of its structure.

Popular votes on social media will determine some of the grants. Voters can chime in for NMWA once every day by registering on the PiP website or logging in on PiP’s Facebook page. By using the hashtag #NMWA in Twitter or Instagram posts, and by checking in on Foursquare, voters can help NMWA earn extra points!

Also, save the date! Drop by on May 5 for an open house and “Raise the Roof” with GirlsRock! DC!

Michael Ancher, Christmas Day 1900 (Marie, Hulda, and Ane Hedvig Brøndum, Helga and Anna Ancher), 1903; Oil on canvas, 55 ⅞ x 87 in.; Skagens Museum

In Christmas Day 1900, Michael Ancher painted Anna and her female relatives in the dining room of Brøndum’s hotel. Owned by Anna’s family, the inn was the only one in Skagen and became a quasi-clubhouse for Skagen artists. Nearly life-size, this work depicts Anna (at the far right) alongside her sisters, mother, and daughter, Helga. In contrast to the turbulent seascape paintings behind them (also painted by Michael Ancher), the Brøndum and Ancher women seem reserved and serene. While this painting is representative of official group portraits of the time, it also provides an intimate look at their family.

Skagen artists drew influence from Dutch masters like Rembrandt, Haals, and Vermeer. The figures in Christmas Day 1900 are reminiscent of those in 17th-century painting, in which seated and standing figures face outward around a table.

Anna’s mother, Ane Brøndum, became one of her favorite models. She painted her aging mother many times over the years, keeping her company as she sat. Two portraits of Ane Brøndum showcase Anna’s wide range of styles.

(left) Anna Ancher, Portrait of mother (Mrs. Ane Brøndum), 1913; Oil on canvas, 31 x 24 ⅞ in.; Skagens Museum and (right) Anna Ancher, Mrs. Ane Hedvig Brøndum (Anna Ancher’s Mother), ca. 1905; Oil on canvas, 21 7/8 x 17 1/2 in,; Skagens Museum

The profile portrait of her mother (1905) is rendered in dark colors with controlled brushstrokes. In contrast, a frontal portrait of Ane Brøndum (1913) depicts the older woman in a lighter palette of pastel blues, pinks, and purples. Not just a study in form, this work illustrates Anna’s interest in light and color. Her fluid paint application and unblended brushstrokes effectively capture the effects of light and shadow.

The thematic gallery’s family focus provides an additional layer of context with which to consider Anna Ancher and her contemporaries. As seen in the personal portraiture of the Skagen artists, Anna and her fellow painters reference the past and simultanteously embrace the avant-garde.

—Emily Haight is the Member Relations Associate at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Some of the earliest seeds for NMWA’s current exhibition, A World Apart: Anna Ancher and the Skagen Art Colony, were planted nearly a decade ago when curatorial staff members visited Scandinavia to research Nordic Cool: Hot Women Designers. This exhibition, on view at NMWA during April–September 2004, was a hit, and although it was NMWA’s first-ever design exhibition, it opened the curators’ eyes to Scandinavian women artists such as fascinating Danish painter Anna Ancher.

Women in the Arts magazine cover, Spring 2004, with Nanna Ditzel’s “Bench for Two,” 1989

Several of the Danish designers whose work was on view at NMWA were creating domestic-use products that addressed gender roles—such as Johnna Sølvsten Bak’s tablecloth with “iron burns incorporated into the design” as Jordana Pomeroy described in the spring 2004 issue of Women in the Arts magazine. Another example, “Danish industrial design team PAPCoRN (Lene Vad Jensen and Anne Bannick)…created compostable dinnerware from corn by-products.”

Of furniture by Nanna Ditzel—pieces with “curvilinear structures [that] would be as comfortable in a gallery as in a living room”—Pomeroy said, “Ultimately design is highly personal, often bearing traces of the artist’s hand, reflecting the proportions of the designer’s body, and deriving from the most intimate emotional memories. Ditzel’s designs flow with the human body while simultaneously drawing on other natural sources: seashells, coral, flowers, and butterflies.”

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

As one of the thematic sections of A World Apart: Anna Ancher and the Skagen Art Colony, “Land and Sea” showcases the artists’ fascination with the unspoiled landscape of the seaside town.

Carl Locher, The mail coach, 1885, Oil on canvas, 23 ⅝ x 37 ¾ in.; Skagens Museum

Skagen’s beaches, fields, and “special light,” were well-suited for artists who wanted to pursue painting en plein air, or outdoors.

Adventurous artists and visitors traveling to remote Skagen had to spend the better part of a day in a horse-drawn carriage along the shore, as depicted in Carl Locher’s The mail coach. The thickly impastoed scene shows sandy dunes with a carriage approaching in the distance.

Among the most dramatic depictions of outdoor subjects are large-scale scenes of fishermen at work, often presenting turbulent seas and thunderous clouds. Painters such as P.S. Krøyer found themselves frequently frustrated by the weather: they couldn’t easily work outside during storms, but on calm-weathered days when they were eager to paint from life, their models—fishermen from the town—needed to be working at sea.

Michael Ancher, A stroll on the beach, 1896, Oil on canvas, 27 ⅛ x 63 ⅜ in.; Skagens Museum

However, Skagen’s beach also became a place of leisure and recreation after an increase in tourism in 1890. Michael Ancher’s A stroll on the beach perpetuates this idealized view of Skagen life by showing middle-class women enjoying the bucolic setting.

Furthermore, sea views were not the only nature scenes worth depicting. Skagen also had fertile fields where farmers grew a variety of grains.

Anna Ancher, Harvesters, 1905, Oil on canvas, 17 ⅛ x 22 ⅛ in.; Skagens Museum

In The Harvesters, Anna Ancher portrays laborers returning from the fields. She was “the only Skagen painter who painted the cultivated landscapes,” as Jensen revealed in a gallery talk.

Skagen’s terrain was both rugged and pastoral, providing the burgeoning artist colony with a plethora of compelling subject matter.

—Emily Haight is the publications and marketing/communication intern at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.