Royalists to Romantics, now open at NMWA!
Posted by: Broad Strokes on: March 6, 2012
Chief Curator Jordana Pomeroy leads a tour on Member Preview Day
On Member Preview Day for Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles, and Other French National Collections, NMWA had wonderful attendance by area members, who enjoyed seeing the works on view and the activities planned through the day. The exhibition, which is getting rave reviews from critics, showcased French Revolution-era artists whose work has rarely been seen outside of France—these portraits, landscapes, history paintings, sculptures, and botanical drawings illuminate the time period and women’s signal contributions to its artwork. Through galleries centered on themes of travel and knowledge, natural history, families, reinventing the past, scandal and power, theater, and working relations, visitors loved the variety of the works on view and appreciated the artists’ skill.
Laura Auricchio discussing "Royalists and Revolutionaries" on Member Preview Day
During a highly attended lecture, “Royalists and Revolutionaries: Women Artists in the French Revolution,” Chair of Humanities and Associate Professor of Art History at The New School Laura Auricchio enlivened the day for visiting members by discussing the social and political dynamics that women artists faced during this tumultuous period.
Celia Reyer beginning her residency project at NMWA
Another exciting event during Member Preview Day was the first in-gallery session of artist-in-residence and womenswear designer Celia Reyer, who is constructing a period-specific Brunswick traveling coat inspired by the fashions in the portraiture in Royalists to Romantics. Reyer will continue to work in the galleries March 4, 11, 18, and 25, and April 1 and 8. Her work-in-progress will be on view throughout the exhibition. Reyer’s Q&A sessions proved popular—she was able to discuss her process and inspiration, adding a new dimension of interest to the exhibition.
Royalists to Romantics is on view through July 29. For additional information about the exhibition and related programming, visit www.nmwa.org.
Bienvenue to NMWA’s French Film Series!
Posted by: Broad Strokes on: March 2, 2012
Mesdames et Messieurs,
In conjunction with Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles, and Other French National Collections, NMWA is excited to present a French-inspired film festival—pour vous!
Look for a new film on the first Sundays of March and April, a double feature on Saturday, May 5, and the last installment Sunday, May 6.
On March 4, passion, intrigue, and betrayal set the scene for Glenn Close and John Malkovich in Dangerous Liaisons (119 min., Rated R). The film chronicles the paths of love and lust, innocence and manipulation, as everything is risked for love and power in pre-RevolutionaryFrance.
The April 1 film satiates literature fans, with the adaptation of Charles Dickens’s classic novel A Tale of Two Cities (128 min., not rated). Traveling from her native England to revolutionary France, Lucie Manette (Elizabeth Allan) ignites the salacious and stealthy scheming of two men in love with her.
“Let them eat cake!” Words spoken by an ill-fated French queen…or were they? Two interpretations will be shown on Saturday, May 5 in a Marie Antoinette double feature. With Norma Shearer in the title role, Marie Antoinette (149 min., not rated) is based in part on a 1933 biography by Stefan Zweig. With addition to lavish sets and costumes, director Sophia Coppola portrays the queen as a teenager unprepared to shoulder the burden of the crown in the 2006 version of Marie Antoinette (123 min., PG-13). Where does history end and myth begin? Join us for one film or both, and decide for yourself!
Concluding the festival on Sunday, May 6, Les Miserables (134 min., PG-13) features Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush in the iconic roles of Jean Valjean and Javert. This celebrated political and familial story is set against the dramatic backdrop of the 1832 French student uprising, the June Rebellion.
Hold on to your francs (and your euros), as these films are free and do not require reservations. We look forward to seeing you!
Très cordialement,
NMWA
Women’s History Month—and NMWA—after 25 Years
Posted by: Broad Strokes on: March 1, 2012
Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Every month is spent celebrating women’s history at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, but this year’s annual celebration takes on special importance. This March marks the 25th anniversary of Women’s History Month and coincides with NMWA’s own 25th anniversary celebration. It is no coincidence that these two landmark occasions were conceived in the same year. By 1987, the debate over women’s rights had reached a critical level of acceptance. The establishment of NMWA and Women’s History Month responded to the political conversations of the day, reflecting the widespread desire to recognize women in history and culture.
Barbara Bush and Wilhelmina Cole Holladay at the 1987 NMWA opening.
In 1978, the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County (California) Commission on the Status of Women sought to remedy the lack of public consciousness surrounding women’s history. They established the week of March 8 as the first annual “Women’s History Week.” The celebration was met by enthusiasm and by 1979, the seeds for a national decree were planted.
In February 1980, the groups of women working toward national recognition realized their dream with President Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Proclamation declaring the week of March 8, 1980 as National Women’s History Week:
“From the first settlers who came to our shores, from the first American Indian families who befriended them, men and women have worked together to build this nation. Too often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed. But the achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well.”
The movement gradually gained momentum and by 1986, 14 states had dedicated March to Women’s History Month, prompting the 1987 congressional decision to establish the celebration in perpetuity.
Installation of Chakaia Booker's sculpture in the New York Avenue Sculpture Project.
This year’s theme, “Women’s Education—Women’s Empowerment,” is near to NMWA’s cause and heart. NMWA’s 25th anniversary exhibition, Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles, and Other French National Collections, explores the role of women’s education in great depth. The female artists featured were not granted the same arts education as their male counterparts. They were barred from studying the nude figure, which inhibited them from taking on history painting, then considered the highest genre. The exhibition explores the alternative avenues women in the 18th and 19th centuries travelled while refining their artistic skills and building audiences for their work.
Take part in Women’s History Month this March with a visit to the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles, and Other French National Collections is on view through July 29, 2012. Also join us on March 8, widely celebrated as International Women’s Day, 10 a.m.–3 p.m. for the New York Avenue Sculpture Project Dedication and March 9 for the opening of R(ad)ical Love: Sister Mary Corita on view through July 15, 2012. For more information, visit www.nmwa.org. To learn more about Women’s History Month, visit www.nwhp.org.
—Chelsea Beroza is the publications and communications intern at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Women in the Spotlight at the 84th Annual Academy Awards
Posted by: Broad Strokes on: February 24, 2012
Women dominated the cinema in 2011 with the wickedly hilarious Bridesmaids and the emotionally triumphant The Help. This year’s Oscar nominations reflect the groundbreaking contributions of women to contemporary film.
Comedy lovers rejoiced with the announcement of this year’s Academy Award nominees, which departed from the academy’s bias toward dramatic, tearjerker flicks. This year, Bridesmaids—which stands apart for its rare, all-female ensemble and use of slapstick comedy—joins the chuckle-worthy Midnight in Paris and The Artist in obtaining major nominations.
Contemporary comics are challenging the traditional perception of women in comedy. As the late Christopher Hitchens articulated in his 2007 Vanity Fair article “Why Women Aren’t Funny,” there is a common view that women’s nature is somehow incompatible with humor. However, with the emergence of talented comedians like Tina Fey (who has answered these critics with characteristic wit), Wanda Sykes, and Sarah Silverman, this stereotype is evolving.
Bridesmaids, an outlandish and exuberant portrayal of a group of women attempting to carry out their wedding-party duties, has landed two Oscar nominations, including best original screenplay by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo and best supporting actress for Melissa McCarthy.
Following the announcement of her Oscar nomination, Kristen Wiig called fellow female comedian Ellen DeGeneres during a taping of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. After pleading for a sequel (and asking for a part), DeGeneres offered heartfelt praise: “It is so great to see movies like that, that I believe in. There are a lot of movies out there and when something is smart and funny and it makes you laugh that hard—we need movies like that right now.”
Another female ensemble, The Help, was nominated for four Academy Awards this year: best picture, best actress, and two nominations for best supporting actress. These include nominations for Viola Davis, being considered for a best actress award, and costar Octavia Spencer, for best supporting actress. A win by either actress would make Oscar history, because African American actresses have so rarely been honored at the Academy Awards. In 1940, Hattie McDaniel became the first black actress to win an Academy Award for her performance in Gone with the Wind, but it took 50 years for another black actress (Whoopi Goldberg in 1990, for Ghost) to grace the stage for an acceptance speech.
Since then, few actresses of color have been nominated and even fewer have won the coveted Oscar statuette. This year’s ceremony has the potential to add to the short list of black female award winners, in spite of controversy over the story’s treatment of racial tensions.
Based on Kathryn Stockett’s novel by the same name, The Help takes place in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, as a young white woman, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, returns home from college to pursue journalism. Her first assignment prompts her to learn more about the lives of the black maids working for white families in her community; she ultimately writes a book exposing the racism that they face.
The Help has provoked a conversation about racism yesterday and today. Ida E. Jones, national director of the Association of Black Women Historians, issued an An Open Statement to the Fans of The Help, urging viewers to read more widely about the civil rights movement and understand its historical context. The uplifting, simplified story shows that more nuanced roles for black actresses are sorely needed. Despite this, there is no denying that both Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer delivered stellar, Oscar-worthy performances.
Find out who takes home an Academy Award by tuning in to ABC on Sunday, February 26, 7 p.m. EST.
Film fans should also look for programs at NMWA this spring—a series of films inspired by the French paintings on view in Royalists to Romantics begins on March 4 with Dangerous Liaisons, and an environmental film festival March 19–20 will feature exciting recent films. For more information, visit www.nmwa.org.
—Chelsea Beroza is the publications and communications intern at the National Museum of Women in the Arts
Artist-in-Residence: Royal Dressmakers & Haute Couture
Posted by: Broad Strokes on: February 22, 2012
In NMWA’s galleries during Royalists to Romantics, visitors will be treated to a novel program that will bring to life the fashions in the portraiture on view. Womenswear designer and artist-in-residence Celia Reyer will be on site on selected dates throughout the exhibition, at work on a garment inspired by, and created through, historically accurate production processes. Reyer’s process involves extensive curatorial research of fashion collections and artwork, tracing haute couture’s history. She developed her concept for the piece by examining images, such as Marie-Victoire Lemoine’s self-portrait, that showcase generous period costumes.
Marie-Victoire Lemoine, Portrait of the artist, ca. 1780/90; Oil on canvas, 114.5 x 87.5 cm.; Musee des beaux-arts, Orleans
During her residency, Reyer will create a Brunswick traveling coat with assistance from patternmaker Andrea Shewe. A hooded coat, the Brunswick (or riding habit) was originally a working-class costume. The original French design consisted of a hip-length, split-sleeve jacket, a hood, and a petticoat. By the second half of the eighteenth century, Brunswicks had evolved into fashionable daywear. Stylistically, the coats mimicked men’s clothing, a sign of the new political era in France that had weakened gender and class barriers. Through this garment, its wearer was making a subtle, significant statement about her gender and evolving role in society. The Brunswick, like the common white-cotton dresses made fashionable by the upper class in the late-eighteenth century, also paid homage to fashion trends that traversed economic class.
Celia Reyer styles a 2010 exhibition, The Pleasure Garden, at the Museum of London
Reyer, who holds degrees in fine arts and fashion design, has blazed a new path in design using old-world techniques to complement her professional experience in high fashion, fine art, and museum collections. The Prelle & Cie company, a fabric manufacturer established in 1752, and one of the oldest silk-furnishing fabric manufacturers in existence, donated fabric to this project. The company meticulously reproduces eighteenth-century fabrics from an archive of original samples. Through this exciting project, NMWA members and visitors are invited to watch as Reyer’s Brunswick takes form and look more deeply into the portraits featured in Royalists to Romantics.
Reyer will be at work in the galleries on February 23 and 26; March 4, 11, 18, and 25; and April 1 and 8. Her work-in-progress will be on view throughout the exhibition.
Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Jack-in-Pulpit—No. 2”: On view now at NMWA!
Posted by: Broad Strokes on: February 16, 2012
In a 1922 interview with the New York Sun, Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986) stated, “Nothing is less real than realism. Details are confusing. It is only by selection, by elimination, by emphasis that we get to the real meaning of things.”1
Georgia O’Keeffe, Jack-in-Pulpit—No. 2, 1930; oil on canvas, 40 x 30 in.; Alfred Stieglitz Collection, Bequest of Georgia O’Keeffe; Image courtesy the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
O’Keeffe’s “Jack-in-Pulpit” paintings were inspired by the flowers she saw around her summer home on Lake George in New York’s Adirondack Mountains. No. 2 depicts a literal step backward from No. 1, with a broader view, increased surrounding foliage, and the entire flowering portion visible. In No. 2, O’Keeffe’s color choices are less true to life, and she begins to manipulate both size and composition. O’Keeffe simplifies the flower, dramatizing its striped surface. Green leaves at the painting’s border pull back to reveal and frame the flower, functioning like a natural version of a theatrical curtain. The dark, tubular form of the jack emerges from the stem at the center of the painting. Its prime positioning suggests importance, and indeed, as the series progresses, O’Keeffe removes all extraneous elements and lets the jack stand alone.
As she implied in her 1922 interview, O’Keeffe associated the process of abstraction with a search for truth. In regard to this series, she said that the jack is “the thing that makes you interested in that flower . . . so I painted just the jack.”2 By stripping away the surrounding leaves of other plants and even the jack-in-the-pulpit’s own flower and stem, O’Keeffe reveals the essence of the flower by the final painting in the series.
While Jack-in-Pulpit—No. 2 is not as pared down and streamlined as the subsequent works in this series, it represents an important step in her process of modernist simplification. O’Keeffe often used serial paintings to work through a motif, rethinking a natural object in increasingly abstract terms with each new interpretation. She also tended to explore minute natural elements in grand scale. This had to do not only with the process of abstraction but also with building her reputation. In a statement for a 1939 exhibition, O’Keeffe explained the scale of her flower paintings: “So I said to myself—I’ll paint what I see—what the flower is to me but I’ll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it—I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers.”3
O’Keeffe’s use of exaggerated scale and abstraction had another effect, one that dealers and art historians have analyzed and debated intensely. Her paintings, no longer instantly recognizable as their original sources, have been the subject of a variety of anthropomorphic interpretations. O’Keeffe’s flowers and even her skyscrapers have been compared to both female and male anatomy. Her husband, photographer and gallerist Alfred Stieglitz, encouraged such Freudian readings. He saw her work as representative of the essence of femininity, famously proclaiming upon seeing her work for the first time: “At last, a woman on paper!” He often exhibited her paintings alongside nude photographs he took of her, as if O’Keeffe’s body and work were intrinsically connected. However, O’Keeffe staunchly resisted these suggested interpretations. In the same 1939 exhibition statement, O’Keeffe wrote, “When you took time to really notice my flower you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower—and I don’t.”
The “Jack-in-Pulpit” progression was O’Keeffe’s last significant flower series. While she still spent time at Lake George through the mid-1930s, she began traveling more frequently to New Mexico, where she painted subjects inspired by the desert landscape.
Jack-in-Pulpit—No. 2 and four of the other five paintings from this series remained in O’Keeffe’s personal collection until her death in 1986. She bequeathed this painting and three others to the National Gallery, and it has been shown in exhibitions of her work around the country.
—Catherine Southwick was graduate curatorial fellow at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in fall 2011. This article originally ran in the fall 2011 issue of Women in the Arts magazine, NMWA’s triannual institutional publication. To receive Women in the Arts and stay up-to-date on NMWA news and exhibitions, join as a member at www.nmwa.org or call 866-875-4627.
Notes
1. “I Can’t Sing, So I Paint! Says Ultra Realistic Artist; Art is Not Photography—It Is Expression of Inner Life!: Miss O’Keeffe Explains Subjective Aspect of Her Work,” New York Sun, December 5, 1922, quoted in Jonathan Stuhlman, Georgia O’Keeffe: Circling Around Abstraction (Manchester, VT: Hudson Hills Press, 2007), p. 22.
2. As quoted in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Watch and Listen Audio Guides, “Georgia O’Keeffe, Jack-in-Pulpit—No. 2, 1930.”
3. Georgia O’Keeffe, “About Myself,” Georgia O’Keeffe: Exhibition of Oils and Pastels (New York: An American Place Gallery, 1939), n.p.
Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles, and Other French National Collections
Posted by: Broad Strokes on: February 13, 2012
Opening next Friday, February 24, Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles, and Other French National Collections features 77 paintings, prints, and sculptural works from 1750 to 1850—many of which have never been seen outside of France. In keeping with NMWA’s mission to rediscover and celebrate women artists of the past and demonstrate their continued relevance, the museum’s curators spent months scouring the collections of dozens of French museums and libraries to cull rarely-seen works by women artists. Royalists to Romantics showcases these exceptional works and reveals how the tumultuous period—which saw the flowering of the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, the terrors of the French revolution, the rise and fall of Napoleon, and the restoration of the monarchy—affected the lives and careers of women artists. The exhibition will be on view through July 29, 2012.
Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Portrait of a Woman, 1787; Oil on canvas, 39 ⅞ x 32 in.; Musée des beaux-arts, Quimper
“Royalists to Romantics is the first exhibition to focus on women artists of this time period in France and demonstrate how they navigated a highly gendered world that presented different opportunities for education and patronage than for their male counterparts,” said NMWA Chief Curator Dr. Jordana Pomeroy. “The exhibition and catalogue for Royalists to Romantics will help to banish the obscurity that has veiled the legacy of many 18th-century French women artists.”
Featuring 35 artists, including Marguerite Gérard, Antoine Cecile Haudebourt-Lescot, Adélaïde Labille-Guillard, Sophie Rude, Anne Vallayer-Coster, and Élisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun, the exhibition explores the political and social dynamics that shaped their world and influenced their work. Some of these artists flourished with support of such aristocratic patrons as Marie Antoinette, who not only appointed her favorite female artists Élisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun and Anne Vallayer-Coster to court, but advocated their acceptance into the Académie Royale de peinture et de sculpture—an official seal of approval that could establish an artist’s career. The political upheavals of the French Revolution and the following decades brought a new set of challenges for women artists.
Adrienne Marie Louise Grandpierre-Deverzy, The Studio of Abel de Pujol, 1822; Oil on canvas, 37 7/8 x 50 7/8 in.; Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris
“In celebration of the National Museum of Women in the Arts’ 25th anniversary, we are delighted to present Royalists to Romantics, an exhibition dedicated to a group of extraordinary 18th-century women artists that inspired our founder, Wilhelmina Cole Holladay,” said NMWA Alice West Director, Dr. Susan Fisher Sterling. “Like other important historical surveys NMWA has organized, including An Imperial Collection: Women Artists from the State Hermitage Museum and Italian Women Artists: From Renaissance to Baroque, bringing this great art to the U.S. from the Louvre, Versailles and other French national collections demonstrates our continued commitment to new scholarship about exceptional women artists over the centuries.”
Antoine Cecile Hortense Haudebourt-Lescot, The Capture of Thionville, 1837; Oil on canvas, 34 ¼ x 46 in.; Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon; Image: Franck Raux; Courtesy of Réunion des Musées Nationaux / Art Resource, NY
NMWA members are invited to a special Member Preview Day, 10 a.m.–3 p.m. on Thursday, February 23, 2012, featuring:
- A noon lecture by New School Professor Laura Auricchio: “Royalists to Revolutionaries: Women Artists in the French Revolution”
- Staff-led gallery tours throughout the day
- An opportunity to see NMWA’s artist-in-residence and womenswear designer Celia Reyer begin work on the Brunswick traveling coat, inspired by and created through historically accurate production processes, that will bring to life the fashions in the portraiture on view.
For information about the day, or about becoming a NMWA member, visit www.nmwa.org or call toll-free 866-875-4627.
The 135-page, fully-illustrated exhibition catalogue has been published by Scala Publishers, with essays by Pomeroy and other noted scholars in the field. (To purchase the catalogue, call the Museum Shop toll-free at 877-226-5294. $45/Member $40.50; Item #3500.)
Royalists to Romantics: Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles, and Other French National Collections has been organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., with logistical support from sVo Art, Versailles.
The exhibition is made possible by the Annenberg Foundation, the Florence Gould Foundation, Hermès, Teresa L. and Joe R. Long, and Jacqueline Badger Mars, with additional funding provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, an Anonymous Donor, the Robert Lehman Foundation, and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Further support is provided by Air France and Sofitel Washington DC Lafayette Square.
Susanna Centlivre at Folger Shakespeare Library
Posted by: Broad Strokes on: February 3, 2012
Susanna Centlivre. The Basset-Table. A comedy. London, 1706. Shelfmark 153-587q.
Susanna Centlivre (1669?-1723) was the most popular female comedic playwright of the 18th century. Although not hailed by the critics of her day, a time when women writers were an unsettling novelty, she enjoyed a certain celebrity. Accounts of Centlivre’s early years are an intriguing array of rumors and hearsay, but once in London she became a well-known dramatist and respectable wife of a royal cook. A prolific author, she wrote at least 16 plays, in addition to many poems and several collections of humorous letters. She was also known to be politically minded and a card-carrying Whig, often dedicating her plays to favored politicians, including the Duke of Cambridge who succeeded as George I, King of England in 1714. Centlivre’s circle of friends included many writers of the day, such as George Farquhar, Richard Steele, and fellow female playwright Mary Pix. Centlivre died at the approximate age of 54.
Little is known about Centlivre’s life before she began her writing career in London. She was reserved about her past, so even biographies written in her time are inconsistent. It is believed she was orphaned by age 12, after which she ran away to escape an unpleasant stepmother and joined a company of strolling players. Later it is said she disguised herself as a man to take classes at Cambridge and was also taken in by a French gentleman, who aided in her education. At the age of 15, she married the nephew of Sir Stephen Fox. Then the following year, she reportedly married an army officer named Carroll, though she was a widow before two years passed.
Arriving in London in 1700, she began her illustrious career. In that year her first play, The Perjured Husband, was produced at Drury Lane. Over the next few years, she had three more plays produced, as well as several letters published. Her first popular success, The Gamester, was produced in 1705, as was The Basset Table (adapted here as The Gaming Table). In addition to writing several more plays, during the following year Centlivre acted with a troupe in a performance of her play at Windsor Court, where she met Joseph Centlivre, who had a minor position at court. After their marriage in 1707, she wrote three of her most favored plays—The Busy Body, The Wonder, and A Bold Stroke for a Wife. Along with The Gamester, these hit plays continued in popularity long after Centlivre’s death and were produced both in Europe and the United States well into the 19th century.
Although not critically acclaimed and often criticized for using realistic street language for her characters, Centlivre enjoyed great popular success with her plot-driven comedies full of gags and wit. She defended her choice to write purely to entertain. Despite the many challenges facing a woman earning a living by her wits in the 1700s, Centlivre was adept at finding sponsors and patrons and attracting popular actors, including David Garrick, to ensure longstanding success.
–The Folger Shakespeare Library is home to the world’s largest and finest collection of Shakespeare materials and to major collections of other rare Renaissance books, manuscripts, and works of art, the Folger serves a wide audience of researchers, visitors, teachers, students, families, and theater- and concert-goers.
For more information please visit: www.folger.edu
Surrealist Artist Dorothea Tanning Dies at 101
Posted by: Broad Strokes on: February 2, 2012
Photograph of Dorothea Tanning, 1948, by Robert Bruce Inverarity. 14 x 11 inches (36 x 28 cm). Robert Bruce Inverarity papers, 1926-1998. Archives of American Art, Washington, DC, USA. www.aaa.si.edu
Dorothea Tanning was an American woman artist unto herself. Overflowing with spirited opinions and ambition, she displayed an eccentric artistic soul that endured for over six decades and earned her a name in the ranks of O’Keeffe, Bourgeois, Nevelson, and Kahlo.
Considered a child prodigy, Tanning had a voracious appetite for reading and drawing. She moved from her small Illinois hometown first to Chicago, then New Orleans, and finally New York in 1935. Fascinated by the possibilities presented in the 1936 exhibition Fantastic Art, Dada, and Surrealism at The Museum of Modern Art, Tanning began painting highly representational fantasy worlds. Her typical early subject, the ‘girl-child,’ was either nude or half-dressed, alone or erotically entangled in groups, and placed in barren landscapes or Victorian interiors. These works, notably the self-portrait Birthday, 1942, caught the attention of art critics, including prominent New York art dealer Julien Levy, and marked her entry into the Surrealist world.
Dorothea Tanning, To Max Ernst, 1970; Aquatint, 15 1/4 x 17 1/4 in.
In preparation for Peggy Guggenheim’s highly important Exhibition by 31 Women, 1943, Tanning met Dadaist icon Max Ernst and quickly became part of the band of Dada and Surrealist émigrés in New York. Tanning and Ernst wed in 1946; theirs was a long harmonious marriage, for nine years in Arizona, then in Paris for almost thirty more. During this time Tanning exhibited her paintings widely in France and abroad, while experimenting with prints, costume and set design, and fabric sculpture—twisted figures and partial body parts made from textiles. As her career developed, her works became more painterly and the figures and settings more generalized. Her series of large, semi-abstract compositions of amorphous shapes focused on prismatic light and energy. Tanning was devastated by Ernst’s death in 1976 and returned to New York in 1980.
Tanning tolerated nothing of the lexicon of feminism; not since her 20s had she endured the label ‘woman artist’. She shook this off, including the continuing Surrealist label, or being called the sole Surrealist surviving into the twenty-first century. Always a self-determining artist, usually with private studio space, Tanning pointed out with fervor that she progressed beyond Surrealist painting for fifty years. She turned to writing during the latter part of her life due to frail health and wrote two autobiographies, a novel, and several highly acclaimed poems. Her poem “No Palms” was selected for inclusion in The Best American Poetry 2000.
From the Collection: “The Abandoned Doll”
Posted by: Broad Strokes on: January 20, 2012
Suzanne Valadon, The Abandoned Doll, 1921; Oil on canvas, 51 x 32 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay. ©Valerie Jaudon/VAGA, New York.
Suzanne Valadon was always best known for her powerful, unconventional, and sometimes controversial figure paintings that included many female nudes. The Abandoned Doll is one of two double portraits the artist created of Marie Cola and her daughter Gilberte, who was Valadon’s niece.
This painting exhibits all the characteristics of Valadon’s mature work: brightly colored forms defined by heavy, dark outlines; strange, somewhat awkward poses; and deliberately simplified, distorted anatomy and space. These traits are also found in the work of post-impressionist painters like Paul Gauguin and fauve pioneers such as Henri Matisse, but Valadon denied being affected by their work and avoided all attempts to label her painting style.
In addition to its unusual aesthetic elements, this painting also has a strong psychological dimension: as the mother dries her daughter’s back after a bath, the girl turns away to study her own image in a hand mirror. Meanwhile, her doll lies on the floor, symbolizing the adolescent’s transition into adulthood.
Although her body is obviously maturing, Gilberte still has a child’s large pink bow in her hair, identical to the one worn on the doll. Avoiding the voyeuristic aspect of so many female nudes painted by men, Valadon gives viewers a compassionate glimpse of an intimate moment in a young girl’s life.
Nancy G. Heller, Ph.D., is a professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and an art historian.
