For Women's History Month 2021: Women Artists Share their VIsions

Inessa Morozova, born in Kherson, Ukraine, contemporary Plein Air artist.
Such beautiful roses. You can almost smell them, a lovely floating scent. It makes me think of my mom. 

"During the month of March, we celebrate women and the contributions and achievements they have made throughout history, culture, and society. History books are filled with the accomplishments of women but mostly relegated to footnotes and sidebars.....Women's History Month reminds us that women have, since the beginning of time, been  invaluable assets with intellectual gifts, creative talents, and indomitable spirit. They have excelled in business, government, volunteer activities, religious life, education, health, the military, sports, and so much more. And undeniably the arts."  B.Doughterty, "Celebrating Female Artists Then and Now," ArtMine, 2020

Here are some fascinating artists, from the early 20th century to today, that Christa Zaat's "Female Artists in History" online series has discovered and promoted, bringing them out of the shadows and into the light of day. Women artists have existed from time immemorial, across place and time, all over the world. Some of these artists were known and admired in their day, but most all of them have been hidden from history, their talent invisible, underexposed, underappreciated. This is slowly changing, thanks to enlightened art dealers, scholars, curators, and various projects focused on their hidden but exceptional work. More of their art is gracing the walls of more museums, and more of their works are being sold at galleries and at art auctions. That is always a good sign that the artists are being honored and valued. 

For Spring, Juliette Wytsman, Belgium  

So many women Impressionists plein air painters to add to Museum walls! Here is Juliette Wytsman, 1860-1925, Belgium artist, a lovely rendition of  blossoming Cherry trees and a colorful garden.  During World War I, she and her husband, also a painter, fled to Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Wytsman  mostly painted landscapes, ethereal, as lovely and skilled as any painting by Monet, Manet,  Renoir, Pissaro or Degas. 

Anne Redpath, 1895-1965, Scottish. Her father was a tweed designer and her art reflected it. "I add a touch of red or yellow in a harmony of grey, what my father did with tweed." She was born in Galashilo and studied at the Edinburgh School of Art. She helped organize the Society of Women Artists and was president from 1944-1947. I've learned that this is something women artists did in many other places, here in the US as well. It reveals a consciousness of the need to encourage, support and promote the work of women artists in a patriarchal universe. Redpath moved toward Abstract Expressionism toward the end of her life, as did many other women artists of her generation. I find it an interesting evolution of their work. I love Redpath's art.

Anna Blackburne, c. 1726-1793, a British naturalist and painter. These paintings are part of a series of  21 "bird and insect studies amongst fruits and flowers." Her collection was inherited by her nephew who dispersed them. It's not known if all her art was "dispersed" or to whom. Very little is known about early women artists in the period from 1400-1800. In Anna Blackburne's case, some auction houses have parts of her series and offer them for sale. See Female Artists in History 

Alma Woodsey Thomas, 1891-1975, African-American, born in Georgia, grew up and went to school in Washington, DC, a graduate of Howard, taught in a DC Junior high school for over 20 years, mentored by Lois Mallou Jones, moved toward Abstractionist art in her 70s. Highly regarded, in collections at Howard, Museum of Women in the Arts, the Smithsonian. Above left, Eclipse; right, Iris, tulips, & Jonquils. Such diferent perspectives and styles from Anna Blackburne's detailed botanical studies to Thomas's amazing abstract expressionist nature paintings.   

Lill Tschudi, 1911-2004, Swiss, associated with The Grosvenor School of Modern Art, a private British art school and the name of a brief British-Australian art movement. It was founded in 1925 by the Scottish wood engraver Iain Macnab in his house at 33 Warwick Square in Pimlico, London. The school did much to revive interest in printmaking in general, and the linocut in particular, in the years between the Wars. Artists associated with it have come to be known as the "Grosvenor School," and their work commands high prices. Wikipedia

"Parts of a World," 1987

Jane Freilicher, 1924-2014, American. Though "Parts of a World" is similar in subject to many of Freilicher's other work in that it consists of a still life in the foreground and a cityscape in the background, its collection of objects, muted colors, and abstracted painterly style differentiate it. The buildings in the background are in hushed shades of salmon, ochre, and taupe, and a hazy white mist obscures their lower parts and seems to meld into the still life scene in the foreground. On the table rests a blue and white porcelain bowl, a decorative white dish, a plate with four silver sardines, a small earthen vase with two slender white orchids, and a slender, small statue of the Venus de Milo. The objects anchor a luminous gossamer textile to the circular marble table, but the perspective is just slightly off, slightly tilted; it is as if the veil is slowly slipping off the table into the viewer's space and the objects will eventually tumble. Sara Pace, Celebrating Women Artists in History 

Burney Falls, 1980

Bernice Bing , or “Bingo,” 1936–1998, Chinese-American, was a well-respected figure in the San Francisco arts community during the 1950s and ’60s, but her Abstract Expressionist paintings have largely been left out of the movement’s subsequent history. It is, of course, unsurprising that the works of a Chinese-American and lesbian artist would fall through the cracks of art history. The red ideogram meaning “humanity” in Chinese and the heart symbolism show Bing’s attempt to find a place in American society through abstract, spiritual imagery. “Both symbols—humanity and heart—reflect Bing,” FloWong, an artist and close friend of Bing’s, said. Wikipedia

Notes: For all these artists, google their names and click on "images."  Wikipedia is good for biographical information. You'll find other sites listed too.  It's a lovely journey through the most beautiful art and hidden talent. It makes me realize how hard these women artists of the past had to struggle to be visible, and how important it is to make their art known. Now whenever I'm at TMA, I think of them. It would be wonderful if it added more women's art, in all genres and mediums, overtime, to its permanent collection. Not only having an exhibition here and there, though its important, but also buying women's art, like the artists and pieces shown here. The Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Baltimore Museum of Art have both  sold some of the art in their permanent collections in order to buy women's art. It shows a real commitment to diversity and equity. 

*  https://www.housebeautiful.com/lifestyle/g31226385/saatchi-art-100-voices-100-artists-women-history-month/

*  https://artherstory.net/

*  https://www.art-mine.com/collectorscorner/womens-history-month-celebrating-female-artists-then-and-now/