Judith Godwin: An Act of Freedom

JUDITH GODWIN AN AC T OF FREEDOM

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first met JUDI T H GODWIN in 2011, as I was beginning research for the exhibition Women of Abstract Expressionism (Denver Art Museum, 2016). I was in the earliest stages of research and the task ahead was to determine which artists active in the 1950s would be included. Certainly, just as much as I was uncertain of my path ahead, Judith was more than a bit apprehensive about meeting this out-of-town curator with the ambitious goal. I was interested to see what this painter who had been active in the movement would be like. What would her paintings be like? And why, after so many years of academic training, did I not already know of her?

We met in her studio in the West Village. When I opened the door, I walked past a small kitchen, then past the books, chairs and table ready for our meeting. Finally, I saw the long wall of the main studio, floor to ceiling with built-in bins—each filled with large paintings. As her assistant pulled out canvas after canvas from the many years of studio work, I was struck by the strength of the sure brushwork and robust color, the dynamism of the large format compositions—a clear indication that this was an artist who had been there, had not been a Johnny-Come-Lately, but a participant in the original movement we now call Abstract Expressionism.

My first foray into the world of this female Abstract Expressionist was illuminating. Not only were the canvases original and done at the prime of the movement, but here was

the artist herself who, once we got to know each other, let me in on what it was like for her, a young woman new to New York, to be thrust into this world—this man’s world—of painting. This small entrée to her world was revealing. Over the years we’ve known each other, she has told me about the challenges facing a female artist, to find acceptance not only in the New York galleries, but also at places like the Cedar Tavern, where progressive artists and critics drank amidst often wild, heated discussions.

Judith Godwin came to New York in 1953, after studying art at Mary Baldwin College and graduating from Richmond Professional Institute (now Virginia Commonwealth University). In New York, she studied at the Art Students League and with famed modernist Hans Hofmann in Provincetown, Massachusetts and at his New York school. Looking back, this must have been daunting for her as one of, if not the, youngest of Hofmann’s students; and also as a female student of the celebrated painter, who famously paid the left-handed compliment to Elaine de Kooning, that a particular painting she did was “so good you would not know it was done by a woman.” This was the world Godwin entered as a young, single, female painter in New York.

She also had been encouraged to move to New York by the famed choreographer and dancer, Martha Graham, whom she had met earlier and with whom she remained friends until Graham’s death. Graham’s abstract, often powerfully angular expressive movements in dance greatly affected Godwin, who declared, “I can see her gestures in everything I do.”

Judith Godwin comes from a prominent family with deep roots in Virginia. I’ve always thought it remarkable that her parents allowed their daughter to move to New York to be a painter in the mid-1950s. Judith, in her always-forthright manner, told me that because she wanted to further her painting studies, it was natural for her to go to New York, which she did with her parents’ encouragement. Judith was clearly ahead of her time and sure of herself. She knew her path, and she pursued it.

Godwin proved her ability, beginning in the 1950s and continuing throughout her career, with large expressive paintings that include a grand sense of scale, unconventional bold brushwork with underlying structure and energetic thrusts, all-over treatment, and surface emphasis. Early on, she showed in such important galleries as the Stable Gallery and Betty Parsons.

Although the history of Abstract Expressionism has been largely defined by the machismo of male painters, we now see that some female artists, like Judith Godwin, painted inspired, fully expressive works. Godwin’s freedom of direct gesture and process makes her canvases original. Whether in thick, textured impasto or with thinned staining, Godwin’s emotional vitality shows through. Today her paintings are receiving renewed attention and are enthusiastically collected. She earned her place as one of only twelve artists in my own 2016 traveling show, Women of Abstract Expressionism. It is gratifying that her bold, authentic painting is now receiving the acclaim it deserves.

—GWEN F. CHANZIT, PH.D. Curator Emerita of Modern Art, Denver Art Museum Professor of the Practice, Art History and Museum Studies, University of Denver Curator of Women of Abstract Expressionism, Denver Art Museum 2016

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“ The act of painting is for me, as a woman, an act of freedom, and a realization that an image generated by the female experience can be a powerful and creative expression for all humanity. My paintings are personal statements—extensions of myself.”

— J UDITH GODWIN statement made for Celebration of Women in the Arts (Northern Michigan University, 1978).

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS Mountcastle, Suffolk, Virginia, 1950 Theatre-Go-Round, Virginia Beach, Virginia, An Environment of Expression, 1954 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, 1959 Betty Parsons Section Eleven, New York, 1960 Ingber Gallery, New York, 1977 Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, Virginia, 1978 Ingber Gallery, New York, 1979 Ingber Gallery, New York, 1981 Womensbank, Richmond, Virginia, 1981 Ingber Gallery, New York, 1982 Loonan Gallery, Bridgehampton, New York, 1982 Phoenix II Gallery, Washington D.C., 1983 Ingber Gallery, New York, 1984 Northern Michigan University, Marquette, 1984 Mukai Gallery, Tokyo, 1985 Lockwood-Matthews Mansion Museum, Norwalk, Connecticut, 1985 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, 1986 Ingber Gallery, New York, 1987 Northern Virginia Community College, Alexandria, 1988 Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History, Virginia, 1989 Suffolk Museum, Virginia, 1989 Marisa Del Re Gallery, New York, Judith Godwin: Paintings—1953–1992, 1992 Amarillo Museum of Art, Texas, 1995 Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, Virginia, Judith Godwin: Style and Grace, 1997 Albany Museum of Art, Georgia, Judith Godwin: Style and Grace, 2000 Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey Judith Godwin, Color and Movement, 2001 The Delaware Contemporary, Wilmington, Judith Godwin: Paintings, 2002 Holtzman Gallery, Towson University, Maryland, Judith Godwin: Paintings, 2003 McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas, Judith Godwin: Early Abstractions, 2008 Spanierman Modern, New York, Judith Godwin: Paintings 1954–2002, 2010

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Telfair Museum, Jepson Center for the Arts, Savannah, Georgia, Judith Godwin: Early Abstractions, 2011 Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Judith Godwin: Early Abstractions, 2012 Berry Campbell, New York, Judith Godwin, 2017

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SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia, 1951 Valentine Museum and the Linden Gallery, Richmond, Virginia, 1951–53 Abingdon Square Painters, New York, 1952 Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Massachusetts, 1953 Chase Manhattan Collection, Hong Kong, 1954 Virginia Intermont College, Bristol, 1954 Stable Gallery, New York, Invitational Show, 1958 Betty Parsons Section Eleven, New York, Inaugural Show, 1958

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St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York, 1959 University of Colorado, Boulder, 1960 Ingber Gallery, New York, 1977–79 Danforth Art Museum, Framingham, Massachusetts, 1977–79 University of Michigan, Marquette, 1977–79 Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, 1977–79 Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, North Carolina, 1977–79 University of North Carolina, Greensboro, 1977–79 Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Massachusetts, Hans Hofmann as Teacher: Drawings by his Students, 1980 Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York, 1981 Ingber Gallery, New York, 1981 Marisa Del Re Gallery, New York, Found Objects, 1981 Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, 1982 Ingber Gallery, New York, 1982 Marisa Del Re Gallery, New York, 1983 American Federation of the Arts, Hans Hofmann as Teacher, 1983 Ingber Gallery, New York, The Return of Abstraction, 1984 Randolph Macon Woman’s College, Lynchburg, Virginia, 1984 Kenkeleba Gallery, New York, 1985 Ingber Gallery, New York, Survival of the Fittest, 1985 Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, Virginia, 1985 Graham Gallery, New York, 1987 PMW Gallery, Stamford, Connecticut, 1987 Marisa Del Re Gallery, New York, 1990 Binatural Museum, Japan, 1990–91 Daimaru Museum, Osaka, Japan, 1990–91 Hiroshima Museum of Art, Japan, 1990–91 Museum of Modern Art, Kanagawa, Japan, 1990–91 Matsuzakaya Museum, Nagoya-Shi, Japan, 1990–91 National Museum of Woman in the Arts, Washington D.C., 1990–91 Marisa Del Re Gallery, New York, 1991 Marisa Del Re Gallery, New York, 1993–94 Marisa Del Re Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida, 1996 Marisa Del Re Gallery, New York, 1996 Marisa Del Re Gallery, New York, 1997 National Academy of Design, New York, Annual Invitational Exhibition, 2004 Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York, Betty Parsons and the Women, 2005 Opalka Gallery, The Sage Colleges, Albany, New York, 2005 Old Dominion University Gallery, Norfolk, Virginia, The Persistence of Memory, 2006 McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas, Recent Acquisitions: Modern And Contemporary Art, 2009 McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas, Neither Model nor Muse: Women as Artists, 2010

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Judith Godwin and Abstract Expressionism, 2012 Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn, New York, Ab-EX/Re-Con, 2013 Berry Campbell, New York, Masters of Expressionism in Postwar America, 2014 Berry Campbell, New York, The Year in Review, 2014 Denver Art Museum (traveled to the Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina and Palm Springs Art Museum, California), Women of Abstract Expressionism, 2016-2017 Berry Campbell, New York, Summer Selections, 2017 Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, Nebraska, Now’s the Time, August 11-December 31, 2017 Berry Campbell, New York, Summer Selections, 2018 Amar Gallery, London, Hiding in Plain Sight, 2018 Setareh Gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany, A Gesture of Conviction—Women of Abstract Expressionism, Works from the 1950s and 60s, 2018–19 McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas, American Dreams: Classic Cars and Postwar Paintings, 2019

SELECTED PUBLIC & PRIVATE COLLECTIONS Amarillo Museum of Art, Texas Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VIrginia Art Institute of Chicago Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York Gannett Center, Columbia University, New York General Electric Company, New York Greenville County Museum of Art, South Carolina Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. The Hyde Collection, Glenn Falls, New York JP Morgan Chase, New York Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, Virginia McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin Museum of Modern Art, New York Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, Massachusetts National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan National Museum of Cardiff, South Wales, United Kingdom National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C. Naval Y.M.C.A., Norfolk, Virginia Newark Museum, New Jersey North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln

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Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts Sovran Bank, Richmond, Virginia Suffolk Museum of Art, Virginia Ulrich Museum, Wichita State University, Kansas United Virginia Bank, Richmond, Virginia University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut

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JUDITH GODWIN | AN AC T OF FREEDOM F EBRUARY 15 – M AR CH 1 6 , 2019

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