Herself - American Artists of the 20th Century Catalogue
Herself
American Artists of the 20 th Century
LINCOLN GLENN
All rights reserved, 2025. This catalog may not be reproduced in whole or in any part, in any form or by any means both electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of Lincoln Glenn.
Since our first exhibition in Westchester in fall of 2022, our steadfast commitment to fairly representing women artists in our gallery programming has been clear. We have curated 16 exhibitions and this will be the eighth (50%) either focusing on a single female artist, such as Juanita Guccione (January-March 2025), or a group of female artists, such as the National Association of Women Artists (March-May 2024).
We have not hosted a group exhibition downtown since September, but we have been itching to display many of these secondary market works, and we are delighted this presentation will incorporate many previously unseen gems and recent acquisitions. This exhibition also gives us the opportunity to hang works by deserved artists who we represent, such as Sherron Francis and Diana Kurz, alongside works by household names, such as Alice Neel and Barbara Kruger.
Even though this exhibition categorizes female artists together in our Chelsea gallery, the show aims to prove that there was not a singular style, color palette, or medium that unites the artists. A visitor cannot blindly identify the sex of the makers in this exhibition. Yet, some of these artists were dissuaded from using certain colors by their male gallerists and others were discouraged by fellow artists from following their career path on the grounds of their sex. We are fortunate that the artists in this exhibition always stayed true to themselves from the period of Women’s Suffrage through the period of Second-wave feminism into contemporary times, and we are pleased to present Herself: American Artists of the 20th Century .
Sincerely,
Douglas Gold & Eli Sterngass
A KALEIDOSCOPE OF INFLUENCE:
AMERICAN WOMEN ARTISTS IN THE 20 TH CENTURY
by Clanci Jo Conover
Female artists of the 20th century were just as diverse and complex as their male counterparts in terms of socioeconomic backgrounds, art education level, and the subjects that they chose to represent in their artwork. One common thread throughout the lives and careers of the 20th century American women represented in Herself is that they all had an interest in influencing, commenting, critiquing, and collaborating. Maneuvering through the 20th century in a “man’s world,” female artists had to maintain a steadfast sense of self to survive, and this is ultimately what helped them thrive artistically. Archaic stigmas of the time implied that to make it in a traditionally male role or field, such as fine art during the early and mid-20th century (and arguably beyond), women had to embody masculine traits but also ensure they did not come off too brutish or intractable to avoid negative classification. Being quiet, agreeable, and pleasant – qualities often ascribed to women – were not necessarily the agreed upon ways to succeed. Many women knew this – some naturally embodied these “male” traits, some rose to the challenge and played the game, and others disregarded the sentiment entirely, choosing to be their authentic selves regardless of the impact on their classification as meteoric or mediocre.
One of the ways that women artists made their mark in an art scene dominated by male gallerists and critics was through collaboration, whether as teachers, art dealers, curators, activists, or even travelers. Travel before the digital age immersed artists in different cultures and traditions, allowing them to imbue slivers of what they learned from their travels into their own work. Paris was a major art hub that attracted all kinds of artists, connecting creatives from Academic styles with the European avant-garde and American Modernism. Virginia Berresford, Betty Parsons, Blanche Lazzell, Alice Baber, Diana Kurz, Suzan Frecon, and Gertrude Greene all lived or spent time in Paris, while Shirley Goldfarb and Sheila Hicks chose to make it their permanent homes. For each of these artists, Paris was a bastion of creativity: a think-tank where musicians, authors, painters and poets could cross-pollinate.1 The connections waiting to be forged were bountiful. Goldfarb befriended the likes of Joan Mitchell and Man Ray, Lazzell exhibited at the Salon d’Automne and the American Women’s Club, Berresford took lessons under the wing of Amédée Ozenfant (the co-founder of Purism), and Baber caroused with artists such as Sam Francis and Shirley Jaffe. Paris was fertile ground for collaborations, driven by a shared desire for knowledge, understanding, and beauty.2
There were, of course, other places that served as inspiration. In the 1930s, Surrealist Juanita Guccione opted to live among the Ouled Naïl people in eastern Algeria, a wandering matriarchal tribe.3 Here, she was able to observe and participate in a social system steered by women, which undoubtedly influenced the mysterious and capable feminine figures in her paintings. Before settling in Paris, Hicks, a fiber artist, traveled throughout South America, documenting the different cultures and indigenous customs she encountered. She later lived in Guerrero, Mexico, from 1959 to 1964, learning from traditional craftspeople who created their own clothing by hand and working with local materials like wool from Oaxaca or cotton from Tenancingo.4 Vivian Springford’s travels to Guatemala, the Himalayas, Tanzania, and the Caribbean helped her to formulate the essence of a landscape within her abstract canvases. Further, painter of aerial views Yvonne Jacquette adapted her practice to incorporate multiple perspectives in her top-down imagery after flying over Hong Kong in 1990.
While international travel was not a prerequisite for a career as an artist, the majority of artists included in this exhibition left their hometowns in favor of greater opportunity elsewhere. Japanese-born artist Takako Yamaguchi departed her mother country in the early 1970s to settle in Los Angeles, joining the ranks of transplant artists that have perpetually contributed to the evolution of American visual art. On the other side of the country, New York was a mecca for artists – although it did not guarantee fame or fortune, it contained a dense concentration of working artists. This provided young artists the opportunity to engage with those more established, and offered established artists the ability to discuss and critique one another’s work. The Abstract Expressionist Grace Hartigan moved to the city in 1945, and quickly built a legendary roster of friends and colleagues that included Jackson Pollock, Larry Rivers, Helen Frankenthaler, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, and Knox Martin. Hartigan is an outlier, as she was one of few women who received national acclaim while relatively young, exhibiting in the iconic 1951 Ninth Street Show. Perle Fine was another woman included in the Ninth Street Show, who, like Hartigan, exhibited at nearly every New York School annual exhibition from 1951-1957.5 Fine relocated to the Springs area of Easthampton in the 1950s, ingratiating herself with other transplants like Willem de Kooning, John Ferren, Jackson Pollock, and Lee Krasner.
The Ninth Street Show exemplifies the added challenge of being a female artist – only 11 women exhibited, while over 60 men were represented. There was no shortage of women working in abstraction, but as the traditional opportunities afforded to them were limited, they would seek validation in other ways. Gertrude Greene, wife of the painter Balcomb Greene, is credited as one of the first American abstract artists working in sculpture, and yet she did not receive a solo exhibition until her late 40s. She worked with the Unemployed Artists Group, which lobbied for federal support of out-of-work artists; this led to the formation of the Works Progress Administration in 1935.6 Greene was also a founding member of American Abstract Artists (AAA), becoming their first paid employee as a gallery attendant for the annual exhibition.7 Fine later joined the AAA in 1945, finding a receptive community that supported her ideas around non objective art.
Artist groups were an avenue for women to contribute to the conversation; members often had to be voted in, but it could prove easier to be admitted into an artist group than to be chosen for a gallery exhibition. As was the case with the AAA, women were often founders of these conglomerates. National Association for Women Artists (NAWA) was founded specifically for women, affording a space where they could discuss and review each others’ work independent of male voices, while also offering exhibition opportunities. Agnes Pelton, Blanche Lazzell, and Alice Neel were part of this network. Vivian Springford was a leading member of another women’s organization, Women in the Arts Foundation (WIA), where she had a solo exhibition in 1976. The year prior, WIA issued an open letter/protest flyer calling out New York galleries by name for their failure to include women in their programming in a substantial way, citing that 1975 was designated as International Women’s Year by the United Nations, and questioning how these galleries were going to celebrate the occasion (see: WIA Foundation records, 1971-1979, Smithsonian Archives of American Art).
While not a formal group, color field painter Sherron Francis was immersed in SoHo artist circles alongside peers such as Larry Poons, Dan Christensen, and Larry Zox. Marjorie Strider was likewise involved with conceptual and pop artists, performing in Claes Oldenburg’s Happenings and exhibiting alongside Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. In 1969, with poet Hannah Weiner and art critic John Perreault, she organized the first “Street Works,” an
informal exhibition staged in public spaces featuring 20 artists including Vito Acconci and Arakawa. For her part, Strider placed picture frames around Manhattan as a sort of lure for passersby to interact with and question the work, democratizing access to art while inserting elements of conceptualism. Artist groups or circles were integral to the development of female artists: They offered a sense of inclusion and relevance for their members despite gender bias in the mainstream; a platform to defend and debate their work amongst peers.
There were a number of prominent female gallery owners around the mid century, but given the overarching machismo of the time, there was little room to champion women at a high rate. Betty Parsons started her career as an artist, and began working in galleries when she had to earn an income after her alimony payments ended in the early 1930s. She eventually opened her own gallery by 1946, filling Peggy Guggenheim’s shoes as the de facto representative of abstract artists.8 Parsons was central to the movement, and perhaps her status as an artist helped her succeed as a dealer. Virginia Berresford also opened her own art gallery on Martha’s Vineyard. Parsons refused to show her paintings or sculpture at her gallery partly due to a conflict of interest,9 but Berresford had no such objections, exhibiting her own work and curating shows for other artists. She also used the space to teach art students in the summers.
Teaching was another frontier where women could find agency, but, as with Berresford, it was not always at institutes of higher education. Diana Kurz worked part-time teaching nursery school while enrolled at Columbia, and supported herself after graduating by teaching children. She has said: “While many of the male art students at Columbia went on to teach art on the college level, I was not told, and I did not realize, that I was as qualified as the men.”10 Kurz did not encounter any female professors in her training, so when she finally received a teaching position at Philadelphia College of Art in 1968, she made it a point to give the women in her class encouragement, and instill in them a strong sense of self – a lesson she did not receive from her male teachers. Jacquette, Fine, Hartigan, and Francis all became teachers at the university level, expanding their reach from the artist circle or gallery show to directly impact young artists.
Barbara Kruger left graphic design to become an artist full time, and later secured her first major teaching position at UC Berkeley. In the early days of her work as an artist, Kruger has said that walking into New York galleries was a daunting prospect, as, according to her, they were not inviting for “particularly independent, non-masochistic women.”11 Her practice of combining text with imagery has often challenged these notions of applied hierarchy, making unapologetic statements that leave explanations up to the viewer.
The women represented in Herself had varying degrees of commercial success, some achieving major museum shows and earning a place on mega gallery rosters, while others are still seeking institutional recognition. Regardless of their notoriety, each of these artists had a hand in the greater cultural development of visual art in 20th century America. They were enterprising and bold, making strides not only for women artists to have a seat at the table, but for women to be respected for their contributions in any field. They may have been totally uninterested in their categorization of “woman” and how that affected their prospects or reception, but the impact persists. Traveling empowered and inspired a number of these artists, broadening the conversation on globalism and intercultural dialogue. Artist groups and circles offered a place for their voices to be heard, exchanging ideas and collaborating on innovative projects. Teaching further expanded their reach, influencing the next generations of artists to consider diverse perspectives.
Women and other marginalized artists must be considered through an aggregate of their accomplishments, and through the influence they had on those around them. A common discussion in critical feminism is the idea of self, and how we conceive of the self in a world rife with gender disparity. What can be taken away from this eclectic grouping of women artists is that they all managed to develop and maintain their own unique sense of self while engaging with the external. Their approaches and inspiration may vary, but the self remains present.
The ripple effect of their respective careers is still unrealized.
Author note: Clanci Jo Conover is a multifaceted arts professional and independent curator. Her work on women artists has been published in Art & Deal and Fine Art Globe. A forthcoming article on Helen Gerardia will appear in Creative Beetroots later this year.
Endnotes
1 Black American creatives and intellectuals were particularly attracted to Paris, where they could express themselves and collaborate with others in ways not available to them in the United States during the Jim Crow era.
2 Recent museum exhibitions have continued the research around American artists in Paris, see: Americans in Paris: Artists Working in Postwar France, 1946–1962 exhibited at the Grey Art Museum (2024) and the Addison Gallery (2024-2025) and Brilliant Exiles: AmericanWomen in Paris, 1900–1939, exhibited at the National Gallery of Art (20242025) and the Speed Art Museum (2025).
3 Susan Aberth, Surrealism, Occultism and Politics (Routledge, 2017), 235.
4 Joan Simon, “Frames of Reference” in Sheila Hicks:Weaving as Metaphor, ed. Nina Stritzler-Levine (Yale Univ. Press, 2006), 50-51.
5 Marika Herskovic, New York school : abstract expressionists : artists choice by artists : a complete documentation of the New York painting and sculpture annuals, 1951–1957 (New York School Pr, 2000) 16; 36.
6 Virginia Mecklenburg, The Patricia and Phillip Frost collection, American abstraction, 1930-1945 (Smithsonian Inst. Press, 1989), 92.
7 Ibid., 96.
8 Parsons was also one of the first dealers to give serious attention to and representation of Black, Latino, and Asian artists.
9 Helène Aylon, “The Parsons Effect,” Art in America (2013); transcribed from an interview between Aylon and Parsons conducted in 1977.
