Women in the Arts Summer 2016

SUMMER 2016

DIRECTOR’S LETTER

Dear Members and Friends, She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World opened in April to a wave of positive reviews. We are so pleased that it has been recognized as “an exceptional show” by the Washington Post, and that the museum has also been praised as “a significant voice in contemporary art in Washington, D.C.” by the Washington City Paper.

If you haven’t yet seen this exhibition, please plan to visit us before it closes on July 31. Also, please check the calendar, beginning on page 16. Several of the photographers will visit this summer to discuss their work in person. Or, if you are unable to come to Washington, please go to She Who Tells a Story on our website and avail yourself of the Audio Guide, YouTube playlist, and Instagram Gallery. There is so much great content online about this exhibition, and I don’t want you to miss it!

This exhibition caps off an exciting year at the museum. Our new Public Programs Department is up and running, and our first year of Women, Arts, and Social Change is nearly complete. These programs have brought new audiences to NMWA to hear incredibly talented artists such as Carrie Mae Weems, or learn about trends in genderless design and environment-healing art, and further connect over social happy hours and dinners.

I hope that many of you have been able to watch YouTube videos and experience these galvanizing programs wherever you are.

The museum also amplified its message through our innovative social media campaign that asked, “Can you name five women artists?” This challenge, which ran throughout Women’s History Month, was modeled on a question first asked years ago by our founder to illuminate gender disparities in people’s understanding of art history. We were absolutely bowled over and thrilled by the response! More than 370 museums and cultural organizations and 11,000 individuals shared, tagged, or posted about women artists in 3,300 posts on Instagram and 23,000 Twitter feeds, and we received major media coverage in the Huffington Post and the Atlantic.

Thank you all for your enthusiasm in supporting women in the arts and for helping us make the museum a lively and engaging place.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts brings recognition to the achievements of women artists of all periods and nationalities by exhibiting, preserving, acquiring, and researching art by women and by teaching the public about their accomplishments.

MUSEUM INFORMATION Location: 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20005 Public transportation: Take metrorail to Metro Center station, 13th Street exit; walk two blocks north to corner of New York Avenue and 13th Street Website: http://nmwa.org broadstrokes.org Main: 202-783-5000 Toll free: 800-222-7270 Member Services: 866-875-4627 Shop: 877-226-5294 Tours: 202-783-7996 Mezzanine Café: 202-628-1068 Library and Research Center: 202-783-7365 Magazine subscriptions: 866-875-4627 Hours: Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Sunday, noon–5 p.m. Closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day Admission: NMWA Members free, Adults $10, Visitors over 65 $8, Students $8, Youth under 18 free Free Community Day is the first Sunday of every month. Admission for special exhibitions may vary; for information check http://nmwa.org.

Women in the Arts Summer 2016 (Volume 34, no. 2) Women in the Arts is a publication of the NATIONAL MUSEUM of WOMEN in the ARTS® Director | Susan Fisher Sterling Editor | Elizabeth Lynch Digital Editorial Assistant | Emily Haight Design | Studio A, Alexandria, Virginia For advertising rates and information, call 202-266-2814 or email elynch@nmwa.org.

Women in the Arts is published three times a year as a benefit for museum members by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20005-3970.

Copyright © 2016 National Museum of Women in the Arts. National Museum of Women in the Arts®, The Women’s Museum®, and Women in the Arts® are registered trademarks of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

On the cover: Alison Saar, Inheritance, 2009; Cast bronze, wood, and muslin, 17 x 7 x 7 in.; Courtesy of Betye Saar; © Alison Saar

Susan Fisher Sterling The Alice West Director, NMWA

DIRECTOR’S PHOTOGRAPH: © MICHELE MATTEI

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Cover Story

Features

Departments

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Arts News

Alison Saar In Print

March Madness: A Digital Dive into Women’s History Month

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Collector’s Voice: Anita Zabludowicz

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Culture Watch

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Education Report

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Dedicated Donor: Judith Finkelstein and Planned Giving

Saar creates bold, colorful prints of figures with evocative objects—snakes, knives, fry pans, plants, or bottles— alluding to a range of myth, lore, and legend. In an interview, she describes her artistic practice, focusing on her prints and the way they relate to her sculptural work.

Stephanie Midon

In March, the museum used social media to celebrate women artists and their accomplishments.

Emily Haight

20 Eye to Eye: Connecting through Portrait Photography Contemporary photographs from the museum’s collection and special exhibition She Who Tells a Story reveal the rich expressive range of portraiture.

Kathryn Wat

26 Priya Pereira: Contemporary Artists’ Books from India

14 On View

Salon Style in the

Eulabee Dix Gallery 16 Calendar 29 Museum News and Events 32 Supporting Roles 33 Museum Shop

Priya Pereira’s book artworks are inspired by her life and the cultures of India.

Heather Slania

SUMMER 2016 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

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In Memoriam

Take a Bow, Danai Gurira

Advancing Art History

Zaha Hadid, hailed as the world’s greatest female architect, died of a heart attack on March 31 at age sixtyfive. In 2004, Hadid became the first woman to win the Pritzker Prize—the most prestigious award in architecture. In 2016, shortly before her death, she also became the first woman to receive Britain’s Royal Gold Medal.

The Baghdad-born designer moved to London in 1972 to study at the Architectural Association. She first gained international recognition in 1993 with her cubist-inspired Vitra fire station in Weil am Rhein, Germany.

Later called the “queen of the curve,” Hadid gained renown for her use of sensuous parabolic shapes. She embraced expressive neo-futuristic designs integrating fluid lines and layered patterns. Buildings such as the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati, the Guangzhou opera house in China, and the Olympic Aquatics Centre in London are among her accomplishments in architecture, design, and planning. She won the U.K.’s RIBA Stirling Prize twice—in 2010 for the MAXXI, a contemporary art museum in Rome, and in 2011 for the Evelyn Grace Academy, a zig-zagged steel-and-glass school building in London.

Hadid left her mark on the world stage and skylines with architectural marvels. Her architecture firm plans to move forward with thirty-six existing projects, including a bridge in Taipei and the Iraqi Parliament.

Danai Gurira’s Eclipsed made history this year as the first play on Broadway to be written, directed, and cast entirely with black women.

Gurira is a U.S.-born, Zimbabwean-raised actress perhaps best known for her role as the katana-wielding Michonne on AMC’s The Walking Dead. Starring Academy Awardwinning actress Lupita Nyong’o, Eclipsed follows five kidnapped Liberian women as they suffer and survive during the country’s second civil war. Another acclaimed current play by Gurira, Familiar, is an off-Broadway family drama about immigration and assimilation.

Drawing from her own family history, Gurira depicts a young woman from Zimbabwe who flees a forced betrothal to become a nun.

The College Board recently redesigned the curriculum for Advanced Placement art history in high schools in an attempt to address cultural and racial bias in the arts.

The new curriculum requires students to make cross-cultural connections. This shift reflects larger efforts to integrate works by women and artists of color who have previously been excluded from art history texts and museum displays. By condensing the curriculum into 250 works of art and architecture, the course is intended to encourage better analysis. Even within the redesigned framework, however, 65% of the content is still considered Western art, while 35% comes from other artistic traditions.

PAUL MORIGI/AP IMAGES FOR NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

BRIGITTE LACOMBE

ARTS NEWS

Arts News

Baltimore-based painter Amy Sherald’s Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance) won the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, sponsored by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Sherald is the first woman to win the prize, which includes $25,000 as well as the opportunity to create a portrait of a living person for the museum’s permanent collection. Her oil paintings explore identity, race, and gender in life-sized portraiture.

Challenging the concept of color-as-race, Sherald pairs intensely colorful clothing and backgrounds with figures painted in grayscale.

NMWA has two paintings by Sherald, thanks to the generosity of donor Steven Scott, Baltimore.

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JOAN MARCUS

Prizewinning Portraiture

Top: Amy Sherald with her prizewinning portrait Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance) Below: Pascale Armand, Lupita Nyong’o, and Saycon Sengbloh in a scene from Danai Gurira’s Eclipsed, directed

by Liesl Tommy

Collector’s Voice: Anita Zabludowicz NMWA celebrates art collectors who, like museum Founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, build collections that highlight art by women. The authority and enthusiasm of these collectors is compelling, and they help to bring acclaim to worthy artists.

Anita Zabludowicz, with her husband Poju, founded the Zabludowicz Collection. They show art publicly at an exhibition space in London and at venues in Finland and New York. In their London project space, inaugurated in 2007, they organize exhibitions, many featuring emerging artists. They also offer a residency in Finland.

You have a private collection that is publicly accessible—what are your goals for your art?

I have many goals for our collection, but the most important is that we continue to show as much work as possible to the public and that the art we own will be understood as culturally valuable in the future.

Can you describe your approach to working with artists and to creating exhibitions?

Our shows vary from one to four months. We commission one solo show a year, and in 2016 we are working with Brooklyn-based painter Donna Huanca.

Last year was Jon Rafman, a Canadian artist. We produce around ten shows a year in London. Invites is our fastestmoving program—it gives a platform to one unrepresented artist each month. In Finland we show permanent works and run a residency.

Your space in London is a former church— can you describe the building and how you exhibit contemporary art there?

Our exhibition space was originally a Methodist church built in 1887. Until the 1960s it was a practicing chapel, but later became a drama school—in fact it was a method-acting school! We purchased it in 2005. It was on the at-risk register and in a pretty poor state, with paint peeling off the walls and uneven floors, but I chose to keep the church as it was, peeled paint and crumbling plaster and all. My philosophy was as long as the roof, heating, and security were in good repair, the rest of the building would take care of itself.

We have made a feature of the layers of history that have been added as the artists and curators altered the building. Many artists were happy to not have a white sterile space—they find it more organic and interactive. We have produced more than fifty shows in our space. It remains inspiring to artists and visitors.

Has showing your art publicly changed your approach to collecting?

Showing art publicly is a great inspiration.

Before I had my exhibition space I was buying mainly finished work, but now the process of collecting is much more organic, from befriending the artists to the technicians. We discuss the artists’ practical needs and understand the process in greater depth.

Can you describe the Finland residency?

The residency is magic. Finland started as our holiday home and something very private. We all enjoy being surrounded by outstanding creativity and have been blessed with an incredible team run by the Collection’s director, Elizabeth Neilson.

Usually we ask each artist to leave behind a work, and we have had some lovely responses to the location throughout the years. We recently had an exhibition at the Helsinki Taidehalli showing work made by artists whom we had been lucky enough to host on the residency.

Your collection includes work by many contemporary women artists as well as men—do you take a special interest in women artists?

Woman are very important to the collection. In the art world the ratio you

see is probably 70:30 male to female artists who make it. In our collection, we are about 50:50. Woman have been underrepresented by collectors and museums, but this situation is now starting to change dramatically. There are some strong moves toward making female artists more visible at every stage of their careers—Mona Hatoum at Tate Modern, our upcoming solo with Donna Huanca, and Phyllida Barlow representing Britain in the Venice Biennale in 2017.

Which woman artist do you think people should know more about right now?

I think Isa Genzken is one of the most important women artists alive today.

She has influenced so many artists.

American Ericka Beckman is also very important—she has explored femininity and technical empowerment in a playful and performative way.

Which of your upcoming projects are you especially looking forward to?

I am very much looking forward to our exhibition with Donna Huanca—her work is about performance of the human body interacting with sculpture, architecture, color, and sound. I believe this show will be revolutionary, as it demonstrates how art and the human being can be one.

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California

This exhibition presents more than fifty major paintings by female Abstract Expressionists shown together for the first time. While highlighting artistic process and the freedom of gesture, the exhibition also examines these artists’ responses to particular places, memories, challenges, and life experiences.

Hito Steyerl: Factory of the Sun MOCA, Los Angeles Through September 12, 2016

Hito Steyerl’s immersive video installation examines the way images influence reality and political representation. Integrating news, documentaries, video games, and internet dance videos, Steyerl creates a surreal narrative about workers whose movements in a studio are converted into artificial sunlight.

Colorado

DENVER ART MUSEUM: VANCE H. KIRKLAND ACQUISITION FUND; ©ELAINE DE KOONING TRUST

Women of Abstract Expressionism* Denver Art Museum June 12–September 25, 2016 Elaine de Kooning, Bullfight, 1959; On view at the Denver Art Museum

Maine O’Keeffe, Stettheimer, Torr, Zorach: Women Modernists in New York* Portland Museum of Art June 24–September 18, 2016 LACMA, GIFT OF O’KEEFFE FOUNDATION; PHOTO © 2015 MUSEUM ASSOCIATES/ LACMA; LICENSED BY ART RESOURCE/ARS, NY

COURTESY OF THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, LOS ANGELES; PHOTO BY JUSTIN LUBLINER

Installation view of Hito Steyerl: Factory of the Sun; On view at MOCA LA

Georgia O’Keeffe, Horse’s Skull with Pink Rose, 1931; On view at the Portland Museum of Art

The intersecting careers of Georgia O’Keeffe, Florine Stettheimer, Helen Torr, and Marguerite Zorach coincided with new conceptions of femininity and womanhood in American society. This exhibition showcases sixty works by these pioneering American modernists working in New York between 1910 and 1935.

Massachusetts Lotte Jacobi, Lisette Model: Urban Camera deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln Through September 18, 2016 GIFT OF CHRIS ENOS; © 1928 THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE; THE LOTTE JACOBI COLLECTION; PHOTO JENNIFER SCHMITT

C U LT U R E WAT C H

Culture Watch | Exhibitions

Lotte Jacobi, Lil Dagover with her Shih-tsu, Berlin, 1928; On view at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum

Living in Berlin, Paris, and New York from the 1930s to 1950s, Lotte Jacobi and Lisette Model created powerful images of everyday people through street photography, portraits, and experimental works. Their art exemplfies the era’s portraiture revival and innovative photographic practices.

New York Alma Thomas* Studio Museum, New York July 14–October 30, 2016 Inspired by Abstract Expressionist and Washington Color School practices, Alma Thomas experimented with abstraction, color, line, and pattern. Featuring works from every

Books “I shall withdraw once more into the shadows and become a vague image, enveloped in the color of distances, gray,” Romaine Brooks wrote, at a point when she was disillusioned.

These ideas—solitude, the color gray— characterized her entwined artistic life and personal relationships. The lively biography Romaine Brooks: A Life, by Cassandra Langer (University of Wisconsin Press, 2015), traces the life and work of Brooks (1874–1970), known for her gray-toned paintings of androgynous figures and open lesbian relationships. Her fifty-year relationship with writer Natalie Barney was particularly significant, as was their longstanding three-way commitment with Lily de Gramont. The artist had a traumatic childhood and later became an heiress with the means to support herself. Langer describes Brooks’s seeming contradictions: on one hand, “Gender fluidity and sexual freedom were paramount for the women in Brooks’s circle,” but on the other, her views included “conservative politics and bigotry.” Brooks is a singular and vivid figure. “Never associated with a style or movement, Brooks was a maverick who practiced what she called the ‘sternness’ of her art.”—Elizabeth Lynch 4

WOMEN IN THE ARTS | SUMMER 2016

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Selected Works (W. W. Norton, 2015), shines a fresh spotlight on the seventeenth-century poet, nun, and feminist intellectual. A recent translation by Edith Grossman—known for her translations of Gabriel García Márquez and Cervantes—features a selection of poetry and writing by Sor Juana (1651-1695). In an introduction, Julia Alvarez recounts Sor Juana’s unlikely life story as an illegitimate child who was self-taught and rose to literary fame in the Spanish-speaking world (and a fellow “female who also couldn’t hold her tongue”). Sor Juana’s feminist sensibilities are best known through her “Response of the Poet to the Very Eminent Sor Filotea de la Cruz,” which relates her education, beginning with her childhood hunger for knowledge: “I heard there was a university and schools in Mexico City where sciences were studied; . . . I began to pester my mother with insistent, inopportune pleas that she send me, dressed as a boy . . . . she refused, and rightly so, but I satisfied my desire by reading many different books owned by my grandfather, and there were not enough punishments and reprimands to stop me.”—Elizabeth Lynch

Orly Genger, Hurlyburly, 2016; On view at the Contemporary Austin

Élisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun, Countess Tolstoya, 1796; On view at the National Gallery of Canada

Featuring ninety works—including neverbefore-exhibited paintings—this exhibition explores Élisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun’s life

“Even before the women’s movement, art gave me a sense of freedom and permission that anything was possible,” says abstract artist Louise Fishman (b. 1939). Featuring five decades of Fishman’s boundary-pushing works, the exhibition catalogue Louise Fishman (DelMonico Books, 2016) was published for her first retrospective, at the Neuberger Museum of Art, and concurrent exhibition of her small-scale paintings and sculptures, at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia. Insightful essays by the Neuberger’s chief curator, Helaine Posner; critic Nancy Princenthal; and painter Carrie Moyer; together with curator Ingrid Schaffner’s interview with the artist, reveal how Fishman redefined the traditionally masculine Abstract Expressionist tradition. Profoundly influenced by feminist and Jewish cultures, Fishman experimented with materials and ideas to form her artistic voice.

In an effort to purge male influence from her art, Fishman embraced traditionally feminine craft techniques through deconstructed paintings that were dyed, cut, and stitched back together. In her spontaneous word-based paintings—collectively known as the “Angry Paintings”—

U.K.

Mona Hatoum, Hot Spot III, 2009; On view at the Tate Modern

Hatoum combines electric currents with household objects to evoke conflicting emotions and examine confrontational themes. This is the first major retrospective of the Lebanese-born Palestinian artist’s work in the U.K., showcasing visceral performances, videos, sculptures, and large-scale installations from her thirty-five year career.

AGOSTINO OSIO; COURTESY FONDAZIONE QUERINI STAMPALIA, VENICE; © MONA HATOUM

Orly Genger: Hurlyburly The Contemporary Austin Through February 2017

Élisabeth Louise Vigée-LeBrun (1755–1842)* National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa June 10–September 11, 2016 NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA; GIFT OF AN ANONYMOUS CANADIAN COLLECTOR, 2015

Texas

and work. Talented and publicity-savvy, VigéeLeBrun became Queen Marie-Antoinette’s favorite portraitist, garnered a reputation across Europe, and achieved unprecedented success as a woman artist.

Mona Hatoum Tate Modern, London Through August 21, 2016

International Canada

period of her career, the exhibition includes rarely exhibited watercolors, early abstractions, and signature paintings from private and public collections.

WALLER CREEK CONSERVANCY AND THE CONTEMPORARY AUSTIN; © ORLY GENGER; COURTESY THE ARTIST; PHOTO BY BRIAN FITZSIMMONS

Weaving hand-knotted lobster rope painted in shades of blue, designer Orly Genger spent months constructing the site-specific installation Hurlyburly. Adjacent to Waller Creek, the massive outdoor structure’s undulating organic forms invite visitors to interact with each other, the work, and the land.

* Visit these exhibitions to view works on loan from NMWA

Fishman furiously scrawled the names of writers, critics, and painters who were part of her consciousness-raising group. “Remembrance and Renewal” paintings combined paint and beeswax with human ashes that Fishman had gathered at Auschwitz during the late 1980s. The artist says, “I felt like I had company in the studio. I had these voices with me and I could paint.” She later experimented with paper collage, blades, and carpet squares to form multi-layered and deeply personal works.

In the mid-twentieth century, Fishman’s identity as a lesbian and an abstract painter made her “doubly invisible,” writes Moyer. “While the rest of the art world catches up, Fishman’s painting keeps getting more and more expressive and capacious.”—Emily Haight Louise Fishman: A Retrospective, through July 31 at the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York, and Paper Louise Tiny Fishman Rock, through August 14 at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia.

Right: Louise Fishman, Untitled, 2011; On view at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia

SUMMER 2016 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

COURTESY THE ARTIST AND CHEIM & READ

COURTESY MICHAEL ROSENFELD GALLERY LLC, NEW YORK

Alma Thomas, Apollo 12 “Splash Down”, 1970; On view at the Studio Museum

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E D U C AT I O N R E P O R T

Education Report In addition to showing art, NMWA’s Great Hall regularly provides a stunning backdrop for elegant events. This spring it was also home to rainbow-colored carpet squares, art supplies, and preschoolers with big imaginations. The museum has long provided free hands-on and thematic tours for elementary- and high-school students. Based on an increasing number of teachers requesting tours for early learners (children ages 3–6), we extended our reach to that age group.

In January, Valerie Bundy, the education department’s graduate intern and former Pre-K teacher, began developing the Pre-K tours for NMWA. Bundy explained, “I wanted to create an art-filled tour that would hold the interest of young minds. I considered which museum spaces were best for a young, energetic audience. Are objects positioned low enough for children to see? Is there space for ten kids to sit comfortably? Which art materials are allowed in the galleries?” To help answer these questions, Bundy worked with education staff and collaborated with alumni from NMWA’s summer Teacher Institutes. Teachers answered

PHOTOS BY EMILY HAIGHT, NMWA

Little Legs, Big Imaginations: Tours for Early Learners

On new themed tours, Pre-K learners look at artworks, hear stories, and experiment with art materials

surveys and provided vital feedback on lesson plans as they were developed. They also brought more than 140 Pre-K students to the museum in April to help us test the new tours.

The tours introduce early learners to art concepts in three categories: colors; shapes

Behind-the-Zines at the Museum

Caroline Paquita, whose zine art was recently on view in Womanimal in the museum’s Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center, visited NMWA on March 25 to talk about her career and art. Following a presentation in the Performance Hall, she led a group of visitors to the library to see her zines in person and continue the conversation about zine-making.

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WOMEN IN THE ARTS | SUMMER 2016

and lines; and portraits. Each tour fosters respectful listening, as students hear a story related to the theme of their tour, and close looking, as they view and discuss two artworks. For instance, preschoolers on the “Spotting Shapes and Looking for Lines” tour looked at Chakaia Booker’s Acid Rain and used their bodies to re-create its shapes and lines. Another group identified the colors in Joan Mitchell’s Orange using color-detective spyglasses. The tour centered on portraits asked students to pose like Lavinia Fontana’s Portrait of a Noblewoman before creating their own self-portraits.

Following time in the galleries, we treated our tiny visitors to a hands-on exploration of materials. Comfortably settled on carpet squares, they experimented with art materials carefully selected to complement tour themes, such as oil pastels, colored pencils, crayons, glue, fabric, yarn, chenille stems, colorful tape, and paper scraps. By prioritizing the process of making over the final product, we sought to expose Pre-K audiences to art materials and get them inspired by NMWA’s collection.

The pilot tours were a hit, and we gained valuable information from teachers and from observing students that will help us continue to refine these tours, which we plan to roll out publicly soon. The next time you wander through the Great Hall, don’t be surprised if you encounter a group of very young children discovering NMWA for the first time!

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udith Finkelstein, who passed away in June 2012, was a longtime friend of the museum who generously provided for NMWA in her estate plans. A native of Rhode Island and longtime resident of Bethesda, Maryland, Dr. Finkelstein worked as a neuroscientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Institute of Aging. She joined as a Charter Member of NMWA soon after the museum’s founding and was an active member.

Dr. Finkelstein further supported the museum by serving as a volunteer for several years, beginning in 2006. She regularly let us know

D E D I C AT E D D O N O R

Dedicated Donor | In Remembrance of Judith Finkelstein that she loved the museum. She enjoyed welcoming visitors and sharing her enthusiasm for our exhibitions and programs.

A champion of women’s causes, Dr. Finkelstein enjoyed travel and cultural pursuits, but especially NMWA. It was in this spirit that she informed us of her plans to leave a bequest to the museum in support of the programming that she felt was so significant. NMWA Founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay says, “I am sincerely grateful for her thoughtful legacy, which will help sustain the programming that was so meaningful to her.”

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s the National Museum of Women in the Arts approaches its 30th anniversary in 2017, we are indebted to dedicated individuals who have made our success possible. Planned gifts from our committed friends like you will ensure that NMWA organizes trailblazing exhibitions, plans dynamic outreach and education programs, and advocates for women in the arts well into the future.

We would be honored to know of your intention to include NMWA in your estate planning, so that we may acknowledge your commitment and understand your wishes. Donors who inform the museum about intended planned gifts will be acknowledged as members of the Women in the Arts Trust. As a member of the Women in the Arts Trust, you will be recognized in appropriate publications of the museum (unless you would prefer that your gift remain anonymous).

Joining the Women in the Arts Trust entails a few simple steps—informing the museum of your intentions and completing a brief, confidential notification form. For additional information, visit http://nmwa.org/support/giving or contact Pam Ayres at 202-783-7990 or payres@nmwa.org, or Kimm Watson at 202-266-2805 or kwatson@nmwa.org.

YASSINE EL MANSOURI

LAURA HOFFMAN

DAKOTA FINE

EMILY HAIGHT

Women in the Arts Trust: Securing NMWA’s Future through Planned Giving

Leaving a Gift to the Women in the Arts Trust is Easy

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If you are an IRA owner and at least 70 ½ years of age, you may make a transfer from your IRA to NMWA to count as a part of the required minimum IRA distribution for 2016.

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NMWA can be designated as a beneficiary of a life insurance policy or retirement plan.

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The museum can be named as a beneficiary through a bequest in your will or an amendment to your will.

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You can transfer assets such as stocks, bonds, or cash, in exchange for guaranteed income for life though a Charitable Gift Annuity (CGA).

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The museum can be the recipient of other types of gifts, such as real estate. (If you designate NMWA to receive real estate, please state in your will that the property is to be sold through your estate and NMWA is to receive the proceeds from its sale.)

As always, NMWA recommends that you consult your tax and legal advisors about including NMWA in your estate plans or creating a life income plan.

SUMMER 2016 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

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JUNE 10–OCTOBER 2, 2016

Alison Saar In Print Stephanie Midon

Whether in two dimensions or three, the bold figures in Alison Saar’s works are rich in textural detail and meaning. Born in Los Angeles in 1956, Saar grew up surrounded by art, thanks to her mother, the acclaimed collagist and assemblage artist Betye Saar, and her father, Richard, a painter and art conservator who ran a restoration shop. Saar developed her own artistic practice creating sculptures made from found objects. She also began printmaking. She had first observed the practice through her mother, and began by working primarily in woodcut, because she was already familiar with carving wood from her sculpture practice.

Saar typically crafts her print images after completing related sculptures, using printmaking as a mode to expand her themes of identity, womanhood, history, and culture.

With Curatorial Assistant Stephanie Midon, Saar discussed her artistic practice and printmaking.

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Mirror, Mirror: Mulatta Seeking Inner Negress, 2014; Woodcut on found sugar sack, 441⁄8 x 271⁄8; Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer; All images © Alison Saar

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LEE STALSWORTH

Compton Nocturne, 2012; Color lithograph on paper, 19 ¼ x 25 in.; NMWA, Promised gift of Steven Scott, Baltimore, in Honor of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the National Museum of Women in the Arts

SM:What about printmaking appeals to you? What do you achieve with printmaking that you can’t with sculpture?

AS: One of the main things that I like about printmaking is that it’s accessible to many people. And I also view it as what I call a “palette” cleansing. My sculptures take a lot of effort, and my hands are usually tired at the end of all of that, so printmaking offers a chance to sit back and look at the piece one more time and make any changes that I want to, or just re-think the work graphically.

SM: How does your print work relate to your sculpture?

AS: Sculptures are always bounded by gravity. They have to be able to stand up, and they have to be able to exist in real time and real space. Whereas prints and drawings allow me to expand into space and create. A lot of my work has to do with the unseen, so printmaking allows me to make those components more visible.

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My mother was a printmaker before she became an assemblagist, so I was always around that process as a kid. In fact, I spent my toddlerhood under the tables at the California State University Long Beach art department, where she got her master’s in printmaking, so it’s always been a process back there.

SM: Your prints include woodcuts, lithographs (such as Compton Nocturne, 2012), and etchings (such as Pallor Tricks, 2004). How do you choose which technique to use for each work?

AS: I began doing woodcuts because I am a woodcarver primarily.

I had the tools, and I had the wood, and it was something I could really do. I could do it at home, I could do it on my kitchen table, and so I liked the immediacy of it. I think I like the way the wood in the woodcuts translates my “mark.” What’s really frustrating for me in working with lithography and etching is that there’s always a risk of surprise or failure in the process.

Above: Pallor Trick, 2013; Cast bronze, stone, and silk, 14 ¼ × 5 ½ × 6 in.; Courtesy of the artist and L.A. Louver; Right: Pallor Tricks, 2004; Etching and collograph on paper, 29 ½ × 28 in.; Courtesy of the artist and L.A. Louver

What’s lovely about working with a press such as Vinalhaven Press or Tamarind Institute is that they know artists and technicians who specialize in specific techniques, and it allows you to broaden your scope and explore almost an entirely new material because you’re using different tools for making marks.

SM: You have used different kinds of paper and fabric as the substrate for your prints, for example printing Mirror, Mirror: Mulatta Seeking Inner Negress in editions on paper and found sugar sacks. How do you think your choice of support affects the artwork?

AS: Being a sculptor, I’m always struggling against the flatness of prints. In fact, another reason I really love woodcut, and etching as well, is that you can actually get a physical depth to the print.

Lithography is just flat, flat, flat. I love the idea that the paper starts conforming to the mark when you make a woodcut; the paper really starts digging into the space.

I also like papers that are like skin. So I use a lot of translucent Japanese papers. I like chine-collé because you can have color not be just a pigment but an actual physical separate piece of paper collaged onto another piece of paper.

I’m also really attracted to materials that harken back to the content of the piece. So I use materials like sugar sacks because they have a history. Some of the Cotton Eater pieces are printed on sugar sack fabric that was used to back old handmade quilts.

My attraction to the sugar sacks also relates to the connection between slavery and the sugar industry historically both in the States and the Americas, as blacks and black slaves were used to grow and harvest sugarcane. We made a second edition of the print on paper, and it changed the pieces. I like the paper that we used because it kind of feels like muslin or low-grade cotton with flecks of seed in it.

SUMMER 2016 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

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Exploring these ideas through art sometimes makes it more accessible for people because they don’t have their defenses up.

SM: Your prints often employ bold color. Can you describe your approach to color in your print imagery?

AS: The colors in printing are really interesting and even foreign to me in the respect that my sculptures are really pretty much the colors of whatever the materials are. I think I’m really interested in very primal sort of colors. I think in some sense it harkens back to my interest in the African diaspora and how spirits are represented by certain colors, like Shango [Yoruba god of thunder] for red and blues for Yemaya [Yoruba goddess of the sea].

SM: Your oeuvre centers on the female figure. What do you see as the power behind that motif, and how does it relate to your artistic goals?

AS: I think the work comes out of a very autobiographical place, my life as a woman, a woman of color, an African-American woman. I think the work took a huge shift when I had my first child, and then a lot of the work dealt with having children and bearing children and then not bearing children. I come from a family of very strong women as well. On my mother’s side of the family and even my father’s side of the family, there was a strong matriarchy.

I’m also looking at how women are underrepresented. They’re often represented by male artists, but always as an object of desire.

And so I make female figures that often spoof the odalisques painted by males, making them powerful women who stare down those scrutinizing them.

SM: Are your figures particular characters or embodiments of ideas or themes?

AS: I’ve done a few portraits, most notably in my sculpture. I did the large Harriet Tubman monument in Harlem in 2008, but generally the figures are either women who are invisible to history, or they embody some part of the nature of women in general.

Sometimes they represent Yemaya or Mami Wata, African diasporic deities that I’m interested in. But even those come to stand for all women as well.

SM: Much of your work illustrates motifs that are representative of womanhood, race, culture, identity, and religion. What do you feel you accomplish in exploring these themes, both for yourself and for your viewers?

PHOTO LEE STALSWORTH

AS: It’s a way to bring inequities and injustices to the forefront and to express things that are not often expressed or are ignored.

You’re addressing issues on a very emotional level. Yet whether or not a female figure’s skin is dark or black, she’s experiencing the same emotions as a person of any color. Exploring these ideas through art sometimes makes it more accessible for people because they don’t have their defenses up.

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Stephanie Midon is the curatorial assistant at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Alison Saar In Print, presented in the Teresa Lozano Long Gallery of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, is organized by the museum and generously supported by the Louis J. Kuriansky Foundation, Inc., and the members of NMWA.

Clockwise from below: Cotton Eater II, 2014; Woodcut on paper, 72 x 34 in.; NMWA, Promised gift of Steven Scott, Baltimore Washtub Blues, 2000; Woodcut on paper, 30 ³⁄8 x 22 ½ in.; NMWA, Gift of the Harry and Lea Gudelsky Foundation, Inc. Sweeping Beauty, 1997; Woodcut on paper, 75 ¼ x 33 ¹⁄8 in.; NMWA, Promised gift of Steven Scott, Baltimore

PHOTO LEE STALSWORTH

PHOTO LEE STALSWORTH

PHOTO LEE STALSWORTH

Coup de Grace, 2012; Color lithograph on paper, 19 ¹⁄8 x 25 ¹⁄8 in.; NMWA, Promised gift of Steven Scott, Baltimore, in Honor of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the National Museum of Women in the Arts

SUMMER 2016 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

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ON VIEW

Salon Style in the Eulabee Dix Gallery Catherine Bade and Elizabeth Lynch

L

ike many museums, NMWA is only able to show a small portion, perhaps 3%, of its collection at any given time. Much of the collection stays safely tucked away in storage until it is selected by the curators for display. In an effort to place more of NMWA’s collection on view to the public, the staff recently decided to reinstall the Eulabee Dix Gallery, located on the fourth floor of the museum, “salon style.” This gallery, open to the public during weekday museum hours, now showcases an array of paintings—landscapes, interior scenes, portraits, and still lifes.

The new salon-style installation—a selection of artworks of varying sizes, often with mismatched frames and in differing styles, arranged in a somewhat dense or crowded manner—allows the museum to exhibit a larger selection of its smaller paintings. For many years there were fewer than a dozen paintings on view in the Eulabee Dix Gallery. The reinstallation enables NMWA to exhibit more than thirty works, some of which have not been seen by the public in over a decade.

On a walk around the gallery, visitors may rediscover treasures from the museum’s collection and encounter new favorites.

Landscape paintings in the gallery depict scenes as varied as Jessey Dorr’s Lone Cypress (1906), which shows a tree painted in thick impasto overlooking a waterside cliff, Grandma Moses’s Calhoun (1955), a farm scene awash in yellows, and Gabriele Münter’s view of a mountain lake, Staffelsee in Autumn (1923). Two paintings by Jane Peterson (1876–1965) are on view, a sunny Beach Scene (ca. 1935) and a watery, shadowed Tower Bridge (ca.

1907). Both show the American artist’s use of impressionistic fields of color to create shapes. In Tower Bridge, painted while Peterson was traveling on a grand

LEE STALSWORTH

In the Eulabee Dix Gallery, a new salon-style installation features more than thirty paintings for visitors to view

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WOMEN IN THE ARTS | SUMMER 2016

tour of Europe, she evokes misty London, with a nearby dock and distant bridge rising above the water. In Beach Scene, her view of women and families shares the warmth of a bright shore.

Several portraits and figure paintings on view date from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Two oil paintings, Jeune fille á la guitar (ca. 1945) and Portrait of a Girl in a Hat (ca. 1950) show images of women by Marie Laurencin (1885–1956).

Laurencin, a French artist, became known for her relationships and social circle. A friend of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, she was romantically involved with writer and art critic Guillaume Apollinaire, though she persevered to maintain her career and personal style, also working as a costume and set designer. Late in her life, her portraits, often depicting fashionably dressed adolescent girls and idealized images of contemplative women, became highly sought after.

Two works in the gallery are by French painter Suzanne Valadon (1865–1938), who created powerful and unconventional paintings that often show female nudes. Nude Arranging Her Hair (ca. 1916) exemplifies Valadon’s style: rich colors, dark outlines, textiles, and simplified forms, with an awkwardly posed subject.

She had no formal training—instead, she grew up in Montmartre, Paris’s bohemian quarter, and she modeled for painters from 1880 to 1893. She learned from the artists around her, including friend and

LEE STALSWORTH

Suzanne Valadon, Nude Arranging Her Hair, ca. 1916; Oil on canvas board, 41 ¼ x 29 5⁄8 in.; Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay

mentor Edgar Degas, and successfully transitioned from figure model into artist. Valadon painted floral still lifes, too, and her Bouquet of Flowers in an Empire Vase (1920) is also on view. It features her vibrant color palette, strong outlines, and palpable brushwork—here highlighting draped fabric and textural fern fronds.

There are more still lifes to discover in the gallery, including two by Alida Withoos (ca. 1661–1730), a Dutch painter and botanical illustrator. She emphasized the organic growth of flowers and gave them a slightly unkempt, naturalistic appearance. In these paintings, intricate arrangements of cultivated flowers appear

to grow from the earth, accentuated by blades of grass and a frog painted near the bottom. With the new installation of the Eulabee Dix Gallery, visitors now have the opportunity to encounter even more work by women artists at NMWA, exploring the abundant details of these paintings and their salon-style neighbors.

Catherine Bade is the registrar and Elizabeth Lynch is the editor at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

The Eulabee Dix Gallery is located on the fourth floor of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, open to visitors Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

SUMMER 2016 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

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6 | 1 – 9 | 28

EXHIBITIONS

WED 12–12:30 P.M.

GALLERY TALK SERIES. Lunchtime Gallery Talks. These bite-size lunchtime talks are offered most Wednesdays. Museum staff members facilitate interactive conversations, encouraging visitors to look closely and investigate the mediums, techniques, and overarching themes of special exhibitions and works from the museum’s collection. Free. No reservations required.

Alison Saar In Print June 10–October 2, 2016

6 | 1 She Who Tells a Story

8 | 3 Collection Selections

6 | 8 She Who Tells a Story

8 | 10 Alison Saar In Print

6 | 15 Collection Connections

8 | 17 Collection Selections

6 | 22 She Who Tells a Story

8 | 24 Collection Selections

6 | 29 She Who Tells a Story

8 | 31 Collection Selections

7 | 6 She Who Tells a Story

9 | 7 Alison Saar In Print

7 | 13 Alison Saar In Print

9 | 14 Collection Selections

7 | 20 Collection Connections

9 | 21 Collection Selections

7 | 27 She Who Tells a Story

9 | 28 Alison Saar In Print

Priya Pereira: Contemporary Artists’ Books from India On view through November 18, 2016, in the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center; Open Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–12 p.m. and 1–5 p.m.

© SHADI GHADIRIAN; PHOTO © MFA BOSTON

Shadi Ghadirian, Untitled, from the series “Qajar,” 1998; On view in She Who Tells a Story

LEE STALSWORTH

She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World On view through July 31, 2016

Alison Saar, Washtub Blues, 2000; On view in Alison Saar In Print

6 |5, 6 |14, 7 |3 & 7 | 26

SUN 1–3 P.M.; TUES 6–8 P.M.

READING CLUB. A Picture Plus a Thousand Words: Aligning Art with Stories. This series connects short stories by women from Iran and the Arab world with individual photographs in She Who Tells a Story. For each session, participants will examine a selected photograph, read a short story, and read a short non-fiction article that grounds the creative works in lived realities. Events feature artwork introductions by NMWA educators and facilitated discussions. Program in conjunction with The Alignist. Free. Reservations required.

6 |5, 7 | 3 & 8 |7

SUN 12–5 P.M.

FREE COMMUNITY DAYS. First Sundays.

The first Sunday of every month, NMWA offers free admission to the public.

Take this opportunity to explore current exhibitions as well as the museum’s collection. For a complete schedule, visit the online calendar. Free. No reservations required.

6 | 5 On War and Women

COURTESY THE ARTIST AND CARROLL & SONS, BOSTON, © RANIA MATAR

CALENDAR

Calendar

6 | 14 Life in Conflict 7 | 3 On Motherhood 7 | 26 Desires and Dreams Rania Matar, Alia, Beirut, Lebanon, from the series “A Girl and Her Room,” 2010; On view in She Who Tells a Story

6 | 10

FRI 6:30–9 P.M. ARTISTS IN CONVERSATION. She Who Tells a Story: Rania Matar. Join artist Rania Matar for conversation and light refreshments. Matar discusses her background, artistic process and philosophy, and works in She Who Tells a Story during this informal and intimate in-gallery experience. Ample time allows participants to explore the galleries, learn about Matar’s work, and engage in small-group conversations. $25 general; $15 members, seniors, students. Reservations required.

Rania Matar with her work in She Who Tells a Story

Visit http://nmwa.org for reservations, more information, and a complete calendar of events.

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WOMEN IN THE ARTS | SUMMER 2016

7 | 10

7 | 14, 7 | 16, 7 | 17, 7 | 23 & 7 | 24

THU, SAT, SUN

PERFORMANCES. Capital Fringe Festival. The Capital Fringe Festival presents five days of women-focused live performances, featuring two performances each day. All audiences must have a Fringe Button. Full festival schedule, list of performances, and tickets available June 20. Reservations recommended. $17 single tickets. Tickets available at www. capitalfringe.org or 866-811-4111.

LAURA HOFFMAN

7 | 18 – 7 | 22

MON – FRI 9 A.M.– 4 P.M.

TEACHER PROGRAM. Art, Books, and Creativity Institute. Empower and inspire your students through art! Join NMWA’s education staff, a professional book artist, and curriculum and literacy specialists for this intensive and fun week centered on NMWA’s Art, Books, and Creativity (ABC) curriculum. No prior art experience is necessary, and classroom teachers are especially encouraged to apply. Participants receive free art materials for their classrooms and can register for graduate credit through Trinity Washington University in Washington, D.C., for an added fee. Free.

For more information and to apply, visit http://nwma.org/learn/ educators.

7 | 27

CONVERSATION AND PERFORMANCE. Homage to Umm Kulthum: Star of the East. In conjunction with She Who Tells a Story, NMWA presents a half-day Cultural Capital Session of programs and performances honoring Umm Kulthum (Egyptian, ca. 1904–1975), the iconic contralto singer and songwriter. Performances in Arabic from Kulthum’s beloved repertoire are paired with speakers who discuss her impact as an artist and role model.

Presented in collaboration with the Middle East Institute with support from the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation. $15 general; $10 members, seniors, students. Reservations required.

Umm Kulthum

7 | 16

SAT 10 A.M.–3 P.M.

FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCE WORKSHOP. Picture This: Photography Today. Become an insta-photographer in this hands-on photography workshop. Guest artist Laura Hoffman introduces app-based photography. Explore She Who Tells a Story and learn the ins and outs of photography with handheld devices. Tap into your creative side and leave with a “studio to go,” a photo accessory kit for smartphones or tablets. Designed to instruct and engage audiences 13 and older.

Participants are encouraged to bring their own smartphone or tablet. $25 general; $15 members, seniors, students. Reservations required.

LAURA HOFFMAN

LAURIE DOCTOR

FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCE WORKSHOP. Poetry of Handwriting and Bookmaking. Guest artist Laurie Doctor leads this workshop inspired

by She Who Tells a Story and its celebration of storytelling and documentation. Rediscover your own unique handwriting and experiment with it as a visual and verbal means of expression through artist-guided activities incorporating poetry, ink, graphite, and watercolor. This workshop is ideal for those interested in hand lettering, watercolor, poetry, and bookmaking. Designed to instruct and engage audiences 13 and older; all levels of experience. Materials and instruction will be provided. $25 general; $15 members, seniors, students. Reservations required.

SUN 2 –5 P.M.

Installation view with Tanya Habjouqa, Untitled (detail), from the series “Women of Gaza,” 2009

7 | 20

WED 6:30– 8 P.M.

MARCH ON WASHINGTON FILM FESTIVAL. Entertainers and the Civil Rights Movement— Honoring Carmen de Lavallade. Poet, essayist, and teacher Elizabeth Alexander explores the historic career of dance, theater, film, and television phenomenon Carmen de Lavallade in conversation with the groundbreaking artist herself. Get ready for an evening rich in culture, creativity, struggle, and remembrance. $5 general admission. Reservations required. Reserve online at http://marchonwashingtonfilmfestival.org

JULIETA CERVANTES

SAT 10 A.M.–3 P.M.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

6 | 11

Carmen de Lavallade

WED 6:30–9 P.M. ARTISTS IN CONVERSATION: She Who Tells a Story: Tanya Habjouqa. Join artist Tanya Habjouqa for conversation and light refreshments. Habjouqa discusses her background, artistic process and philosophy, and works featured in She Who Tells a Story during this informal and intimate in-gallery experience. Ample time allows participants to explore the galleries, ask about the artist’s work, and engage in small-group conversations. $15 members; $25 non-members. Reservations required.

Tanya Habjouqa, Untitled, from the series “Women of Gaza,” 2009

Visit http://nmwa.org for reservations, more information, and a complete calendar of events.

SUMMER 2016 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

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8|7

SUN 1– 2 P.M.

TOUR. Collection Mash-Up. Attend a free, docent-led, drop-in tour to exploresurprising connections across the museum’s collection. How does a Renaissance portrait relate to a contemporary photograph? How does it relate to you? Join the tour and discover for yourself! Free. No reservations required.

9|4

SUN 1– 2 P.M.

TOUR. Collection: Artistic Process. This Labor Day weekend, attend a free, docent-led, drop-in tour that explores artistic labor and process. Free. No reservations required.

Details of art by Alma Thomas, Valerie Jaudon, Alison Saar, Maria Sibylla Merian, Elaine de Kooning, Mary Cassatt, Janaina Tschäpe, Hester Bateman, and Mickalene Thomas

Education programming is made possible by Fred M. Levin and Nancy Livingston, The Shenson Foundation, in memory of Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson; Team Freiman at Morgan Stanley; Northern Trust; the Leo Rosner Foundation; Newman’s Own Foundation; and Wells Fargo. Additional support is provided by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation; the Harriet E. McNamee Youth Education Fund; William and Christine Leahy; Sofitel Washington D.C. Lafayette Square; and the Junior League of Washington.

LEE STALSWORTH

CALENDAR

Calendar

Chakaia Booker, Acid Rain, 2001; Museum purchase: Members’ Acquisition Fund

The Women, Arts, and Social Change public program initiative is made possible through leadership gifts from Lorna Meyer Calas and Dennis Calas, the MLDauray Arts Initiative, Denise Littlefield Sobel, and the Swartz Foundation. Additional support provided by Deborah G. Carstens, Stephanie Sale, and Dee Ann McIntyre. FRESH TALK: Carrie Mae Weems presented by RBC Wealth Management. Catalyst is made possible, in part, by the Bernstein Family Foundation.

Visit http://nmwa.org for reservations, more information, and a complete calendar of events.

KEEP IN TOUCH!

Visit NMWA’s Blog

broadstrokes.org

Follow us on Facebook, @WomenInTheArts Twitter, and Instagram

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WOMEN IN THE ARTS | SUMMER 2016

An instameet participant snaps a photo of Alma Thomas’s Orion to share on social media

A Digital Dive into Women’s History Month

EMILY HAIGHT, NMWA

MARCH MADNESS:

Emily Haight

NMWA’s year-round mission is to address gender imbalance in the art world, but every March—Women’s History Month—the museum has an opportunity to catch the attention of a wider audience to celebrate women artists. This March, NMWA launched a social media campaign to raise awareness by asking the public, “Can you name five women artists?”

A huge community joined in! l

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Art museums, libraries, galleries, and art lovers from twenty countries shared and tagged their favorite women artists.

News outlets like the Huffington Post and the Atlantic helped spread the challenge.

More than 370 cultural organizations and eleven thousand individuals joined the campaign to promote women artists.

More than 3,450 Instagram posts and more than 23,000 tweets used the hashtag #5WomenArtists.

During the campaign, NMWA’s number of digital followers increased by 140% on Instagram, 19% on Facebook, and 12% on Twitter. At least sixty individuals and cultural institutions wrote blog posts about the challenge, in English as well as Spanish, Italian, Turkish, and Estonian. NMWA’s blog post launching the campaign was read almost two thousand times.

The museum received an outpouring of positive comments across platforms. One Twitter user said, “As a woman going into the field of art history, #5WomenArtists is so important to me.”

Another participant tweeted, “Following the campaign to name #5WomenArtists has been so illuminating! Thanks @WomenInTheArts for the idea!” The challenge helped followers find new favorite artists. Another user said, “The #5WomenArtists tag giving

me plenty of Google material, love it!” NMWA also shared collection works using the hashtag. One Facebook commenter said, “Wonderful work. Thanks for widening my world always. . . .”

March was filled with exciting digital endeavors to bolster the visibility of women artists. Thirty-five participants spent an afternoon on laptops in the museum’s Great Hall for NMWA’s fourth annual Wikipedia Edit-a-thon. After a 2010 Wikimedia survey found that less than 13% of its contributors are female, the Art + Feminism initiative began working to improve Wikipedia’s gender imbalance, encouraging women to participate and encouraging all editors to add content about women in the arts.

Using the museum’s resources, contributors improved twenty existing articles and created new entries.

For International Women’s Day on March 8, NMWA captured tweets and posts from people around the world celebrating #5WomenArtists. The museum also hosted a before-hours “instameet”—an informal gathering of local photographers—to snap photos, explore the museum’s galleries, and share their experiences on Instagram.

During the last week of the month, nearly five thousand people viewed the museum’s BuzzFeed quiz, which asked, “Which of these #5WomenArtists are you?”

So, can you name #5WomenArtists?

Can your friends and family? Follow us @WomenInTheArts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and share NMWA’s posts to make sure more people can answer yes!

Emily Haight is the digital editorial assistant at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

SUMMER 2016 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

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EYE T EYE Connecting through Portrait Photography Kathryn Wat

P

ortraits capture a likeness, but some also communicate a mood or feeling, and others appear to be stilled moments from an intriguing story. NMWA’s collection includes many contemporary photographs that reveal the rich expressive range of portraiture. A selection of these prints is on view in our collection galleries this summer as a complement to the exhibition She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World, on view through July 31.

To make her documentary series “Women of Gaza,” She Who Tells a Story artist Tanya Habjouqa (b. 1975, Amman, Jordan) traveled throughout the territory for two months. She connected intimately with her subjects, visiting multiple times before taking a photograph. Habjouqa notes, “There was a hunger for communication.

Young university girls would open up rather quickly about their feelings.” Habjouqa’s image of this student’s broad smile and anxious attempt to take a picture with her own cell phone camera vividly communicates her excitement at meeting the artist.

Tanya Habjouqa, Untitled, from the series “Women of Gaza,” 2009; Photograph, pigment print, 27 5⁄8 x 39 ³⁄8 in.; Courtesy of the artist and East Wing Contemporary Gallery

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WOMEN IN THE ARTS | SUMMER 2016

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© RANIA MATAR

Above: Rania Matar, Reem, Doha, Lebanon, from the series “A Girl and Her Room,” 2010; Photograph, pigment print, 36 x 50 in.; Courtesy of the artist and Carroll and Sons, Boston Left: Boushra Almutawakel, Mother, Daughter, Doll, 2010; Nine photographs, pigment prints, each 24 x 16 in.; MFA Boston, Museum purchase with funds donated by Richard and Lucille Spagnuolo, 2013.556-564

P PHOTO © 2015 MFA BOSTON

ortraits by Rania Matar (b. 1964, Beirut, Lebanon) also evince a strong connection between the photographer and her subjects. Matar’s expansive series “A Girl and Her Room,” part of which is featured in She Who Tells a Story, depicts teenage girls in both the Middle East and the U.S. Reem, a young woman living in Lebanon, told Matar that she expresses herself through her drawings, not in the way she decorates her room.

Matar included the art student’s opened sketchbook in her portrait and framed the shot tightly on Reem’s figure and the book, cropping out the broader bedroom setting.

Similarly, Daniela Rossell (b. 1973, Mexico City) collaborates with her sitters to produce sincere portraits, but her series “Ricas y famosas” (“Rich and famous”) also holds an unwavering mirror to the excesses of some of Mexico’s wealthiest families. Most of

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WOMEN IN THE ARTS | SUMMER 2016

© HELLEN VAN MEENE, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND YANCEY RICHARDSON GALLERY; PHOTO BY LEE STALSWORTH

© HELLEN VAN MEENE, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND YANCEY RICHARDSON GALLERY; PHOTO BY LEE STALSWORTH

© DANIELA ROSSELL; COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND GREENE NAFTALI, NEW YORK; PHOTO BY LEE STALSWORTH

the women depicted in Rossell’s photographs are members of her extended family or family friends. Comfortable with Rossell, the women posed for the camera in ways they felt expressed a part of their personality.

Surrounded by their ornate furniture and Old Master knockoffs, the figures in Rossell’s Inge and Her Mother Ema in the Living Room (2000), a large-scale photograph in NMWA’s collection, gaze directly at the viewer with expressions that might be interpreted as irritation, boredom, or seduction. Their body language is similar to poses seen in fashion magazines and on the red carpet. Although some critics perceive Rossell’s portraits as disapproving caricatures, she considers them reflections of the power of female stereotypes and the pressure of social trends.

Mother, Daughter, Doll (2010) by Boushra Almutawakel (b. 1969,

Above: Daniela Rossell, Inge and Her Mother Ema in the Living Room, from the series “Ricas y famosas,” 2000; Chromogenic color print, 50 x 60 in.; NMWA, Gift of Heather and Tony Podesta Collection, Washington, D.C. Far left: Hellen van Meene, Untitled (75 B), 1999; Chromogenic color print, 15 ¼ x 15 ¼ in.; NMWA, Gift of Heather and Tony Podesta Collection, Washington, D.C. Left: Hellen van Meene, Untitled (30), 1998; Chromogenic color print, 11 ¾ x 11 ¾ in.; NMWA, Gift of Heather and Tony Podesta Collection, Washington, D.C.

Sana’a, Yemen), on view in She Who Tells a Story, comprises portraits of the artist, her eldest daughter, and one of her daughter’s dolls. The images are also a moving meditation on the trend toward more conservative veiling in Yemen. Through the series of nine photographs, the sitters’ open, smiling expressions fade as their bodies become more covered. Highly staged, Almutawakel’s portraits speak to the elemental role that clothing and pose play in implying a subject’s disposition or emotions.

Like Almutawakel, Hellen van Meene (b. 1972, Alkmaar, Netherlands) works in a directorial mode, controlling the setting of her photographs as well as her models’ wardrobe, posture, and makeup in order to give visual form to narrative themes she develops. Her photographs in NMWA’s collection adopt a portrait format, but their central subject is more abstract: the feelings of unease and SUMMER 2016 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

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Right: Angela Strassheim, Untitled (Horses), 2004; Chromogenic color print, 30 x 40 in.; NMWA, Gift of Heather and Tony Podesta Collection, Washington, D.C.

awkwardness experienced by all people but embodied most easily by adolescents in their transition to adulthood.

Van Meene directs her young models to pose in ways that look uncomfortable or contorted, or to screen themselves with fabric, hide behind objects, or close their eyes. “The photographs are not meant to be portraits, which is why they have no titles,” says van Meene. “It is not my intention to give expression to the models’ personality or state of mind.” Her works do, however, allude to a range of emotions, and their enigmatic quality extends from her ability to reframe the day-dreamy mood often expressed by young people.

Nikki S. Lee (b. 1970, Kye Chang, S. Korea) also blends photography with performance. To create her series “Parts” (2002–05), she carefully staged scenes in which she appears with male performers whom she subsequently cut out of the printed photograph.

All that remains visible of the companion is a hand, arm, knee, or a bit of their hair. In these “couples pictures,” the viewer is left to guess about the parts that are missing—the identity of the companion and the nature of the couple’s story.

In Lee’s “The Bourgeoisie” series (a subset of the “Parts” prints in NMWA’s collection), the artist appears as a lavishly dressed socialite relaxing in posh hotel rooms and attending gala events with a male companion. In one image, the vivid colors of Lee’s satin gown match the carpet that covers the grand staircase she descends, supported by the hand of her clipped-out partner. Like van Meene, 24

WOMEN IN THE ARTS | SUMMER 2016

© ANGELA STRASSHEIM; PHOTO BY LEE STALSWORTH

Opposite: Nikki S. Lee, Paris (206), 2004; Chromogenic color print mounted on aluminum, 40 x 26 ³⁄8 in.; NMWA, Gift of Heather and Tony Podesta Collection, Washington, D.C.

© ANGELA STRASSHEIM; PHOTO BY LEE STALSWORTH

Below: Angela Strassheim, Untitled (Julia—girl on bed), 2004; Chromogenic color print, 30 x 40 in.; NMWA, Gift of Heather and Tony Podesta Collection, Washington, D.C.

Lee recognizes that clothing, gestures, and small visual cues can suggest a rich story within a single image.

Angela Strassheim (b. 1969, Bloomfield, Iowa) similarly stages and directs complex tableaus. Her “Left Behind” series (2003–05), which examines the attitudes of suburban Middle America, includes evocative images of girls in their bedrooms. Her photographs of grade-schoolers resting on butterfly-appliqued bedspreads and beneath tulle canopies appear idealistic but have

Their Stories, Their Words

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uring She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World, an array of summer programming

provides a wider perspective on the images on view.

Hear from the artists in person, learn new artistic techniques, and more.

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Meet the artists: Two of the artists whose work is on view will visit NMWA. Join Rania Matar on June 10, and Tanya Habjouqa on July 27, for light refreshments and in-gallery conversation.

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Hear songs by an icon: On July 10, attend a half day of programs and performances honoring contralto singer and songwriter Umm Kulthum

© NIKKI S. LEE; PHOTO BY LEE STALSWORTH

(Egyptian, ca. 1904–1975).

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Gain firsthand experience: Guest artists introduce expressive handwriting techniques on June 11 and app-based photography on July 16.

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Make connections: A reading club meets June 5, June 14, July 3, and July 26 to explore themes from the exhibition through a related short story, nonfiction article, and photograph.

a cool, emotionally detached quality. Strassheim previously studied and worked in forensic photography and describes her artistic process as “always taking a step back.”

A few photographs by Strassheim in NMWA’s collection show girls juxtaposed with friends and family members. They attend carefully choreographed birthday parties and vex their brothers by bringing play castles and toy horses into their rooms. Strassheim’s humor is dry, but her photographs appeal in ways similar to the compelling works in She Who Tells a Story and other portrait-based art in NMWA’s collection. We derive profound pleasure from looking at images of other people because we have a deep and abiding desire to know their stories.

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Learn more: Can’t visit, or just can’t get enough?

Go online to http://nmwa.org/exhibitions/shewho-tells-story. This page features an audio guide with insights from curators and some of the exhibition’s artists, a YouTube playlist with related videos, and an Instagram gallery with more photographs by these artists.

See the full calendar beginning on page 16 or at http://nmwa.org/visit/calendar, and make reservations or plans—She Who Tells a Story is on view through July 31.

Kathryn Wat is the chief curator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Art in the museum’s collection galleries is rotated periodically—visit to see new additions to the collection and make connections with special exhibitions.

She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Its presentation at NMWA is made possible through the generous support of an anonymous donor. Additional funding is provided by Marcia and Frank Carlucci, Cindy and Evan Jones, and the Georgia Committee of NMWA.

She Who Tells a Story artist Rania Matar at NMWA

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Contemporary Artists’ Books from India MAY 16–NOVEMBER 18, 2016

Heather Slania

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ook artist Priya Pereira, who has published editioned works under the imprint Pixie Bks for the last twentythree years, finds inspiration for her books in “life itself . . . with what is going on around and inside me.”

Her relationships and family, her interest in language and travel, and “living and breathing in India” have all led to ideas for her books. Based in Mumbai, Pereira (b. 1967) trained as a graphic designer at Maharaja Sayajirao University in Baroda, Western India, 1984–88. She worked in advertising for five years and then changed course by moving to the United States in 1993 to study computer art at Memphis College of Art.

Having studied graphic design and thanks to advertising, I came to artists’ books from a place where ‘idea’ was the most important thing. . . .

The most thrilling part is coming up with an idea.

While she was in Memphis, Pereira missed her now-husband, who remained in India—her first book, Memphis to Bombay, was inspired by their distance. Her papermaking teacher, Dolph Smith, taught her to bind it, and she has continued making books since then. She describes, “I was jaded after my stint in advertising, and studying in America gave me the freedom to be uninhibited in my work and to start anew. I enjoyed the papermaking class but I also struggled, as it required a lot of spontaneity, something I had lost touch with. Getting that back was a huge step.”

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Back in India, she continued making book works but was unaware of other book artists—although illustrated manuscripts have a long history in India, there are few, if any, other artists working in this more contemporary form. Pereira learned that the genre had a name on a return trip to the U.S., six years later, while visiting the Center for the Book in San Francisco. She describes, “When I started in 1993 and for years after, I often felt depressed that my books (prototypes) would get made, live their lives in my cupboard, and die with me. I couldn’t really explain to anyone what I did then, as I myself did not know what they were. Today, my journey with artists’ books has opened hallowed doors. . . .

More than anything, I have made wonderful friends along the way in the guise of curators and buyers and book lovers.”

In developing and creating her books, Pereira says, “Having studied graphic design and thanks to advertising, I came to artists’ books from a place where ‘idea’ was the most important thing. . . . The most thrilling part is coming up with an idea.

Then I spend a lot of time working it out in my head—the form of the book to fit the idea. When I am satisfied with the plans in theory, I put it all down on paper and begin manufacturing a dummy.” She develops the final concept, incorporating advice she solicits from her husband (who also writes the copy), and gradually reaches the final form. “I work with printers to produce the book, but apart from the printing, the assembly and hand-binding is all done at home by me.”

Pereira’s books explore a variety of subjects. India’s many cultures are an inspiration for her work, and she has made books on Indian folktales, history, and street art. Her once

LEE STALSWORTH LEE STALSWORTH

LEE STALSWORTH

long-distance relationship with her husband inspired works about love and time. Pereira’s adoration of wordplay and humor is clear in works such as the The Book of F (1999), which the artist describes as “dotted with ditties that popularize the ‘F’ word without once mentioning the most used and abused word.” However, it is Pereira’s strong design sensibility, the way she plays with words, text, and typography, that clearly defines these works.

In NMWA’s Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center (LRC), ten of Pereira’s books are on view. The Evil Eye (1999) is named for a malevolent look that causes a curse. The artist describes its inspiration: “When my first son was born, his every ailment was attributed to the evil eye by the elders.” It illustrates various avatars of the evil eye and offers several cures, such as the black thread that binds the book. Each page is formatted so

Top: The Evil Eye, cover and interior, 1999; Artist’s book published by Pixie Bks Left: The Other Side of ABC, interior, 2003; Artist’s book published by Pixie Bks Right: Puzzle de Brasil, interior, 2001; Artist’s book published by Pixie Bks

that every part of the book is protected from the evil eye. The Other Side of ABC (2003) is a set of two booklets in the form of a children’s toy sold by street merchants. Unfolded, the interior displays lettering, depictions of Indian street art, and a mirrored center. Puzzle de Brasil (2001) features multiple layers of thin cardboard that have been cut and sewn into foldouts displaying imagery and text related to Brazil. The book has a puzzle-like appearance, representing the complexities of the geographic area and culture.

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LEE STALSWORTH

Some of the books on display in the LRC allow for visitor interaction, such as Pereira’s The But Book (1995), which the artist says “came from being told countless times, ‘The books are great, but can you do something that I can use?’” It comprises a piece of black iron spelling the word “But” in cursive, with two hooks on either side that support small booklets. These contain phrases to build sentences along with the central “But,” such as “I have no objection to listening to drivel” . . . but . . . “let it go.” In the mix-and-match sentences, “but” provides humor, irony, or contradiction, emphasizing the precariousness of language.

. . . it is Pereira’s strong design sensibility, the way she plays with words, text, and typography, that clearly defines these works.

Priya Pereira: Contemporary Artists’ Books from India offers library visitors the chance to create their own “but” sentences, to write wishes and love stories in response to other pieces, and to view and enjoy books by a singular artist.

Above: The But Book, interior, 1995; Artist’s book published by Pixie Bks Right: Book artist Priya Pereira

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MEENAL AGARWAL

Heather Slania, former director of the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, is director of the Decker Library at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Thank you to the more than 1,000 members who contributed almost $90,000 in support of the 2016 Honor Roll campaign. Your generosity allows us to foster the work of talented women artists (seen throughout this issue of Women in the Arts) and continue to present groundbreaking exhibitions like She Who Tells a Story, on view through July 31.

Silver Tea The Women’s Committee, along with co-chairs Wilhelmina Cole Holladay and Mrs. Nobuko Sasae, wife of the Ambassador of Japan to the United States, hosted the second annual Silver Tea at the Residence of the Ambassador of Japan. Guests enjoyed a lovely afternoon of tea and treats, as well as a presentation of tea objects from the Japanese Embassy and pieces from the collection of Trustee Jackie

Quillen. The Embassy and diplomatic wives were gracious in hosting a traditional Japanese tea ceremony in the Residence’s Tea House.

Proceeds from this event benefit the care and conservation of the museum’s silver collection.

She Who Tells a Story Opening Preview More than 350 members and friends attended the opening preview for NMWA’s powerful exhibition She Who Tells a Story. Guests included artists Gohar Dashti and Rania Matar, as well as the exhibition’s curator, Kristen Gresh, from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

NMWA curators and educators provided valuable insights about the works on view during tours throughout the evening.

Right, top to bottom: NMWA’s membership team celebrates supporters of the Honor Roll campaign; Mrs. Nobuko Sasae, NMWA Founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, and Board President Emerita and Endowment Chair Carol Lascaris at the second annual Silver Tea

BETTY LEE

The Impact of Your Support—Honor Roll Campaign 2016

MUSEUM NEWS AND EVENTS

Member News

Committee News Enjoying Art, Supporting NMWA, and Expanding On March 14 and 15, NMWA Director Susan Fisher Sterling, Deputy Director Ilene Gutman, and Claudia Pensotti Mosca, chair of Gli amici del NMWA in Italy, attended the launch of the committee’s expansion into Tuscany. Alexandra Lawrence, resident of Florence, and other members of the new branch of the committee hosted a successful two-night kick-off, held at the Palazzo Tornabuoni and the British Institute of Florence. They welcomed more than 200 people and enjoyed talks by Sterling.

Fifteen Georgia Committee members

participated in an art-filled trip to Savannah, February 29–March 2. The group visited area museums and notable private collections.

They were graciously hosted by Paula Wallace, SCAD President and NMWA Director’s Circle and Advisory Board member, who provided an in-depth tour of the Savannah College of Art and Design, where they were joined by collector and philanthropist Dr. Walter O. Evans. The Georgia Committee also generously supported the presentation of She Who Tells a Story at NMWA. Co-chairs Lorna Meyer Calas and Carol Parker hosted a luncheon to organize a group in the

San Francisco Bay Area. Ilene Gutman spoke to them about the museum’s history, current and upcoming activities, and the Women to Watch exhibition series.

The Greater New York Committee organized a trip for twenty-three people to Long Island on January 16 to visit the Parrish Art Museum and the studio of sculptor Elizabeth Strong-Cuevas.

On April 21, the New Mexico State Committee hosted a Women, Arts, and Social Change lecture and lunch at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe. Arts educator Ellen Zieselman, former curator of education at the New Mexico Museum of Art, discussed artists who use their practices to create social change.

Mississippi State Committee member and artist Claudia Cartee was honored with the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Visual Arts on February 11.

Far left: Sara Steinfeld, Paula Wallace, Dr. Walter O. Evans, and Lisa Cannon Taylor during the Georgia Committee’s trip to Savannah Left: Gli amici del NMWA members with Susan Fisher Sterling and Ilene Gutman at the launch of the Tuscan branch of the committee

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MUSEUM NEWS AND EVENTS

Museum News Cruises for the Legacy of Women in the Arts Endowment In August 2015, members of the Endowment Circle embarked on a cruise through the fjords of Norway, while donating to secure the future of the endowment of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. This year, looking forward to the museum’s 30th anniversary in 2017, Endowment Chairs Carol and Climis Lascaris will lead a group on an “Ancient Vistas” cruise from Athens to Venice, September 26–October 3, 2016. The cruise will feature stops in Santorini, Greece; Montenegro; Croatia; and Venice, Italy.

Museum friends are invited to join the group, but space is limited. For more information, please contact Climis Lascaris at 703-556-8895 or climislascaris@aol.com.

Friends of the museum gathered on a fjord cruise while donating to secure the future of NMWA’s endowment

Museum Events 1. On January 27, designer Gabriel Maher spoke about design and gender politics 2. After talks by Maher (second from left) and design critic Alice Rawsthorn (center), the speakers joined attendees for cocktails and conversation

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KEVIN ALLEN

Women, Arts, and Social Change: FRESH TALK—Genderless Design

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Women, Arts, and Social Change: FRESH TALK—Natalie Jeremijenko

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KEVIN ALLEN

3. On March 2, artist Natalie Jeremijenko described using science and technology to heal the environment.

4. Natalie Jeremijenko, U.S. Chief Technology Officer in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Megan Smith, philanthropist Jean Case, and NMWA Director of Public Programs Lorie Mertes talk about ideas for advancing women’s innovations in technology 5. NMWA Trustee Sheila Shaffer, Megan Smith, Natalie Jeremijenko, and NMWA Director Susan Fisher Sterling 6. Beverly Dale, NMWA Trustee Nancy Stevenson, and NAB member Stephanie Sale

Opening reception for She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World 7. NMWA Founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, NMWA Chief Curator Kathryn Wat, and MFA Boston Estrellita and Yousuf Karsh Curator of Photographs Kristen Gresh welcomed attendees and introduced the exhibition 8. NMWA Trustee Mahinder Tak, artist Gohar Dashti, Kristen Gresh, and artist Rania Matar 9. Reception attendees attended tours and enjoyed refreshments

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Cultural Capital Session: Women of The Ring with the Washington National Opera

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CLARISSA VILLONDO PHOTOGRAPHY

10. Lindsay Ammann as Erda 11. WNO Artistic Director Francesca Zambello was joined by cast members and crew to discuss interpreting the roles of women in Wagner’s Ring

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2016 Spring Gala

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KEVIN ALLEN

12. New NMWA Board President Cindy Jones; Honorary Chair Her Excellency Maguy Maccario Doyle, Ambassador of Monaco to the U.S.; Gala Chair Shahin Mafi; and NMWA Founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay welcomed gala attendees 13. NMWA Founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay and Gala Chair Shahin Mafi 14. Lucy Buchanan and NAB members Ann Simon and Denise Littlefield Sobel 15. NAB member Sunny Scully Alsup and NMWA Trustee Nancy Stevenson 16. NMWA Trustee Rose Carter and Paul Carter

Cultural Capital Session: International Jazz Day

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18. CLARISSA VILLONDO PHOTOGRAPHY

17. Journalist Charlie Gans moderates a conversation with jazz greats Dianne Reeves, Terri Lyne Carrington, and Dee Dee Bridgewater about women in jazz 18. NAB member Susan Berk, Sidra Smith, Terri Lyne Carrington, and Lee Berk 18

SUMMER 2016 | WOMEN IN THE ARTS

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SUPPORTING ROLES

Board of Trustees

Legacy of Women in the Arts Endowment Campaign

Wilhelmina Cole Holladay—Chair of the Board, Winton S. Holladay—Vice Chair of the Board, Cindy Jones— President, Gina F. Adams—First Vice President, Susan Goldberg—Second Vice President (Community Relations), Joanne C. Stringer—Treasurer, Nancy Duber—Secretary, Mary V. Mochary—Finance Chair, Amy Weiss— Nominations Chair, Nancy Nelson Stevenson—Works of Art Chair, Marcia Myers Carlucci—Building Chair, Carol Matthews Lascaris—President Emerita and Endowment Chair, Dana J. Snyder—At Large, Susan Fisher Sterling*— The Alice West Director, Janice Lindhurst Adams, Pamela G. Bailey, M. A. Ruda Brickfield, Charlotte Clay Buxton, Rose Carter, Diane Casey-Landry, Mary Clark*, Lizette Corro, Betty Boyd Dettre, Deborah I. Dingell, Martha Lyn Dippell, Karen Dixon Fuller, Sally L. Jones, Marlene McArthur Malek, Jacqueline Badger Mars, Juliana E. May, Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, Jacqui Michel, Marjorie Odeen, Jackie Quillen, Andrea Roane, Sheila Shaffer, Kathleen Elizabeth Springhorn, Jessica H. Sterchi, Mahinder Tak, Annie S. Totah, Sarah Bucknell Treco*, Frances Usher, Ruthanna Maxwell Weber, Alice West

We wish to thank all of the supporters of the Legacy of Women in the Arts Endowment Campaign, whose generosity guarantees that NMWA will endure and forever inspire for generations to come. Although we can only list donations of $10,000 and above due to space limitations, NMWA is grateful to all donors to the endowment.

*Ex-Officio

NMWA Advisory Board Sarah Bucknell Treco—Chair, Patty Abramson, Noreen M. Ackerman, Sunny Scully Alsup, Jean Astrop, Jo Ann Barefoot, Gail Bassin, Susan G. Berk, Sue Ann Berlin, Catherine Little Bert. Brenda Bertholf, Eva M. Borins, Caroline Boutté, Nancy Anne Branton, Amy Sosland Brown, Margaret Boyce Brown, Deborah G. Carstens, Eleanor Chabraja, Paul T. Clark, John Comstock, Linda Comstock, Lynn Finesilver Crystal, Liz Cullen, Belinda de Gaudemar, Betty Dettre, Elizabeth J. Doverman, Ginni Dreier, Kenneth P. Dutter, Gerry E. Ehrlich, Patrice Emrie, Roberta M. Feldman, Ph.D., Elva Ferrari-Graham, Rosemarie Forsythe, Jane Fortune, Robert Freeman, Claudia Fritsche, Lisa Garrison, Barbara S. Goldfarb, Jamie S. Gorelick, Jody Harrison Grass, Claudia Hauberg, Sue J. Henry, Anna Stapleton Henson, Caroline Rose Hunt, Jan Jessup, Alice D. Kaplan, Arlene Fine Klepper, Doris Kloster, Nelleke Langhout-Nix, Fred M. Levin, Gladys Kemp Lisanby, Sarah H. Lisanby, M.D., Nancy Livingston, Maria Teresa Martínez, C. Raymond Marvin, Pat McCall, Debby McGinn, Dee Ann McIntyre, Cynthia McKee, Suzanne Mellor, Jacqui Michel, Eleanor Smith Morris, Claudia Pensotti Mosca, Deborah E. Myers, Jeannette T. Nichols, Kay W. Olson, Katherine D. Ortega, Margaret Perkins, Patti Pyle, Madeleine Rast, Drina Rendic, Barbara Richter, Elizabeth Robinson, Geri Roper, Elizabeth A. Sackler, Stephanie Sale, Steven Scott, Marsha Brody Shiff, Ann Simon, Kathern Ivous Sisk, Geri Skirkanich, Salwa J. Aboud Smith, Dot Snyder, Denise Littlefield Sobel, Patti Amanda Spivey, Kathleen Elizabeth Springhorn, Bonnie Staley, Sara Steinfeld, Jo Stribling, Susan Swartz, Cheryl S. Tague, Lisa Cannon Taylor, MaryRoss Taylor, Deborah Dunklin Tipton, Nancy W. Valentine, Christy A. Vezolles, Paula S. Wallace, Harriet L. Warm, Island Weiss, Tara Beauregard Whitbeck, Patti White, Betty Bentsen Winn, Rhett D. Workman (all lists as of May 16, 2016)

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Endowment Foundation Trustee ($1 million+) Anonymous, Betty B. and Rexford* Dettre, Estate of Grace A. George, Wilhelmina C. and Wallace F.* Holladay, Sr., Carol and Climis Lascaris, Estate of Evelyn B. Metzger, The Honorable Mary V. Mochary, Rose Benté Lee Ostapenko*, Madeleine Rast, The Walton Family Foundation Endowment Foundation Governor ($500,000–$999,999) Noreen M. Ackerman , P. Frederick Albee and Barbara E. Albee*, Catherine L. and Arthur A. Bert, M.D., J.W. Kaempfer, Nelleke Langhout-Nix, Joe R. and Teresa L. Long, James R. and Suzanne S. Mellor, National Endowment for the Humanities , Drs. A. Jess and Ben Shenson*, MaryRoss Taylor, Alice W. and Gordon T. West, Jr. Endowment Foundation Fellow ($200,000–$499,999) Catharina B. and Livingston L. Biddle, Jr.*, Marcia Myers and Frank Carlucci, Costa del Sol Cruise, Kenneth P. Dutter, Estate of E. Louise Gaudet, Lorraine G. Grace*, William Randolph Hearst Foundation, Estate of Eleanor Heller , Fred M. Levin and Nancy Livingston/The Shenson Foundation, in memory of Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson, Dorothy S. Lyddon*/Seven Springs Foundation, Marlene McArthur and Frederic V. Malek, Victoria J. Mastrobuono*, Sea Goddess I and II Trips, Alejandra and Enrique Segura, Sheila and Richard Shaffer, Clarice Smith Endowment Foundation Counselor ($100,000–$199,999) Janice L. and Harold L. Adams, Nunda and Prakash Ambegaonkar, Carol C. Ballard, Baltic Cruise, Eleanor and Nicholas D. Chabraja, Clark Charitable Foundation, Hilda and William B. Clayman, Julia B. and Michael M. Connors, Martha Lyn Dippell and Daniel Lynn Korengold, Gerry E. and S. Paul* Ehrlich, Jr., Enterprise Rent-A-Car, FedEx Corporation, Barbara A. Gurwitz and William D. Hall, Caroline Rose Hunt/The Sands Foundation, Alice D. Kaplan, Dorothy and Raymond LeBlanc, Lucia Woods Lindley, Gladys K. and James W.* Lisanby, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Adrienne B. and John F. Mars, Juliana and Richard E. May, Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, Irene Natividad, Jeannette T. Nichols, Lady Pearman, Reinsch Pierce Family Foundation by Lola C. Reinsch and J. Almont Pierce, Julia Sevilla Somoza, Marsha Brody Shiff, June Speight*, Kathleen Elizabeth Springhorn, Mahinder K. and Sharad Tak, Sami and Annie Totah Family Foundation Endowment Circle ($50,000–$99,999) Linda Able Choice*, George* and Ursula Andreas, Arkansas Fifty , Lulu H. Auger*, Virginia Mitchell Bailey*, Sondra D.* and Howard M. Bender/The Bender Foundation, Inc., Patti Cadby Birch*, Laura Lee and Jack S. Blanton, Sr.*/Scurlock Foundation, Anne R. Bord*, Caroline Boutté, BP Foundation Inc., M. A. Ruda and Peter J. P. Brickfield, Margaret C. Boyce Brown, Martha Buchanan, Charlotte Clay Buxton, Sandra and Miles Childers, Mary and Armeane Choksi, Margaret and David Cole/The Cole Family Foundation, Holland H. Coors*, Porter and Lisa Dawson, Courtenay Eversole , Suzy Finesilver*/The Hertzel and Suzy Finesilver Charitable Foundation, Karen Dixon Fuller, Alan Glen Family Trust, Peter and Wendy Gowdey, Laura L. Guarisco, Jolynda H. and David M. Halinski, Janie Hathoot, Hap and Winton Holladay, Evan and Cindy Jones Foundation, I. Michael and Beth Kasser, William R. and Christine M. Leahy, Louise C. Mino Trust, Zoe H. and James H. Moshovitis, Joan and Lucio A. Noto, Marjorie H. and Philip Odeen, Nancy Bradford Ordway , Katherine D. Ortega, Margaret H. and Jim Perkins, Ramsay D. Potts*, in honor of Veronica R. Potts, Elizabeth Pruet*, Edward Rawson, Jane S. Schwartz Trust, Jack and Dana Snyder , Judith Zee Steinberg and Paul J. Hoenmans, Susan and Scott Sterling, Nancy N. and Roger Stevenson, Jr., Jo and Thomas Stribling, Susan and Jim Swartz , Elizabeth Stafford Hutchinson Endowed Internship—Texas State Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts , William and Frances Usher, Elzbieta Chlopecka Vande Sande, Betty Bentsen Winn and Susan Winn Lowry, Yeni Wong, Endowment Patron ($25,000–$49,999), Micheline and Sean Connery, Sheila ffolliott, Georgia State Committee of NMWA, New York Trip, Nancy O’Malley, Mississippi State Committee of NMWA, Northern Trust, Estate of Mary Marvin Breckinridge Patterson, Chris Petteys*, Lisa and Robert Pumphrey*, Elizabeth A. Sackler, Estate of Madoline W. Shreve, Patti Amanda and Bruce Spivey, Sahil Tak/ST Paper, LLC, In Honor of Alice West, Jean and Donald M. Wolf Endowment Patron ($25,000–$49,999) Micheline and Sean Connery, Sheila ffolliott, New York Trip, Nancy O’Malley, Estate of Mary Marvin Breckinridge Patterson, Chris Petteys, Lisa and Robert* Pumphrey, Edward Rawson, Elizabeth A. Sackler, Estate of Madoline W. Shreve, Texas State Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Women’s Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts Endowment Sponsor ($15,000–$24,999) Deborah G. Carstens, Stephanie Fein, Martha and Homer Gudelsky*, Sally L. Jones, Louise H. Matthews Fund, Lily Y. Tanaka, Liz and Jim Underhill, Elizabeth Welles, Dian Woodner Endowment Friend ($10,000–$14,999) Carol A. Anderson, Julia and George L. Argyros, Mrs. Joseph T. Beardwood, III, Catherine Bennett and Fred Frailey, Susan G. Berk, Mary Kay Blake, Booz Allen Hamilton, Lynne V. and Richard Cheney, Esther Coopersmith, Darby Foundation, Jack J. Dreyfus, Jr.*, Patricia M. and Clifford J. Ehrlich, Mary Page and Thomas B. Evans, Lois Lehrman Grass, Anna Stapleton Henson, Alexine C. and Aaron G.* Jackson, Jan Jessup, Pamela Johnson and Wesley King, Helga and Peter-Hans Keilbach, Howard and Michelle Kessler, Ellen U. and Alfred A. King* , Jacqueline Badger Mars, C. Raymond Marvin, Clyde and Pat Dean McCall, Edwina H. and Charles P. Milner, Evelyn V. and Robert M.* Moore, Harriet Newbill, Estate of Edythe Bates Old, PepsiCo., Inc., Anne and Chris Reyes, Savannah Trip , Mary Anne B. Stewart, Paula Wallace/ Savannah College of Art and Design, Marjorie Nohowel Wasilewski, Jean S. and Gordon T. Wells * Deceased

She Who Tells a Story Exhibition Catalogue

My Walit Zip Purse/ID Holder

She Who Tells a Story introduces pioneering work by twelve leading women photographers from Iran and the Arab world.

These vibrant artists challenge us to set aside preconceptions and share in their vision and stories. $40.00/Member $36 (Item #60095)

Infinity Scarf ­ Gray Flowers on Coral

The ideal compact purse for daily essentials, featuring four card slots, an ID window, and a secure zipped section perfect for change and folded notes. Made of fine Nappa leather with a beautiful soft finish.

Closed size 3 ¹⁄³ x 4 ³⁄8 in. $51.95/ Member $46.75 (Item #26047)

Solar-Powered Photography Sunography

This cheerful, bright infinity scarf features a screen-printed floral pattern in dark and light gray on coral. Perfect for a summer pop of color. Machine washable. $40/ Member $36 (Item #25087)

Place an object on light-sensitive Sunography paper, expose in bright sunlight, and rinse to reveal a rich blue print. A great platform for creativity— use with photo negatives, x-rays, lace, leaves, transparencies, and more. Six 5-×-7-in., 90-lb sheets. $19.95/Member $17.95 (Item #30237)

Handcrafted Almond Soap

NMWA Water Bottle

This attractively boxed and long-lasting soap bar makes a great gift or addition to your home. Natural ingredients gently cleanse and replenish the skin.

Modern scent combines sweet almond with oats and honey. $9/Member $8.10 (Item #30482)

Stay hydrated and trendy with a water bottle sporting the National Museum of Women in the Arts name on the side. 28-oz. matte black aluminum bottle keeps your drink cold on the go. $12.95/ Member $11.65 (Item #29308)

Boxed Note Cards

Craft, Color, and Play

This card with yellow billy balls is perfect for all occasions. Send your sentiments or wrap with ribbon for a charming hostess gift! Boxed set includes 10 blank cards and white envelopes.

3 ½ x 4 7⁄8 in. when folded. $16/Member $14.40 (Item #30468)

A great gift for kids ages 8–12.

Kid-powered creativity will fire on all cylinders as they jump into over 100 imagination-sparking activities. Softcover, 96 pages. $12.99/Member $11.69 (Item #29146)

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COMING SOON

NO MAN’S LAND: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection September 30, 2016–January 8, 2017

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arge-scale paintings and sculptural hybrids appear in NO MAN’S LAND, which presents the work of more than thirty-five contemporary artists from fifteen countries. The exhibition centers on images of the female body—with innovative portraiture techniques and representations of the figure—and works that explore the physical process of making. The artists use traditional and novel mediums, revealing varied influences from the global world of contemporary art.

The lineup of amazing artists includes Nina Chanel Abney, Tauba Auerbach, Amy Bessone, Kerstin Brätsch, Cecily Brown, Iona Rozeal Brown, Miriam Cahn, Mira Dancy, Karin Davie, Marlene Dumas, Isa Genzken, Sonia Gomes, Jennifer Guidi, Cristina Iglesias, Hayv Kahraman, Natasja Kensmil, Yayoi Kusama, Shurui Li, Helen Marten, Suzanne McClelland, Josephine Meckseper, Dianna Molzan, Wangechi Mutu, Maria Nepomuceno, Celia Paul, Solange Pessoa, Elizabeth Peyton, Jennifer Rubell, Analia Saban, Dana Schutz, Shinique Smith, Aya Takano, Mickalene Thomas, Rosemarie Trockel, Kaari Upson, Mary Weatherford, and Anicka Yi. NO MAN’S LAND imagines a visual conversation between women artists new to the Rubell Family Collection (RFC) and those whose works they began collecting decades ago. RFC collaborated with NMWA to realize a new vision for the exhibition, which premiered in RFC’s space in Miami in December 2015.

NO MAN’S LAND: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection is organized by the Rubell Family Collection, Miami. Its presentation at NMWA is made possible through the generous support of Clara M. Lovett. Additional funding is provided

by Stephanie Sale and Share Fund.

Dana Schutz, Lovers (detail), 2003; Oil on canvas, 84 x 120 in.