Tag Archives: Women Artists

Love & War~ May 21

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Hannah Höch (1889-1978)

Liebe [Love] / 1931 / Drawing, collage / 8.5”x8.25” / National Gallery of Australia

Hannah Höch was a German Dada artist. She is best known for her work of the Weimar period, when she was one of the originators of photomontage.

In the summer of 1918, while Höch and [her lover of the time, Austrian-born artist Raoul Hausmann] were on vacation at the Ostsee, they claimed to have discovered the principle of photomontage in the form of the cut-and-paste images that soldiers on the front sent to their families. This find would significantly affect Höch’s artistic production, for photomontage became the preferred medium for her shrewd social and political critiques of the 1920s.

While she may have been remembered by her bombastic Dada colleagues for her “sandwiches, beer and coffee”, her lifetime of artistic practice reveals a vital and critical woman who could magically collide disparate reproductions of needlepoint patterns, political figures, film stars, animal life and non-Western artifacts into explorations of androgyny, Aryan activity, gender roles, imperialism, race and lesbianism.

The Coquette I (1923-1925)

Hoch began the Love series as early as 1923, and worked on it intermittently through about 1931. Each of the six or seven works in this series depict sexuality in some way. My understanding is that the following pieces were in this series:

Love in the Bush (1925)
Peasant Wedding Couple (1931)
Love (1926)
Love (1931)
The Coquette I (1923-1925)
The Coquette II (c.1925)
The Large Step (1931)

 

MoMA’s catalog for their 1997 exhibition “The photomontages of Hannah Höch” is available to download in pdf format~
https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/241

Love (1926)

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Love & War~ May 14

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Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller
“Peace Halting the Ruthlessness of War”

1917 / Bronze cast sculpture / 14”x16 3/4”x9”/ Private collection

Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller (June 9, 1877-March 18, 1968) was…a multi-talented artist who wrote poetry, painted, and sculpted but was most noted for her sculpture. Warrick was a protegé of Auguste Rodin…Warrick is considered a forerunner of the Harlem Renaissance.

In May, 1917, Meta Warrick Fuller took second prize in a competition under the auspices of the Massachusetts Branch of the Woman’s Peace Party, her subject being “Peace Halting the Ruthlessness of War.” War is personified as on a mighty steed and trampling to death numberless human beings. In one hand he holds a spear on which he has transfixed the head of one of his victims.

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Download a pdf file of “AN INDEPENDENT WOMAN The Life and Art Of Meta Warrick Fuller” here: http://www.danforthart.org/assets/forms/meta_fuller_catalog_1984-5.pdf

Love & War~ May 4

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Take-Off: Interior of a Bomber Aircraft / c.1943 / Oil on canvas / 72”x60” / Imperial War Museums, UK

Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970)

Laura Johnson, the youngest of the three daughters of Charles Johnson and his wife, Charlotte Bates, was born in Long Eaton on 4th August 1877. Her father left the family when she was a child and was brought up by her mother who taught art in a local school.

A talented artist, Laura entered Nottingham School of Art when she was fourteen. While there she met Harold Knight and was deeply influenced by his work…Laura married Knight in June, 1903. Knight established herself as the most important woman artist in Britain and in 1936 became the first woman to be elected to the Royal Academy since 1760. During the Second World War Laura became an official war artist. She was also sent to cover the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials.
http://spartacus-educational.com/ARTknight.htm

Self Portrait aka The Model 1913 – Dame Laura Knight

Photographs of Dame Laura Knight

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March 31~ Women’s History Month in visual arts

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Toba Khedoori (Born 1964), Australian-born American artist known for detailed renderings on wall-size sheets of wax-treated paper     https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/toba-khedoori/biography

Untitled (rooms) / 2001 / Oil and wax with graphite on two sheets of paper / 144”x144”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kara Walker (Born 1969)
African-American contemporary painter, silhouettist, printmaker, installation artist, and filmmaker
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kara-Walker

The Emancipation Approximation (Scene #18) / 1999-2000 / Screenprint / 44”x33 15/16”

March 30~ Women’s History Month in visual arts

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Chakaia Booker (Born 1953)
African-American sculptor best known for her work using tires as a medium
https://nmwa.org/explore/artist-profiles/chakaia-booker

Urban Butterfly / 2001 / Rubber tires / 57”x53”

 

Kiki Smith (Born 1954)
German-born American artist’s work includes sculpture, printmaking, photography, drawing, and textiles
https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/kiki-smith

Lilith / 1994 / Bronze with glass eyes / 31 1/2”x27”x17 1/2”

March 29~ Women’s History Month in visual arts

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Judy Chicago (Born 1939)
American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for large collaborative art installations
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/chicago-judy

Female Rejection Drawing from the Rejection Quintet / 1974 / Colored pencil and graphite on paper / 40”x30”

 

Carrie Mae Weems (Born 1953)
African-American photographer, performance artist, activist, filmmaker, and videographer
http://carriemaeweems.net/bio.html

Untitled (Kitchen Table Series) / 1990 / Gelatin silver print / 27 1/4”x27”

March 28~ Women’s History Month in visual arts

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Bridget Riley CH CBE (Born 1931)
British painter and designer central to the Op art movement of the 1960s
http://www.op-art.co.uk/bridget-riley/

Zephyr / 1976 / Acrylic on linen / 88”x42”

 

 

 

 

Eva Hesse (1936-1970)
German-born American sculptor who brought organic, emotional, and kinetic aspects to minimalism
https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/eva-hesse

Untitled (Rope Piece) / 1969-70 / Latex, rope, string, and wire / Dimensions variable

March 27~ Women’s History Month in visual arts

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Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011), American pivotal in the transition from Abstract Expressionism to Color Field painting     http://www.frankenthalerfoundation.org/helen/biography

Nature Abhors a Vacuum / 1973 / Acrylic on canvas / 103 1/2”x112 1/2”

Yayoi Kusama (Born 1929), Japanese self-described “obsessional artist” employs painting, sculpture, performance art, and installation     https://www.britannica.com/biography/Yayoi-Kusama

Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity / 2009 / Wood, metal, glass mirrors, plastic, acrylic paint, LED lighting system, and water / 163 1/2”x163 1/2”x113 1/4”

March 26~ Women’s History Month in visual arts

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Leonora Carrington (1917-2011), British-born Mexican Surrealist painter, artist, and writer
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leonora-Carrington

The Pomps of the Subsoil / 1947 / Oil on canvas / 23”x37”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clara Ledesma (1924-1999)
Dominican-born artist and gallery owner created paintings, watercolors, and drawings
https://dominicancult.blogspot.com/2013/07/clara-ledesma-dominican-artist.html

Mujer y pájaro rojo (Woman with the red bird) / 1982 / Oil on canvas / 18”x24″

March 25~ Women’s History Month in visual arts

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Agnes Martin (1912-2004)
Canadian-American artist, often described as Minimalist, considered herself an Abstract Expressionist
https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/agnes-martin

Happy Holiday / 1999 / Acrylic paint and graphite on canvas / 60”x60”x1.5”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Méret Oppenheim (1913-1985)
German-born Swiss artist produced sculptures, paintings, photographs, drawings, and assemblages
https://nmwa.org/explore/artist-profiles/meret-oppenheim

Wolke auf einem Schiff (Cloud on a Boat) / 1963 / Plaster and paint / 14 9/16”x13”x4 3/4”