by Emily Burkhart March 23, 2024 Clementine Hunter (ca. 1886-1988) in 1979. Photograph by Judith Sedwick as part of the Black Women Oral History Project, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Harvard University. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. "I paint the history of my people" -Clementine Hunter One of the most celebrated twentieth-century Southern painters, the prolific Creole folk artist Clementine Hunter (ca. 1886-1988) created well over 5,000 paintings from the late 1930s until her death in 1988–an extraordinary output for someone who did not pick up a paintbrush and begin “marking pictures,” as she described it, until her mid-fifties. Hunter was illiterate and entirely self-taught.  Her work has drawn comparisons to Grandma Moses (1860-1961), another famous American folk artist who did not start painting until later in life, earning Hunter the nickname the “black Grandma Moses.” A descendant of slaves, Hunter’s “memory paintings,” as she also referred to her work, most often depict her experience of plantation life in the early twentieth-century in the Cane River Valley of Louisiana. Hunter drew upon her memories and dreams to create vivid paintings of picking cotton, harvesting pecans, boiling wash, funerals, baptisms, other religious scenes, recreation, and brawls at the local honky tonk as well as still lifes and even abstracts. She also produced a number of quilts and painted a renowned mural of plantation life located on the second floor of the African House on Melrose Plantation in Natchitoches Parish, where she spent most of her 101 years. Clementine Hunter (ca. 1886-1988), Grandmother’s Garden, 1962. Oil on board, 18 x 24 in. Gilley’s Gallery, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Image courtesy of Gilley’s Gallery. Photograph of Clementine Hunter outside her cabin on Melrose Plantation in Natchitoches, Louisiana, in the 1960s. State Library of Louisiana. Image courtesy of 64 Parishes. Childhood and Early Life Clementine Hunter was born in late December 1886 into a family of sharecroppers on Hidden Hill Plantation in the Cane River Valley of northwestern Louisiana. She was the eldest of Mary Antoinette Adams and Janvier “John” Reuben’s seven children. Although her exact date of birth remains unknown and some sources cite her birth year as 1887,  Hunter said she was born around Christmas. She was of African, Native American, French, and Irish descent. Her maternal grandparents were Virginia slaves who were brought to Louisiana. Her paternal grandfather had been a horse trader during the Civil War who died before Hunter was born, but she was close to her paternal grandmother, a black and Native American woman she called mémé. Hunter was called Clémence early in her life but was baptized Clementiam on March 19, 1887, when she was about three months old. Her family used the nickname Tébé, French for “little baby.” Later she would call herself Clementine. When Hunter was around five years old, her parents sent her to St. John the Baptist Catholic Church School, but due to its harsh rules and segregationist policies, Hunter left after less than a year  never learning to read or write. She began working in the fields at Hidden Hill Plantation at the age of eight, picking cotton alongside her father. Throughout Hunter’s childhood, the family moved around the Cane River Valley wherever her father worked, living in Robeline, Cypress, and Alexandria. The family moved to Yucca (later renamed Melrose) Plantation in Natchitoches Parish in 1902 when she was twelve. Hunter lived at Melrose until it was sold to Southdown Land Company in 1970, after which she lived nearby in a trailer down a dirt road until her death in 1988. Melrose Plantation Melrose is one of the largest plantations in the United States built by and for free black people. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974. Today, Melrose (and its African House with murals by Hunter), is one of twelve sites in the Historic Artists’ Homes & Studios network that celebrates the contributions of American women artists.  In 1902, Hunter’s father Janvier was hired as a laborer by John Hampton Henry, then owner of Melrose. Her mother died a few years later in 1905. Hunter herself worked on the plantation in several capacities initially picking cotton, as illustrated in her painting Picking Cotton (1950s) and doing laundry as shown in Washday (1950s). In autumn, she would also harvest pecans. Working six days a week much of the year, she worked at Melrose for seventy-five years. Clementine Hunter (ca. 1886-1988), Picking Cotton, 1950s. Oil on board, 20 x 24 in. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Image courtesy of the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Clementine Hunter (ca. 1886-1988), Washday, 1950s. Oil paint on fiberboard, 23 15/16 x 23 15/16 x ¼ in. Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, DC. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1907, when Hunter was about twenty, she gave birth to her first child with Charles Dupree, a mechanic fifteen years her senior with whom she had two children. Hunter and Dupree never married, and he died in 1914. Ten years later, Clementine married Emmanuel Hunter, a woodchopper at the plantation. Together, they would have five children, two of which were stillborn, while living in a worker’s cabin at Melrose. Until her marriage to Emmanuel, Clementine spoke only Creole French; he taught her American English. Hunter worked in the fields at Melrose until her thirties when, in the late 1920s, Carmelite Henry, the wife of John Hampton Henry, employed her to do domestic work as a cook and housekeeper at the “Big House.” After John Hampton Henry died in 1917, his widow opened her home to writers and artists, hosting them for extended stays to live and work, and turning Melrose into an art colony–surely, a development that must have influenced Hunter. Clementine Hunter, Melrose Plantation, Louisiana, 1948. Photo by Carlotta M. Copron. Gelatin silver print, 12⅜ by 9⅞ in. New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana. Image courtesy of the New Orleans Museum of Art. Painting Career Prior to painting, Hunter expressed her creativity through fine sewing, doll making, producing textiles, and quilting which she continued throughout her life such as in her Melrose Quilt (ca. 1960). The Henry family had purchased Melrose in 1899, and began restoring architectural structures on the grounds and moving historic log cabins from the area onto the property. Melrose Quilt portrays several notable buildings on the plantation including the Big House (center) where the Henrys lived, Yucca House (top), Ghana House (bottom left), and African House (bottom right), where in 1955 at the age of sixty-eight Hunter would paint her well known mural of plantation life. Clementine Hunter (ca. 1886-1988), Detail of mural inside African House. Melrose Plantation, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. Image courtesy of South Writ Large. Clementine Hunter (ca.1886-1988), Melrose Quilt, ca. 1960. Fabric, 73 x 60 in. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Hunter began to paint at some point in the late 1930s. In 1945, using discarded tubes of oils left at Melrose by the New Orleans artist Alberta Kinsey and an old window shade, Hunter is said to have created her first “real” painting known as Panorama of Baptism on Cane River. Hunter did not title her paintings. When asked for a title, she would provide a description or explanation. Her paintings can be seen as a record of her experiences growing up, living, and working on a plantation the majority of her life. Clementine Hunter (ca. 1886-1988), Panorama of Baptism on Cane River, 1945. Oil on window shade. Gift of the Roger H. Ogden Collection. Image courtesy of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, Louisiana. In the beginning she painted using readily available materials such as house paint on cardboard, paper bags, scrap wood, snuff boxes, cutting boards, wine bottles, and milk jugs before moving on to the more conventional materials of oil and watercolors on canvas to create images of Southern living and religious traditions such as Baptism (ca.1950) and Funeral at St. Augustine’s (early 1970s), depicting the local Catholic church. Her reminiscences are colorful and direct yet lyrical, her honesty refreshing and poignant. Clementine Hunter (ca. 1886-1988), Baptism, ca. 1950. Oil on board, 15 ½  x 19 ½ in. The Melvin Holmes Collection of African American Art, San Francisco, California. Image courtesy of The Melvin Homes Collection of African American Art. Clementine Hunter (1887-1988), Funeral at St. Augustine, early 1970s. 17½ x 23¼ in. Estimate: $4,000-6,000. Offered in Outsider Art on February 3, 2022 at Christie’s in New York. Image courtesy of Christie’s. In 1939, the French writer François Mignon (1899-1980), curator of the plantation, noticed her talent and gave her paints and materials. Originally from New York, Mignon became Hunter’s friend and helped promote her work for three decades. He arranged for her paintings to be displayed at a local drugstore where they sold for a dollar each. He also co-authored a cookbook with her on traditional Creole cuisine, the Melrose Plantation Cookbook (1956), that featured photographs of Melrose Plantation with illustrations by Hunter. Clementine Hunter at left with Melrose Plantation curator Francois Mignon in an undated photo. Image courtesy of The Shreveport Times, Shreveport, Louisiana. James Register, a Melrose visitor and professor at the University of Oklahoma, also gave Hunter art supplies and support. He helped her learn to sign her paintings. She began signing with a straightforward “CH” from the mid-1940s into the 1950s as can be seen on the delightful Fishing from 1956. The signature developed further into a stylized backwards “C” overlapping an “H” as on the happy flowers picture Pinwheels (Spider Lilies, 1960s). After the death of her husband, Hunter was left to work full-time and care for her children alone while painting at night. She put a sign on the outside of her cabin that read,  "Clementine Hunter, Artist. 25 cents to Look.” It was through Register’s efforts that Hunter received a Julius Rosenwald Foundation grant for African American visual artists in 1944. Clementine Hunter (ca. 1886-1988), Fishing, 1956. Oil on board, 17¼ x 23½ in. Estimate: $5,000-7,000. Offered in Outsider Art on February 3, 2022 at Christie’s in New York. Image courtesy of Christie’s. Clementine Hunter (ca. 1886-1988), Pinwheels (Spider Lilies), 1960s. Oil on canvas, 30 x 24 in. Gilley’s Gallery, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Image courtesy of Gilley’s Gallery. Both Mignon and Register are credited with encouraging Hunter’s talent and setting her on the path toward recognition. With their support, her first shows were in 1945 in Brownwood, Rosenwald Grant, and Waco, Texas. An exhibition of Hunter's paintings at the New Orleans Arts and Crafts Show in 1949 brought even wider attention to her work. And a June 16, 1953, article in Look magazine entitled “Innocence Regained” featuring Hunter in her cabin at Melrose surrounded by her paintings brought her to national prominence. She became the first African American artist to receive a solo exhibition at the Delgado Museum (now the New Orleans Museum of Art) in 1956.  Recognizing the growing interest in her work, Hunter took charge of her image and success. She mounted pay-to-see exhibitions at her home, charged visitors to take pictures with her for 50 cents apiece, sold her work (for modest prices), and even created the occasional self-portrait, such as 1981’s Untitled–a modest acknowledgement of her growing acclaim. Clementine Hunter (ca. 1886-1988), Untitled, 1981. Oil and collage on canvas board, 14 x 18 in. National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC. Image courtesy of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. She also produced many astonishingly modern takes on her subject matter such as the portrait Grandpa (ca. 1960) and the aforementioned Grandmother’s Garden (1962). Clementine Hunter (ca. 1886-1988), Grandpa, ca. 1960. Oil on masonite, 17 x 21 in. Image courtesy of Pinterest. Death and Forgery Self-taught, most often painting what she remembered in an “idiosyncratic artistic style”–brightly colored, simply rendered without scale, perspective, shadow–her work is the epitome of folk art yet, her sensibility is not just nostalgic. By the time of her death at age 101 on January 1, 1988, Hunter had become widely known. Eminent institutions such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of American Folk Art in New York had mounted exhibitions. But forgeries of her work had begun circulating throughout the country. With the help of Thomas Whitehead, who had been a personal friend of Hunter’s and was a Clementine Hunter art expert, the FBI finally caught those responsible in 2009.  It was the first FBI case of its kind, it legitimized folk art and protected Hunter’s legacy. Today, Clementine Hunter’s works sell for thousands of dollars at auction and are in many private and public collections, including that of Oprah Winfrey and the late Joan Rivers as well as the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Her life and art have been the subject of books, and her paintings were featured on a 2013 episode of PBS’s Antiques Roadshow. That same year, Robert Wilson, who had met Hunter when he was twelve years old, premiered his opera entitled “Zinnias: The Life of Clementine Hunter” at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Common in the South, zinnias were one of Hunter’s favorite flowers and she painted the stately blooms many times throughout her career. Clementine Hunter (ca. 1886-1988), Zinnias in a Pot, 1965. Oil on board, 32 x 28 in. Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia. Image courtesy of the Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art.

by Emily Burkhart February 29, 2024 Emily Mason (1932-2019), Pleasure Garden, 1970. Oil on canvas, 52 x 44 in. Miles McEnery Gallery, New York. Image courtesy of Artsy. During a career spanning more than six decades, the American painter and printmaker Emily Mason (1932-2019) explored abstraction in works that combined vibrant color with gestural expression. Saturating the canvas with intense hues and bold tones, she created color-centric abstract compositions. Her paintings bridged Abstract Expressionism, Lyrical Abstraction, and the Color Field movements. She exhibited both nationally and internationally beginning in the 1960s. In 1979, she was selected for a Ranger Fund Purchase Prize by the National Academy of Design. Mason described her process as “want[ing] to use the medium as directly as possible.”  She explained: Using paint and its inherent qualities–brilliance, transparency, opacity, liquidity, weight, warmth, and coolness–enables me to get my mind out of the way. These qualities guide me in a process of discovery which will determine the climate of the picture and define spatial relationships. While this approach results in certain kinds of places, I cannot name them but know instinctively when they appear. Mason’s singular vision, often independent of the major art movements of the time, set her apart from her contemporaries. This along with her gender and a quieter lifestyle, may explain why she is not better known today. Emily Mason in her Chelsea, New York, studio, 1991. Photograph by Tommy Naess. Image courtesy of The Brooklyn Rail. Early Life and Education Emily Mason was born in Greenwich Village, New York City, on January 12, 1932, to Warwood Edwin Mason, a sea captain for American Export Lines, and Alice Trumbull Mason. Mason’s mother was a writer, poet, and pioneering abstractionist herself, as well as a founder of the artist organization American Abstract Artists, a predecessor to the New York School and Abstract Expressionism. Through her mother and her mother’s artist friends such as Elaine de Kooning and Joseph Albers, Mason developed an early interest in art and Modernism. After graduating from New York’s High School of Music & Art (now Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Performing Arts), Mason studied fine art at Bennington College, a private liberal arts school in Bennington,Vermont, from 1950-1952. She transferred to The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City to complete her degree in 1955. In 1956, Mason was awarded a prestigious Fulbright scholarship for painting and spent two years in study at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice, Italy. While in Italy, Mason was inspired by the country’s Byzantine-era architecture and began creating Color Field-style paintings. Upon returning home, her work garnered increasing recognition, taking off in the 1960s with her first solo exhibition at New York City’s Area Gallery in 1960. Family Prior to her move to Italy in 1956, Mason met the German-born American Realist/Color Field painter Wolf Khan (1927-2020). He joined her in Italy and on March 2,1957, they married in Venice. When Mason earned a second year of the Fulbright grant, it enabled the newlyweds to divide their time between Venice and Rome. The couple returned to New York in late 1958 where Mason gave birth to their daughter Cecily in 1959. In 1963, the family returned to Italy where their younger daughter Melany was born in 1964. Cecily later became an abstract artist in her own right and is a member of American Abstract Artists while her sister Melany is a social worker and children’s book author. Emily Mason and Wolf Khan were married for 62 years until her death in 2019. Emily Mason working in her Chelsea studio in front of her painting Up River, 2016. Photograph by Steven Rose. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Artistic Practice For much of her working life, Mason split her time between a studio in a converted loft in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan that she purchased in 1979 and an old blacksmith’s lodge on a farm in Wisconsin that she and her husband acquired in 1968. In a 2018 interview with Western Art & Architecture magazine, Mason explained the value of the two locations, saying that: "It is important to balance city life with experiencing nature. Winter in the city is the time for the fermentation of ideas. Summer is my time to carry them out.” Emily Mason in her Brattleboro, Vermont, studio, 2018. Photograph by Joshua Farr. Image courtesy of Art Loves Company. Mason’s work has been categorized as Lyrical Abstraction, or art that expresses the artist’s emotions by conveying a sense of the spiritual outlook an artist chooses to infuse into their paintings through a desire to communicate concepts, thoughts, ideas, and emotions abstractly. Her paintings are also characterized by the use of “analogous” color theory, groups of three colors adjacent to each other on the color wheel with similarities composed of one dominant color, such as yellow-orange, yellow, and yellow-green, or red-orange, red, and red-violet. She often incorporated elements of Color Field painting as well with broad areas of paint on her canvases. Her painting technique was described as starting with empty pet food cans into which: [S]he mixed pigments and solvents to specific and varied consistencies, then poured them directly onto the canvas in a curious interplay with her painting’s other “pours.” Crucial to the overall process was the time (or sometimes, the lack thereof) elapsed between these poured layers. Often, Mason would gesturally spread out the poured paint layer with a paintbrush (the one she had used to mix that tin), or apply other physical treatments such as scraping, sanding, finger painting, or contact with an unconventional tool such as an old t-shirt. The following several paintings serve as an introduction to Mason’s work. Lignite (1968) Emily Mason (1932-2019), Lignite, 1968. Oil on canvas, 50 x 41 in. Miles McEnery Gallery, New York. Image courtesy of 1stDibs. Lignite (1968) takes its name from a soft combustible sedimentary rock called lignite formed from naturally compressed peat, often referred to as brown coal. Mason composed the painting she entitled Lignite primarily of the complementary hues of blue and yellow-orange. Where these pigments blend, a brownish tone emerges with additional hints of yellow and green. Violet appears on the right side of the canvas where layers of blue and red have also been applied and mingled. Faint wisps and horizontal streaks of blue mark the left section of the canvas as well, some made by the horizontal dripping of paint. The canvas emits an overall glow, so it certainly could be said to be titled in recognition of lignite burning. Pleasure Garden (1970) Emily Mason (1932-2019), Pleasure Garden, 1970. Oil on canvas, 52 x 44 in. Miles McEnery Gallery, New York. Image courtesy of Artsy. Pleasure Garden (1970), one of Mason’s best-known works, consists of overlapping patches and blocks of color. Cheerful yellows dominate this happy composition while bright oranges, deep red, violet, blue, and green add to the mix. Red, yellow-green, and blue have all been dripped down the canvas, and the blue has been splashed as well as dripped, also contributing to a sense of movement are circular swatches of the same bright blue that look to be dropped onto complementary orange at the lower left. Defiant of a Road (1972) Emily Mason (1932-2019), Defiant of a Road, 1972. Oil on canvas, 52 ¼ x 40 ¼ in. Miles McEnery Gallery, New York. Image courtesy of Artsy 1972’s Defiant of a Road takes its name from a line in the “The Moon upon her Fluent Route” (1852), a poem by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) who happened to be both Mason’s namesake and favorite poet. Against the background of an aqua wash, Mason has poured, mixed, and splashed bluish-purple, lavender, pink, and buff, on top of which are strokes of blue, orange, pale yellow, and bright green. Whether or not evoking the moon, stars, and dawn as does Dickinson’s poem, the painting does aptly reflect the words “defiant of a road.” It is an exercise in the aesthetic properties of color and the validity of abstraction. A Paper of Pins (1974) Emily Mason (1932-2019), A Paper of Pins, 1974. Oil on canvas, 52 1/4 x 44 1/4 in. Miles McEnery Gallery, New York. Image courtesy of Artsy. A Paper of Pins (1974) consists of irregularly-edged square and rectangular swatches of color juxtaposed against a dreamy background wash of soft green, pale yellow, and light blue. Water markings on the canvas form translucent dark-edged bands that seem depictive, in one area approximating a large paper clip or safety pin. A similar outline extends down from the first, disappearing behind a purple square at the bottom right. The painting mysteriously borders on the representational. The Thunder Hurried Slow (1978) Emily Mason (1932-2019), The Thunder Hurried Slow, 1978. Oil on canvas, 54 x 54 in. Miles McEnery Gallery, New York. Image courtesy of Artsy. Another painting, The Thunder Hurried Slow (1978), also takes its name from a line in an Emily Dickinson poem. Here, it is from the poem “A Thunderstorm” (1864). Splotches of brilliant blue and purple, reminiscent of storm clouds, hover toward the center of the picture while drips of paint fall like rain. A sheer veil of white mixed with soft yellow and pink crosses the bluish-purple patch like fog or wind. Accents of red are strewn about while elsewhere magenta, yellow, and green border the ”storm.” Death and Last Exhibitions At the age of 87, Emily Mason died of cancer at her home in Vermont on December 10, 2019, coincidentally the birth date of her namesake Emily Dickinson. She left behind her two daughters, four grandchildren, and her husband who survived her by only a few months. Mason enjoyed a final exhibition in the year of her death from January 3 to February 2, 2019 at the Miles McEnery Gallery (MMG) in New York City. Two years later, in 2021, the MMG (which represents Mason’s estate) mounted the first posthumous retrospective featuring twenty-two paintings made between the late 1970s and the mid-1990s in an exhibition entitled Emily Mason: Chelsea Paintings. Her work again recently featured at the gallery from December 14, 2023, to February 3, 2024, in a show focusing on earlier pieces, and taking its name from one of her paintings, called The Thunder Hurried Slow: Emily Mason Paintings, 1968-1979. Emily Mason with some of her prints and paintings in her Chelsea studio in 2015. Photograph by Gavin Ashworth. Image courtesy of Elle Decor. Legacy Today, Emily Mason is considered among the finest American abstract painters. She is admired for the “exquisite sensitivity to color, balance, and form” with which she imbued her compositions. She approached each of her paintings on its own terms, comparing her process to a game of chess or a musical composition. As she described it,  “One more move, like chess—a musical conversation—violin, cello. Pick it up, make a move—wait—let time go in between. Then I know what to do.”  Both the urban and natural environments of New York and Vermont, respectively, shaped her body of work, as did the plane of the canvas and the physicality and colors of the paint. Her work resides in private collections, the Rutgers Archive in New Jersey, LewAllen Galleries in New Mexico, and the National Academy Museum in New York among others. In addition to making art, Mason was a devoted educator. For thirty years she taught painting at the City University of New York (CUNY) Hunter College. Mason’s daughters Cecily and Melany Kahn serve on the board of the Emily Mason | Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation, a not-for-profit foundation that Emily Mason established in 2018 as the Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation to support the legacy of her mother and to advance opportunities  to traditionally under-represented artists. After her death, the foundation was renamed the Emily Mason | Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation to honor both women. Emily Mason in her New York City studio, 1991. Photograph by Tommy Naess. Image courtesy of the Emily Mason | Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation.

By Emily Burkhart January 29, 2024 Albrecht Dürer (German, Nuremberg 1471-1528 Nuremberg), Melencolia I, 1514. Copper engraving, plate 9 3/8 x 7 5/16 in. Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Image courtesy of the  Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Deep depression, intense sadness, melancholy, whatever name used, it takes many forms–psychological, intellectual, artistic. Since Classical times, melancholia has often referred to the latter, the lack of a muse with said muse personified by a goddess (originating from the nine Muses, daughters of Zeus, in Greek mythology) or, more recently, that of a female model for inspiration. So with a “melancholic” mind, I have decided to switch gears and my focus on women artists to write about the personification of melancholy in one of my favorite works of art, the allegorical engraving, Melencolia I (1514) in which the great German Renaissance painter and printmaker Albrecht Dürer portrayed melancholy. Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), Self-portrait at 26, 1498. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain. Oil on wood panel, 20 in. x 16 in. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Context Melencolia I is one of the three small engravings known collectively as Dürer’s Meisterstiche (master prints). The other two are Knight, Death, and the Devil (1513) and Saint Gerome in His Study (1514). While the three are not a series, they correspond to the three kinds of virtue in medieval scholasticism–moral, theological, and intellectual–and embody the complexity of Durer’s thought and that of his age. Melencolia I thus represents the melancholy of the creative artist and is often considered autobiographical. Background From the time of the ancient Greeks through the Middle Ages, every individual was thought to be dominated by one of four bodily humors–blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. These four humors were understood to define physical and mental health, and determine personality, as well. Carried by the bloodstream, it was believed that the four humors bred the passions of anger, grief, hope, and fear. Black bile, also known as melancholy, was the least desirable of the four humors. Alleged to suffer from an excess of black bile, melancholics were thought to be especially prone to insanity. However, Renaissance thought also linked melancholy with creative genius, a trait exclusive to male artists, thus changing the status of this humor and making the artist aware that his gift came with a price. Albrecht Dürer (German, Nuremberg 1471-1528 Nuremberg), Melencolia I, 1514. Copper engraving, plate 9 3/8 x 7 5/16 in. Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Image courtesy of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Iconography Melencolia I has been linked by scholars to alchemy, astrology, geometry, mythology, numerology, philosophy, and theology to name some of the disciplines (and pseudosciences) associated with this densely laden work. A winged female figure wearing a leafy wreath and assumed to represent Melancholy sits on a ledge abutting the wall of a building. She stares pensively. Her pose–head resting on her left hand–is a common visual depiction of the mental state of melancholy. In her right hand on top of a book on her lap, she holds a caliper, an instrument resembling a compass used to measure the distance between two opposite sides of an object. As a measuring device, a caliper is an architect’s tool and symbolizes God as the architect of the universe. Used to draw circles, the caliper also represents eternity or the realm of the spiritual. Melancholy is surrounded by other tools associated with geometry, one of the seven liberal arts that underlie artistic creation and the one through which Dürer hoped to achieve perfection in his own work. A set of keys dangle from a belt at her waist symbolizing knowledge and success. Below those, a heavy coin purse rests against her voluminous skirt, a symbol of fortune, prosperity, and luck. Toward the center of the image, a putto (a young boy also with wings) sits atop a millstone, which represents difficult work or tasks. His eyes focused downward, his brow furrowed in concentration, he writes upon a tablet. In some interpretations, he is characterized as sleeping, imbued with innocence, beauty, and peace. A scrawny hound lies curled up on the ground between a sphere and truncated polyhedron, or, perhaps, rhombohedron (there are various analyses of the implied shape) under which is a claw hammer. In spiritual contexts, dogs are symbols of loyalty, faithfulness, and protection. In front of the sphere is a molder’s form, hand plane, and a set of pincers at Melancholy’s feet. Various other carpentry tools in the form of nails, a saw, and straight edge are also strewn on the ground. These are implements of creation symbolizing judgment and discernment. On the left side of the dog is a censer, or portable inkwell, with a pen holder attachment, items associated with knowledge, authority, and creativity in art. In the bottom right-hand corner by the nails, is a tool that has been interpreted as either the nozzle of a bellows or syringe. Above these and below the ledge upon which Melancholy sits, Dürer signed the work with his architecturally stylized AD monogram and the date, 1514. In the background, behind the dog, are further implements of creation–a brazier with a goldsmith’s crucible and a pair of tongs. A tall ladder leans against the side of the building. Nearby a nail supports a balance, another a half-full hourglass (at once a symbol of death and the passage of time, and, when turned over, of rebirth and new beginnings). A bell, also symbolic of beginnings and endings, hangs close by, its pull rope extending out of the frame. Both the ladder and building also continue out of the frame and also may symbolize the connection between heaven and earth, beginnings and endings. Beneath the bell a “magic square” is inscribed on the wall. This is a larger square subdivided into smaller ones. The smaller squares each contain a number so that each vertical, horizontal, and diagonal row adds up to the same total. Here, the rows add up to 34 which is one of the numbers associated with Jupiter in Western Occult Tradition. It signifies new beginnings, balance, and abundance as well as the optimism of planet Jupiter warding off the melancholy of Saturn. The darkness of Saturn as the furthest planet visible to the naked eye in our solar system links it to black in black bile and hence, melancholia. At the upper left of the engraving, a body of water can be seen in the distance. Barely visible between the rungs of the ladder are buildings on the shore. Above the water, light radiates from a comet, planet, or shooting star (there is no agreement) framed by a rainbow. Day and night seem to merge. A flying batlike creature with a long, undulating tail holds a banner labeled Melencolia I  announcing both the subject of the engraving and providing its name. De Occulta Philosophia, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (1533) Theodor de Bry, Portrait of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, (1486-1535), 1598 engraving. Wellcome Images, United Kingdom. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. It is believed that the explanation for the number “I” in the title comes from an influential 1533 treatise, called  De Occulta Philosophia, containing three volumes of occult philosophy, by Dürer’s contemporary, the German polymath and physician Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486-1535). Popular in Renaissance humanist circles, Agrippa classified melancholic inspiration into three ascending levels: imagination, reason, and intellect. He posited that creativity in the arts was the realm of the imagination, considered the first and lowest in the hierarchy of the three categories of genius. The next was the realm of reason and the highest the realm of spirit. Agrippa linked imagination to artistic genius, the first and lowest level, which may explain the brooding state of the central winged figure of Melancholy. Conclusion Little was written about Melencolia I until after Dürer’s death in 1528 at the age of 56. In 1568, the pioneering Italian art historian, painter, and architect Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) included Dürer in his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. Of Dürer, he wrote: Then, having grown both in power and courage, as he saw that his works were prized, Albrecht executed some copper engravings that astonished the world. He also set himself to making an engraving, for printing on a half sheet of paper, of a figure of Melancholy, with all the instruments that reduce those who use them, or rather, all mankind, to a melancholy humor; and in this he succeeded so well that it would not be possible to do more delicate engraving with the burin [the tool used for engraving]. Melencolia I touches on the themes of  the role of the artist as creator, the relationships among the physical, intellectual, and spiritual realm; the study of the natural world; mathematics; esoteric knowledge; and self-awareness. These were all humanist topics of interest to Dürer and his contemporaries. Since Dürer’s death, Melencolia I has become one of the most frequently discussed images in the history of art and a staple of Western art history courses. Yet, because of its dependence on historical and cultural context, the full meaning of Dürer’s engraving remains an enigma, making the exquisite details of the work difficult to explicate with certainty. A degree of irony attaches to the image as we do not know if Dürer rues or celebrates the muse–or both. In any case, Melencolia I rewards close observation.

By Emily Burkhart December 24, 2023 Marisol Escobar (1930-2016), Women and Dog, 1963-1964. Wood, plaster, synthetic polymer, and taxidermied dog head. 73 9/16 x 76 ⅝ x 26 ¾ in. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York. Image courtesy of the Whitney Museum of American Art. “I’ve always wanted to be free in my life and art. It’s as important to me as truth.” -Marisol Escobar The French born, Venezuelan-American multimedia artist Marisol Escobar (1930-2016), also known simply as Marisol, created her most iconic sculptural works in the late 1950s and 1960s, during the height of Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. Although her works are often associated with Pop Art, Marisol’s sculptures were distinct from the observations on mass media and culture put forth by Pop Art friends and peers such as Roy Lichenstein and Andy Warhol. Warhol called her “the first girl artist with glamor.” Using a combination of found objects, wood, and self-portraiture, Marisol’s sculptures satirized patriarchal society, commenting on feminine identity and alienation with wit and humor. In 1968, Marisol left the New York art scene at the height of her renown and traveled the world. She returned to New York again in 1973 ready for a change. She made a series of fish sculptures and designed sets and costumes for Martha Graham and Elisa Monte among others. She was recognized for her sculptural portraits of other artists as well as of historical figures. She addressed poverty and social injustice among other issues until age and illness took their toll. Although she never regained her earlier acclaim, renewed interest in her work in the 21st century has introduced Marisol to a new generation of admirers. Marisol Escobar circa 1963; Photo courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, and the World Telegram & Sun; Photo by Herman Hiller. Image courtesy of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC. Early Life Marisol Escobar was actually born María Sol Escobar to Venezuelan parents living in Paris, France, on May 22, 1930. She adopted the common Spanish nickname Marisol in her early teens. Her parents both came from wealthy families and lived off money from oil and real estate investment. This affluence enabled them to travel around Europe, the United States, and Venezuela. The Escobars moved back to their native Venezuela around 1935 and Marisol and her older brother  spent the rest of their childhood between New York and Caracas. Marisol displayed an aptitude for drawing from a young age. As patrons of the arts themselves, her parents encouraged her talent by taking her to museums and galleries. In 1941, when Marisol was eleven, her mother, Josefina, committed suicide. Her father, Gustavo Hernandez Escobar, responded by shipping Marisol off to boarding school in Long Island, New York, for a year. Deeply traumatized by the suicide, Marisol became almost mute after her mother’s passing. An intensely religious child, she coped with her mother’s death by walking on her knees until they bled, tying ropes tightly around her waist in emulation of saints and martyrs, and keeping silent for long periods unless spoken to or for answering questions in school. As she later recalled, “I really didn’t talk for years except for what was absolutely necessary.” Education Following her exit from the Long Island boarding school, Marisol attended various schools between New York and Caracas where she was often acclaimed for her artistic ability. The family settled in Los Angeles in 1946, when Marisol was sixteen. There she began her formal arts education with night classes at the Otis Art Institute and at the Jepson Art Institute. She briefly attended the Académie Julian and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1949 before moving to New York around 1950 where she took classes at the Art Students League (1951-1963), was a student of artist Hans Hofmann (1952-1955), attended the New School for Social Research (1952), and the Brooklyn Museum Art School (1955-1957) where she became interested in Mexican, Pre-Columbian, and American folk art. She never married or had children. By the late 1950s, when she was in her twenties, Marisol dropped her surname to divest herself of a patrilineal identity and to “stand out from the crowd,” she said. She believed the single moniker would help her become more memorable as an artist. Marisol Escobar poses in 1958 in New York with her tools and some of her wooden sculptures, including The Large Family Group (1957). Walter Sanders/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images. Image courtesy of The Boston Globe. Artistic Practice Marisol began her career as a painter and was strongly influenced by Abstract Expressionism, befriending artists such as Willem de Kooning, with whom she had an affair. Her practice combined folk art, dada, and surrealism, illustrating a keen insight into contemporary life. After seeing pre-Columbian art in Mexico while visiting her father and in a New York gallery show in the early 1950s, Marisol began making sculpture in 1954. Initially, she worked in terra-cotta and wood on a small scale using the lost-wax method of casting in bronze. Within a few years, she began focusing on life-size figures and mixed-media assemblages, combining wood with painting and found objects such as in 1957’s The Large Family Group. By 1961-1962, she was concentrating her work on three-dimensional wooden sculptural representations of society types often featuring self-portraiture using inspiration “found in photographs or gleaned from personal memories'' in works including Self-Portrait (1961-1962), The Family (1962), The Family (1963), Women and Dog (1963-1964), La visita (The Visit 1964) and The Party (1965-1966). Marisol explained, “In the beginning, I drew on a piece of wood because I was going to carve it, and then I noticed that I didn’t have to carve it, because it looked as if it was carved already.” Her first New York art exhibition was at the Stable Gallery in 1962. By 1966, Marisol’s work exclusively featured women with her own visage as subjects. Some Sculptural Works The Large Family Group (1957) Marisol Escobar (1930-2016), The Large Family Group, 1957. Painted wood, 37 x 38 x 6 1/2 in. National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC. Photo by Lee Stalsworth. Image courtesy of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The Large Family Group (1957), one of Marisol’s earliest works in wood, reflects the influence of pre-Columbian, American Folk Art, and Cubism on her practice. A family of five stands together with eye popping expressions. The young boy and one of the adults have arms outstretched seeming to invite viewers into their personal space. Formerly in the collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the National Museum of Women in the Arts acquired the piece in 2018. After creating The Large Family Group, Marisol left New York for Rome where she stayed for more than a year. Upon her return, she became associated with the Pop Art movement of the 1960s which enhanced her recognition and popularity. Her friendship with Andy Warhol was particularly fruitful as they were mutual admirers of each other. She made a sculptural portrait of him and appeared in two of his early Factory films, The Kiss (1963) and 13 Most Beautiful Girls (1964). Marisol Escobar (1930-2016), Andy, 1962-1963. Painted wood, plaster, and leather shoes. Dimensions unavailable. Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Image courtesy of Hyperallergic. Self-Portrait (1961-1962) Marisol Escobar (1930-2016), Self-Portrait, 1961-1962. Wood, plaster, marker, paint, graphite, human teeth, gold and plastic, 43 1/2 × 45 1/4 × 75 5/8 in. Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles. Image courtesy of the Hammer Museum. Marisol’s Self-Portrait (1961-1962), now in the Hammer Museum at UCLA, is an early assemblage piece. Seven strikingly carved heads mostly without necks are arranged across a rectangular block of wood. Two breasts and six bare legs protrude from the front of the piece. Though the work is identified as a self–portrait, only three of the heads bear a positive likeness to Marisol, who often included plaster casts of her own body parts in her work. The other four heads are defined by varying degrees of realism and caricature. Interestingly, Marisol only included two arms, which are drawn on the work rather than sculpted. One arm colored brown covers the heart of the head on the far left while the other is merely an outline on one of the figures, extending downward from a shoulder perhaps. Yellow and dark blue paint covers half the sculpture while the rest remains largely natural wood. Five of the legs are extended toward the viewer with the sixth bent at the knee. Of the six legs, five have bare feet that are plaster casts of Marisol’s own feet (though one is missing a toe) while the sixth leg wears a painted-on black shoe. The Family (1962) Marisol Escobar (1930-2016), The Family, 1962. Paint and graphite on wood, sneakers, tinted plaster, door knob and plate, three sections. The Museum of Modern Art, Manhattan, NY. Image courtesy of The Worley Gig. The Family (1962) is based on an old black and white photograph (below) of a family that Marisol found. As with her other work, the sculpture consists of blocks of wood combining painting and figurative drawing with found objects. Here, the objects include an old door and several pairs of well-worn shoes on the feet of the family members. Marisol has translated the print of the mother’s dress into color from the black and white photo interpreting it in a cheerful rose on beige, the son’s denim overalls become vivid blue, while the daughters’ light-colored dresses become cream. The baby wears a bright white shirt and pants. Unlike her four children, the mother has plaster hands. The family in the photo pose against a closely patterned background, a drape or wallpaper, that Marisol has exploded. Each of her family members are painted on individual wooden panels. With the exception of the baby, these are arrayed against a large French door thus individuating them even as the infant’s board is held by the mother. Additional wood creates the illusion of the legs of a chair that the mother is sitting upon. Although the family’s worn clothes and shoes indicate meager circumstances in the photo, Marisol suggests a bright outlook for them as she faithfully “translate[s] their dignity and charisma” into her ensemble. Image courtesy of The Worley Gig. The Family (1963) Marisol Escobar (1930-2016), The Family, 1963. Wood, metal, graphite, textiles, paint, shoes, plaster and baby carriage. 79 1/2 x 63 x 73 in. Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire. Image courtesy of Artnet News. In another piece also entitled The Family (1963), Marisol satirizes the ideal American family of the 1960s in a multi-figure, free-standing sculpture. A stylish mother pushes a pram wearing white gloves, pumps, and a blue polka dotted on orange painted wooden dress with breasts protruding. She smiles foolishly beneath a tall crowned, small brimmed hat pulled down over her eyes, thus blinding and distracting her from attending to the four children that surround her and literally boxing her in. She seems oblivious to both the daughters flanking her and to the children in the carriage. The standing young girls gaze straight ahead; the one in a red dress clutches a doll with Marisol’s face drawn on it. The father and husband, the male head of the household, stares directly at the viewer, wearing a tweed sports coat, white shirt, and red tie. He is flattened, encased within a wooden panel. He is the only figure not given three-dimensionality. He is attached to the wall which physically isolates him from the others. In 1963, the Museum of Modern Art in New York included several of Marisol’s sculptures in Americans, a group exhibition designed to highlight relatively unknown, but promising artists. Marisol was exhibited alongside such internationally recognized peers as Richard Anuszkiewicz, Lee Bontecou, Claes Oldenberg, and James Rosenquist. In 1970, Time magazine featured The Family on its cover to illustrate “The U.S. Family: Help!,” an article that lamented the demise of traditional family structures and shifting gender roles in contemporary America. Women and Dog (1963-1964) Marisol Escobar (1930-2016), Women and Dog, 1963-1964. Wood, plaster, synthetic polymer, and taxidermied dog head. 73 9/16 x 76 ⅝ x 26 ¾ in. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York. Image courtesy of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Marisol mimicked the role of femininity as a feminist tactic in her sculptural grouping Women and Dog, produced between 1963 and 1964. One of her most well-known works, Women and Dog depicts three fashionably dressed women and a young girl along with a wooden-bodied dog sporting a collar and an actual taxidermied canine head–a disconcerting and macabre detail.  Equal parts painting, collage, carving, and assemblage, Women and Dog reflects the fascination with everyday life that was fundamental to Pop Art. Two of the women are self-portraits containing multiple plaster casts of Marisol’s face while the middle figure has a small picture of Marisol glued onto it. The child is believed to be a self-portrait as well, suggesting a fluid inhabitation of different female roles and identities. Though the composition may be ambiguous, Marisol has presented the three women walking with the child and dog as objects on display, revealing her interest in social norms and conventions relating to women in society. La visita (The Visit 1964) Marisol Escobar (1930-2016), La visita (The Visit), 1964. Painted wood and diverse materials, 59 × 88 in. Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany. Photograph: Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln/Britta Schlier. Image courtesy of Frieze magazine. Another sculptural group also incorporating three women and a child, La visita (The Visit 1964) consists of three women seated on a red painted wooden sofa with a little girl on a matching ottoman sitting next to them innocently holding a painted apple. “Marisol” sits among them on the right, a plaster cast of her face and hands gives her away. She has draped the wooden representation of herself in her own coat, shoes, and handbag. A cowboy hat perches on the oversized head of the figure on the left. Its face is a photographic image of Marisol. A large wooden keg forms its torso and it wears only one shoe. Who the middle figure sporting a yellow hair bow, white shoes, and exposed plaster breasts may be is less clear. The child in the blue dress on the far right might also be another representation of Marisol. The incongruous figures sit primly in a row. They  are self-contained, do not touch or interact. The little girl holding the apple in offering is the only figure in the otherwise static composition who is at all animated. It is interesting to note that apart from the child, the women lack arms; yet, they all have hands that are plaster casts of Marisol’s own. The Party (1965-1966) Marisol Escobar (1930-2016), The Party, 1965-1966. Assemblage of fifteen freestanding, life-size figures and three wall panels, with painted wood and carved wood, mirrors, plastic, television set, clothes, shoes, glasses, and other accessories. Variable dimensions. Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio. Photograph by Steven Zucker. Image courtesy of Flickr. Another of Marisol’s most iconic works, The Party (1965-1966), also known as The Cocktail Party, made its public debut at the Sidney Janis Gallery in 1966. This assemblage comprises fifteen life-size figures composed of shallow wooden boxes, carved and painted surfaces, plaster casts, found objects and articles of Marisol’s own clothing all arranged in a tableaux. One figure sports a miniature television set for eyes. Thirteen appear to be guests and two waitstaff, as evidenced by the trays of wine glasses the latter hold. Apart from one man in a tuxedo, the figures are all women in Marisol’s likeness, the majority of which have either plaster casts or photographs of Marisol’s face. A sense of alienation and ennui pervades the scene.The figures seem indifferent to each other as Marisol has placed them mostly facing forward and apart. A single figure on the left surveys the scene, as though contemplating the self-absorption of the others. Marisol explained the repeated use of her own image in much of her early works in a 1989 interview with Paul Gardner of ARTnews: "I did a lot of self-portraits then [1960s] because it was a time of searching for one’s identity. I looked at my faces, all different in wood, and asked, Who am I?" In 1968, Marisol was invited to exhibit The Party at the 34th annual Venice Biennale representing Venezuela. It also appeared at the influential Documenta exhibition in West Germany. Alice Neel (1900-1984), Marisol, 1981. Oil on canvas, 39 3/4 x 25 7/8 in. Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu, Hawaii. Image courtesy of the Honolulu Museum of Art. Marisol reluctantly sat for an exquisite portrait by her friend the painter Alice Neel. Late Career and Death Marisol continued to make art, including paintings, prints, and works on paper in addition to sculpture until near the end of her life. She never again achieved the early renown that she had experienced in the late 1950s and 1960s. Career retrospectives in the 21st century, including a major show organized by the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in 2014 and at the Museo Del Barrio in New York City, which became her first solo show, revived interest in her work. She died in 2016 from complications of Alzheimer’s disease and pneumonia at the age of 85. A year after her death, it was announced that Marisol had bequeathed her entire estate to the Buffalo AKG Art Museum (formerly known as the Albert-Knox Art Gallery) in Buffalo, New York, which became the first museum to acquire works by Marisol—The Generals (1961–62) in 1962 and Baby Girl (1963) in 1964. In addition to the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, works by Marisol are in the permanent collections of the Pérez Art Museum Miami, the Yale University Art Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art,  the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Boston, and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Netherlands, among many others. In 2022, the Pérez Art Museum Miami presented an exhibition featuring Marisol and Andy Warhol’s work side by side. Entitled Marisol and Warhol Take New York, the exhibition explored the rising careers of both artists in the 1960s and their influence on each other with an accompanying catalog. The Buffalo AKG Art Museum organized the largest retrospective of Marisol’s work to date for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (October 7, 2023–January 21, 2024), the Toledo Museum of Art (March–June 2024), the Buffalo AKG Art Museum (July 12, 2024 - January 6, 2025), and the Dallas Museum of Art (February 23–July 6, 2025). Legacy Through a parody of women and fashion, Marisol attempted to provoke social change. The art historian Holly Williams asserts that Marisol’s sculptural works toyed with the prescribed social roles and restraints faced by women during the postwar period through her depiction of the complexities of femininity as a perceived truth. By displaying the essential aspects of femininity using an assemblage of plaster casts, wooden blocks, woodcarving, drawings, photography, paint, and pieces of contemporary clothing, Marisol was able to comment on the social construct of "woman" as an unstable entity, a female identity that was most commonly determined by the male onlooker, as either mother, seductress, or partner. By juxtaposing different signifiers of femininity, Marisol explained the ways in which "femininity" is culturally produced. Using a feminist technique, Marisol disrupted the patriarchal values of society through forms of mimicry, imitation, and exaggeration in her work.

by Emily Burkhart November 20, 2023 Millard H. Sharp, Adult Female Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), uploaded August 3, 2017. Photograph, dimensions unavailable. Image courtesy of Fine Art America. In honor of Thanksgiving, I thought it might be fun to look at a few pictures of turkeys and post some reflections on the holiday itself. I wish everyone a memorable Thanksgiving full of family, friends, and good food. 1. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the eons, it’s that you can’t give up on your family, no matter how tempting they make it.” -Rick Riordan Robert Havell (1792/1793-1878), Family of Turkeys, ca. 1835. Oil on canvas, 42 x 59 in. Natural History Museum, London, UK. Image courtesy of the Natural History Museum. 2. “Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not the mind.” -Lionel Hampton Hans Droog, Wild Turkey in Missouri Woods in the Fall, uploaded May 25, 2008. Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 in. Image courtesy of Fine Art America. 3. “Drink and be thankful to the host! What seems insignificant when you have it, is important when you need it.” -Franz Grillparzer Millard H. Sharp, Adult Female Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), uploaded August 3, 2017. Photograph, dimensions unavailable. Image courtesy of Fine Art America. 4. “Thanksgiving is a time of togetherness and gratitude.” -Nigel Hamilton Wilhelm Goebel, The Suitor-Wild Turkeys, uploaded March 12, 2020. Oil painting, dimensions unavailable. Image courtesy of Fine Art America. 5.”Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” -Marcel Proust Guy Crittenden, Big Poppy-Eastern Wild Turkey Gobbler, uploaded July 12, 2022. Oil painting, dimensions unavailable. Image courtesy of Fine Art America. 6. The Little Girl And The Turkey The little girl said As she asked for more: “But what is the Turkey Thankful for?” -Dorothy Aldis Amanda and Christopher Elwell, What’s Christmas?, uploaded October 19, 2012. Photograph, dimensions unavailable. Image courtesy of Fine Art America. Until next time, Happy Thanksgiving!

By Emily Burkhart October 27, 2023 Bharti Kher (b. 1969), The Skin Speaks A Language Not Its Own, 2006.Bindis on fiberglass, 55 ⅞ x 180 x 76 in. Image courtesy of MutualArt. “The bindis play with the visual aesthetic and conceptual ideas that I have been pushing for many years now: the bindi as an object of ritual (the sacred now turned secular), of conceptual clarity (as the third eye) and brazen habit.” -Bharti Kher Bharti Kher is one of India’s preeminent contemporary artists. Known especially for her sculptural work, Kher’s diverse oeuvre includes painting, installation, and photography as well. Central to her practice is the use of found materials but particularly the bindi, a traditional circular mark applied to the forehead between the eyes by Hindu women. Since 1995, when she discovered what can be described as pollywog or sperm-shaped bindis in a New Delhi marketplace, Kher has employed the bindi as an artistic medium in works such as I’ve seen an Elephant Fly (2002), It’s a Jungle Out There (2002), The Skin Speaks A Language Not Its Own (2006), and An Absence of Assignable Cause (2007). The bindi has become one of her signature materials and adorns, often by the thousands, many of her most recognizable works. Conventionally, Hindu women wear a red bindi to signify that they are married and a black bindi if widowed. Bindis also represent the “third eye” of spiritual wisdom or divine insight. In recent years, though, the bindi has lost religious and social significance among those who have adopted it for aesthetic purposes. Indeed, bindis have become such fashionable cosmetic accessories that they are now available in a wide variety of colors and shapes. Still, as Kher explains: The application of the bindi represents an unbroken ritual practiced daily by millions of Indian women and has been described by anthropologist Marcel Mauss as “techniques of the body,” which, like other physical disciplines such as consumption and eating, are repetitive and periodic. I take it all and run with the possibility of making image and idea look beautiful and the bindis make the works feel strangely human. Bharti Kher, photo by Jeetin Sharm © Hauser & Wirth. Image courtesy of The Bristol Magazine. Kher was raised in London, England, where she was born into a Hindu family in 1969. She studied at Middlesex Polytechnic, London, from 1987-1988 and then Newcastle Polytechnic from 1988-1991, graduating with honors and receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art and Painting in 1991. The following year, she traveled to India, moving to New Delhi in 1993 at the age of 23, where she continues to live and work. She is married to the Indian artist Subodh Gupta (b. 1964) with whom she shares two children. I've seen an Elephant Fly (2002) Bharti Kher (b. 1969), I’ve seen an Elephant Fly, 2002. Acrylic, felt, and vinyl bindis on fiberglass, 72 x 43 x 20 in. Image courtesy of Artnet . Bharti Kher, I’ve Seen an Elephant Fly, 2002 (detail). Image courtesy of Plural art mag. One of Kher’s earliest sculptural pieces, I’ve seen an Elephant Fly (2002), portrays an inquisitive young elephant, standing with its trunk nearly grazing the ground. Countless silvery-gray, sperm-shaped bindi comprise the elephant’s skin making the sculpture seem a living, breathing thing. Elephants in India hold deep cultural and spiritual significance. In fact, elephants are sacred symbols of peace, mental strength, and power. The Hindu god Ganesha, said to be a remover of obstacles and a provider of fortune and good luck, is envisioned with an elephant head and a human-like body. Thus, elephants are believed to be an incarnation or representation of Ganesha. Further, Indra, god of rain, thunder, and lightning, has a white elephant as a mount, establishing elephants as a symbol of divinity and royalty. Employing the bindi on this sculpture enhances the meaning of the elephant by not only suggesting tradition but India itself, its multitudes and, of course, both feminine and masculine strength. It's a Jungle Out There (2002) Bharti Kher (b. 1969), It’s a Jungle Out There, 2002. Bindis on fiberglass, 75 and 68 in. in height. Image courtesy of theArchives of Women Artists, Research, and Exhibitions. Kher’s sculptural work entitled It’s a Jungle Out There, also from 2002, consists of two tree-like structures, one slightly taller and more narrow, the other somewhat thicker with a large rounded top. The vegetal-like growths or “trees” in It’s a Jungle Out There are covered in bindis on a largely taupe or ashen surface with patches or swirls of red, white and yellow. It is difficult to know if the two growths are thriving or struggling to live. Or, as has been suggested elsewhere, they may portray the male and female principles of life. The work seems inscrutable. The word “jungle” certainly is a metaphor for situations that are unruly or lawless, or where the only law is perceived to be survival of the fittest. Since violence and death are frequent themes in Kher’s work, perhaps the red on the “trees” may be blood, an allusion to the ecological destruction wrought by humans on rainforests and wetlands in India and across the world. The Skin Speaks A Language Not Its Own (2006) Bharti Kher (b. 1969), The Skin Speaks A Language Not Its Own, 2006. Bindis on fiberglass, 55 ⅞ x 180 x 76¾ in. Image courtesy of MutualArt. Bharti Kher (b. 1969), The Skin Speaks A Language Not Its Own, 2006 (detail). Image courtesy of Bharti Kher. In contrast to the innocence of the calf in I’ve seen an Elephant Fly, The Skin Speaks A Language Not Its Own (2006) portrays an adult elephant lying on its side. There is an air of sadness to the work. We do not know for sure if the animal is exhausted, sickened, sleeping, or dying. Its skin is also composed of multitudes of hand-applied, silvery-gray, sperm-shaped bindis, but this elephant seems to represent the darker side of the treatment of elephants in India, “the birthplace of taming elephants for the use of humans.” Captive elephants are often mistreated, stolen from their families, beaten [and] whipped into compliance to be employed in Hindu temples, religious festivals, pageants, or worked for other purposes. According to the BBC, India holds more than 4,000 elephants in captivity where they are apt to be subjected to physical abuse, fed a poor diet, and shackled to stone floors. Kher’s The Skin Speaks A Language Not Its Own may represent the suffering of India’s captive elephants. It has also been suggested that the elephant symbolizes India and, much like the dilution of meaning of the bindi itself, it represents “the potentially destructive effects of popular culture, mass media and consumerism on the culture of India.” Whatever meaning ascribed to The Skin Speaks A Language Not Its Own, it has the distinction of being the work that made Kher an internationally recognized artist. In 2013, it sold for $1,785,000 at Christie’s New York, setting an auction record price for a contemporary Indian work. An Absence of Assignable Cause (2007) Bharti Kher (b. 1969), An Absence of Assignable Cause, 2007. Bindis on fiberglass, 68¼ x 109¼ x 45¾ in. Image courtesy of Nature Morte Gallery, India. Bharti Kher (b. 1969), An Absence of Assignable Cause, 2007. Saatchi Gallery, London, 2010. Image courtesy of Flickr. In 2010, a major contemporary art exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London called The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today featured Kher’s work. Her massive fiberglass sculpture, An Absence of Assignable Cause (2007), was one of the pieces exhibited. Unable to find anatomically correct information, Kher nevertheless depicts the imagined, life-sized appearance of the two-chambered heart of a blue-sperm whale. The surface of this sculpture is once again composed of bindis complete with undulating green and red circular bindis arranged to form blood vessels, veins and arteries. One of Kher’s inspirations is the macabre with which she combines traditional beauty while alluding to the endangered extinction status of the whale or of India, a country the size of a whale. Exhibitions And Accolades Bharti Kher has been exhibited in solo shows worldwide, including the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston; the Freud Museum, London; the Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada; and the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Perth, Australia. Her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions as well. Considered “one of the superstars of Indian Contemporary Art” Kher was the subject of a mid-career retrospective at the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, China, in 2014. She was awarded the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) by France in 2015 and the ARKEN Prize by Denmark in 2010. In India, she was named YFLO (Young Ficci Ladies Organization) Delhi Woman Achiever of the Year in 2007, and awarded the prestigious Sanskriti Award in Art in 2003. Kher is represented by Hauser & Wirth in New York and London and by Nature Morte in New Delhi. Photo of Bharti Kher working. Image courtesy of Archives of Women Artists, Research, and Exhibitions. If you enjoyed this article on Bharti Kher, please like and share it. To learn more about Kher’s work, visit her website here.

By Emily Burkhart September 26, 2023 Pacita Abad (1946-2004), L.A. Liberty, 1992. Acrylic, cotton yarn, plastic buttons, mirrors, gold thread, painted cloth on stitched and padded canvas, 94 x 58 in. Photo: Max McClure. Image courtesy of Artforum. I truly believe that, as an artist, I have a social responsibility for my painting, to try to make our world a little better. -Pacita Abad The work of Filipina-American artist Pacita Abad (1946-2004) combines a global sensibility with multicultural sensitivity. A political refugee who fled the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos as a college student in 1970, Abad was acutely aware of the plight of marginalized people, immigrants, and indigenous communities around the world. She herself was of Ivatan heritage, one of numerous, diverse ethnicities in the Philippines, a kayumanggi (Tagalog for brown-skinned), a deep caramel woman of color. Together with her husband Jack Garrity, an international development economist for the World Bank, Abad traveled the globe, learning about the art forms of the various peoples and cultures she encountered which she then incorporated into her own work. Indeed, she absorbed a diverse array of influences as she lived on five continents and visited more than 60 countries in her lifetime, including Mexico, Guatemala, India, Turkey, Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan, Cambodia, Laos, Mali, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia. Abad’s painting is characterized by constant change, experimentation, and development from the 1970s right up until her death in 2004. Though she began her career as an oil painter and social realist, she is best known for the trapuntos she began creating in the 1980s, the large-scale textile paintings on unstretched canvas that she stitched and stuffed by hand to create soft fabric reliefs. She would often intricately embellish these surfaces with pieces of lace, ribbons, buttons, patterned cloth, sequins, beads, cowrie shells, and other objects producing fantastically colored and textured compositions. Pacita Abad posing with her 1996 trapunto painting, Day and Night. Image courtesy of the Archives of Women Artists, Research, and Exhibitions. Early Life in the Philippines Pacita Abad was born on October 5, 1946, in Basco, Batanes, a remote island in the South China Sea and the northernmost province of the Philippine archipelago. She was the fifth of thirteen children born to her parents Aurora Barsana Abad and Jorge Abad. Her father and other family members were involved in the Philippine resistance against the Japanese occupation of Batanes during World War II until the island’s liberation in 1945. After the Philippines attained formal independence from the United States on July 4, 1946, her father was elected as the congressman from Batanes. The family moved to Manila, the nation’s capital, from their home in Basco at the end of his first term. She attended elementary through high school in Manila, returning to Batanes every two years for her father’s re-election campaigns. In 1962, when Jorge was appointed Minister of Public Works and Communications by then President Diosdado Macapagal (1910-1997), her mother, Aurora, temporarily became the congresswoman representing Batanes and later governor of the province. Education and Political Unrest in Manila Abad entered the University of the Philippines (U.P.) in 1964 with plans to become a lawyer and go into politics and a life of public service. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science in 1968 and began graduate studies in law at U.P. in 1969 while working on her father’s congressional re-election campaign. Unfortunately, Jorge became the victim of election fraud perpetrated by the corrupt President Ferdinand Marcos (1917-1989). After organizing student demonstrations in Manila protesting the fraudulent elections in Batanes, and opposing the Marcos regime, Abad’s family was targeted and their home in Manila was sprayed with bullets. Concerned about increasing political violence and their daughter’s personal safety, Abad’s parents urged her to leave Manila and finish her law degree in Madrid, Spain. Arrival in San Francisco On her way to Spain in 1970, Abad stopped in San Francisco to visit an aunt who exposed her to the city’s vibrant counterculture. Abad then changed course and decided to remain in the United States for a time. While waiting to continue her law degree, she enrolled at Lone Mountain College, now part of the University of San Francisco, in 1971 where she studied Asian History, writing her dissertation on “Emilio Aguinaldo and the 1898 American Colonization of the Philippines,” and earning a Master’s Degree in 1972. At the same time, she became involved in Asian American political and cultural activities in the Bay Area and met her first husband, the painter George Kleiman (b. 1946) who introduced her to painting and the San Francisco art scene. Though they divorced only two years afterward, Abad met artists, musicians, and other freethinkers through Kleiman while living in an artist studio in the midst of Haight-Ashbury, the countercultural center of San Francisco, that influenced her later decision to pursue art. Jack Garrity pictured on his LinkedIn page. Image courtesy of Heavy. Meeting Jack Garrity and International Travels In 1973, after finishing her Asian History degree, Abad was offered a full scholarship to attend Boalt Law School at the University of California, Berkeley. That same year, while attending a regional World Affairs Conference in Monterrey, California, she met her future second husband Jack Garrity, a Stanford University graduate student from Boston, who would support her artistic career over their 31-year marriage. Deciding to defer law school for a year, she traveled across Asia with Garrity, hitchhiking overland from Turkey to the Philippines, passing through Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Taiwan and Hong Kong. In 1974, Abad returned home to the Philippines four years after leaving and decided to explore her native country. For two months she and Garrity traveled by bus and boat throughout the Philippine islands. These experiences fostered a lifelong admiration of traditional textiles, which Abad collected, wore, and incorporated into her artwork over the course of her life. Transition to Art and Early Works Upon her return to California in 1975, Abad decided to forgo law school altogether and to study painting. She enrolled at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. later that year, where she concentrated on still life and figurative drawing. Her early paintings were primarily socio-political works of people and primitive masks. Social Realist oil paintings based on her global travels include Turkana Women (1979), Water of Life (1980) and Breastfeeding Mother (1981). Turkana Women (1979) Pacita Abad (1946-2004), Turkana Women, 1979. Oil on canvas, 49 x 35 in. Image Courtesy of Pacita Abad.com. One of Abad’s earliest paintings, Turkana Women (1979) portrays two women belonging to the pastoral Turkana tribe of South Sudan wearing traditional beaded neck cuffs as a herd of horses grazes in the background. The dark-skinned, bare-breasted women stand with hands on hips, appearing to be in conversation with each other. Water of Life (1980) Pacita Abad (1946-2004), Water of Life, 1980. Oil on canvas, 35 x 50 in. Image courtesy of Pacita Abad.com. Another early work, Water of Life (1980), depicts a somber scene in Cambodia. A Kampuchean woman with three children is pictured in front of a makeshift shelter at a UN refugee camp for survivors of the Cambodian Civil War (1967-1975) and genocide (1975-1979). The mother supports the head of her youngest son as he drinks from a bowl while the other two wait. Speaking about Water of Life, Abad commented: As the UNHCR [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] water trucks approach the camp, the Kampuchean children rush to fill their plastic pails with water. I was particularly touched, when at the corner, I saw this woman giving her son a drink from a bowl of water, while her other two sons anxiously waited their turn. In addition to its more urgent theme, Water of Life shows more technical skill and a more sophisticated handling of color than Turkana Women (1979). Breast-Feeding Mother (1981) Pacita Abad (1946-2004), Breast-Feeding Mother, 1981. Oil on canvas, 36 x 32 in. Image courtesy of Pacita Abad.com. Breast-feeding Mother (1981) portrays a natural, intimate moment between a mother and child. A woman is seated in a black wicker chair nursing a baby against a mottled green background. According to Abad, the woman is a single mother from the Dominican Republic, where “divorce is not practiced and birth control is not a common practice” so “many mothers are left by their men without financial and child support.” With her hair in colorful curlers and wearing dangling earrings, the woman appears as though she were interrupted by the baby while dressing. She gazes into the distance, her bra half removed as the infant nurses at her uncovered breast. Photo of Pacita Abad with one of the paintings from her trapunto Masks and Spirits series, n.d. Image courtesy of the Walker Art Center and Colossal. Trapunto Paintings Around 1980, Abad invented her signature hand-stitched trapunto painting style while living in Boston and painting with the artists Maria Fang, Barbara Newman, and Joana Kao. Adapting techniques from Newman’s puppet-making, Abad developed a trapunto painting style, after an Italian technique of stitching and stuffing fabric to give a three-dimensional sculptural effect to textiles. Trapunto comes from the Italian word “to quilt.” It is a method of quilting that is also called “stuffed technique.” Abad employed the method on canvas. Trapunto exhibition view at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila, Philippines, 2018. Image courtesy of Walker Art Center and Colossal. African Mephisto (1981) In 1981, Abad created her earliest known trapunto work named African Mephisto, which inaugurated her “Masks and Spirits” series (1981-2001), a group of works focusing on Indigenous masking traditions. Made following two stays in Sudan in 1979 and 1980, African Mephisto is based on a portrait of a Dinka man Abad painted while there. Decorative markings and symbols cover a pinched, ghostly white painted face. The mantle the figure wears consists of semicircular bands of brightly colored and patterned cloth, some of which Abad acquired in Sudan, others she painted inspired by woven baskets she saw in Omdurman [a city in Sudan] that constitute the cape he wears. The work’s title, African Mephisto, refers in part to István Szabó’s award-winning 1981 film, Mephisto, about an actor in Nazi Germany who sells his soul to the regime in return for success and acclaim. Pacita Abad (1946-2004), African Mephisto, 1981. Acrylic, rickrack ribbons, tie-dyed cloth, and painted cloth on stitched and padded canvas, 106 x 71 in. Image courtesy of Artforum. Marcos and His Cronies (1985) Another key work from Abad’s Masks and Spirits series is 1985’s Marcos and His Cronies, an over sixteen-foot-tall trapunto that parodies the Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. It is one of Abad’s rare explicitly political works. Originally called The Medicine Man, the tapestry-like painting was inspired by a wooden Sinhalese Sanni exorcism mask Abad saw in Sri Lanka when traveling on the back roads down the mountains from Kandy to Galle in 1984. She noticed the mask hanging outside the home of a traditional medicine man in a rural area of the country and created the monumental work after her return to Manila while Ferdinand Marcos was still president of the Philippines. Abad did not officially change the name of this trapunto to “Marcos and His Cronies” until after she left the country in January 1986, just before Marcos was deposed. Against a patchwork background encrusted with tiny colored buttons signifying the multitudes of people he oppressed, the central figure of Marcos appears as a reptilian, disease-ridden red and green demon surrounded by writhing ringed snakes and beaded cobras with tiny figures representing the many people he destroyed dangling from between his teeth and clenched in his fists. He is flanked by eighteen of his political cronies, most denoted by smaller masks adorned with gleaming fangs. Marcos stands atop the clownish head of his wife Imelda, whose toothy grin Abad studded with rhinestones in homage to her penchant for extravagance and ostentation. Pacita Abad (1946-2004), Marcos and His Cronies, 1985. Acrylic, oil, textile collage, mirrors, shells, buttons, glass beads, gold thread and padded cloth on stitched and padded cloth, 197 x 115 in. Singapore Art Museum, Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore. Image courtesy of Artsy. Masks from Six Continents (1990-1992) Pacita Abad (1946-2004), Masks from Six Continents, 1990-1992. Washington, DC Metro Center. Image courtesy of Tate Gallery, London. In 1990, Abad was awarded a major commission to show her work at the Metro Center in Washington, DC for a three-year installation. She exhibited six monumental trapunto paintings she called Masks from Six Continents as each work represented a different continent. The installation included a version of Abad’s European Mask (1990), which is in the permanent collection of the Tate Gallery in London. Pacita Abad (1946-2004), European Mask, 1990. Acrylic paint, silkscreen and thread on canvas, 187 x 252 in. Image courtesy of Tate Gallery, London. The titles of the masks reference the cultures that inspired their shapes, patterns and techniques from Abad’s globe-trotting journeys. Africa is Kongo Mask, North America is Hopi Mask, and South America is Mayan Mask. Of the six masks, European Mask is the only one that is generically titled with the continent's name. According to Abad, each mask reflected “all the different people I see on the train.” L.A. Liberty (1992) Pacita Abad (1946-2004), L.A. Liberty, 1992. Acrylic, cotton yarn, plastic buttons, mirrors, gold thread, painted cloth on stitched and padded canvas, 94 x 58 in. Photo: Max McClure. Courtesy Pacita Abad Estate. Image courtesy of Artforum. L.A. Liberty (1992) from Abad’s series entitled Immigrant Experience (1990-1995) resulted from a visit to New York’s Ellis Island where she saw that the narrative of immigration being mythologized largely celebrates the experience of white Europeans arriving in the the first half of the twentieth century, excluding later immigrants of color like herself. Countering this historical erasure, Abad recast Lady Liberty as “an international woman of color,” a phrase coined by artist Faith Ringgold in a 2003 essay describing the piece. Liberty’s facial features are based on those of a friend of Abad’s. Like Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s original Neoclassical statue, she wears a Grecian robe, spiked crown, and holds a torch and tablet in her hands. However, the robe, torch, and tablet of L.A. Liberty are vividly patterned. Coupled with her mahogany complexion, dark hair and bangs, and the red and yellow earring observed hanging from one ear, this Liberty speaks of different traditions. Echoing the rays on her crown, rays of intense color radiate behind her like refracted sunlight, picking up the colors of her robe. Some scholars have suggested that the “L.A.” in the title might stand for “Latin America,” symbolizing the thousands of Asian and Latin American immigrants who have entered the United States through its Western and Southern borders and not Ellis Island. Abad herself became a U.S. citizen in 1994 having first arrived to visit in the U.S. in 1970 through San Francisco. Final Work and Death Ten years later, in 2004, at the age of 58, Abad’s life was tragically cut short following a long battle with lung cancer. Nethertheless, Abad’s rich artistic legacy spanned thirty-two years. She creat[ed] more than 4,500 artworks as well as public art installations and paint[ed] the Alkaff Bridge, (built in 1997), a 55-meter steel bridge in Singapore with 2,350 circles. This colorful pedestrian bridge symbolizing the friendship between Singapore and the Philippines was completed just months before her death. Pacita Abad (1946-2004), Alkaff Bridge at Robertson Quay, Singapore. Photo by Hanidah Amin. Image courtesy of Channel News Asia. Ribbon cutting at the launch of the newly repainted Alkaff Bridge at Robertson Quay on July 12, 2019. Image courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Singapore. Legacy and Google Doodle In her lifetime, Abad was the subject of over 40 solo exhibitions at museums and galleries in the U.S., Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America and participated in more than 50 group and traveling exhibitions. In 2020, her memory was honored with a Google Doodle, and from April 15–September 3, 2023, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis mounted the first comprehensive retrospective of Abad’s work to date featuring over 100 works, many never before displayed in the U.S. Entitled simply Pacita Abad, it was organized by the Walker in collaboration with the Pacita Abad Art Estate and curated by Victoria Sung. Her work is in public, private, and corporate art collections in over 70 countries. Interest in this artist, a petite, once overlooked woman of color, deservedly grows as both the Dallas Museum of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art recently acquired major works. 2020 Google Doodle honoring Pacita Abad. Image courtesy of ARTnews. For more information on Pacita Abad and her art, visit pacitaabad.com.

By Emily Burkhart August 28, 2023 Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979), Prismes électriques (Electric Prisms), 1914. Oil on canvas, 250 x 250 cm. Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris. Image courtesy of Artsy. Color is the skin of the world -Sonia Delaunay A multidisciplinary artist with a diverse career Sonia Delauay (1885-1979) was a painter, but also a textile, fashion and costume designer. She illustrated books, made quilts, curtains, lampshades, and clothing. She revolutionized haute couture by merging art with fashion in the 1910s and 1920s. She explored color and form in her work, devoting herself to Orphism, an art movement founded by her husband, Robert Delaunay (1885-1941). Tall with cropped hair, Delauney herself epitomized the 1920s New Woman with her avant-garde clothing designs and collaborations with textile companies, poets, playwrights, film directors and celebrities. The colorful geometric patterns and abstract shapes in her paintings were echoed in the wearable art she created and carried over into car and textile design. Childhood and Education (1885-1904) Anonymous portrait photograph of Sonia Delaunay (cropped), ca. 1912. Image courtesy of Wikimedia. Sonia Delaunay was born Sarah Élievna Stern on November 14, 1885, in the village of Gradizhsk near Odessa, Russian Empire (now Odesa, Ukraine), to impoverished Jewish parents, Elias and Hannah Stern. Little is known about Delaunay’s early childhood but she was the youngest of three children, and sent in 1890 at the age of five to live with her maternal uncle, Henri Terk, a wealthy lawyer in St. Petersburg, and his wife Anna. Although her mother never allowed a legal adoption, Sonia thought of the Terks as her family and took the name Sofia Terk, using “Sonia” as a nickname. She never returned to her parents. Delaunay enjoyed a privileged upbringing in St. Petersburg. The Terks introduced her to music, literature, and art. The family traveled throughout Europe visiting museums and galleries and spent summers in Finland. She learned several foreign languages and developed an interest in drawing. At sixteen, while attending a prestigious secondary school in St. Petersburg, an art teacher noticed Delaunay's talent and encouraged her aunt and uncle to send her to Germany for further training. In 1903, at the age of eighteen, she moved to Germany to study at the Karlsruhe Academy of Fine Arts under Ludwig Schmidt-Reutler (1863–1909). Delaunay remained in Germany until 1905, then moved to Paris. She maintained contact with Germany, however, exhibiting at the Galerie Der Sturm in Berlin in 1913, 1920 and 1921. Paris and Early Works (1905-1910) In Paris, Delaunay studied at the Académie de La Palette in Montparnasse, a private art school, where she attended classes and learned printmaking from Rudolf Grossman (1889–1941). Active between 1888 and 1914, the Académie de La Palette promoted“conciliation entre la liberté et le respect de la tradition” (reconciliation between freedom and respect for tradition) in painting. Unhappy with this mode of teaching, Delaunay spent more time in museums and attending art exhibitions around Paris where she believed she got a better education than at the Académie. Her early paintings were influenced by the Post-Impressionist and Fauvist art she saw, including that of Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and of Henri Rousseau, who became a close friend. She also borrowed the expressive use of color from the Fauve painters Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and André Derain (1880-1954). Some of her notable works during this period are Philomene (1907), Sleeping Girl (1907), and Yellow Nude (1908). Philomene (1907) Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979), Philomene, 1907. Oil on canvas, 41.3 x 33.4 cm. Centre Pompidou, Paris. Image courtesy of Art Blart. One of Delaunay’s earliest Fauve-inspired paintings, Philomene (1907), portrays an unknown woman against a floral background. Delaunay has placed “Philomene” against yellow wallpaper with red and blue flowers. The girl wears a modest, high-necked red blouse, her black skirt matching the color of her hair. She has wide green eyes lined with orange. Her cheekbones and nose are dabbed with orange also. She has arched, black eyebrows and a small mouth with thin pink lips. Seated in three-quarter view, Philomene stares into the distance, her arms crossed on her lap. The bold use of color and the combination of yellow, green, orange, red, blue and pink paint all composing her complexion and hands are reminiscent of Matisse.The bold outlines remind one of the Post-Impressionist cloissonné technique of Paul Gauguin’s (1848-1903) Symbolist works such as The Yellow Christ (1889). Sleeping Girl (1907) Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979), Sleeping Girl, 1907. Oil on canvas, 46 x 55 cm. Centre Pompidou, Paris. Image courtesy of Art Blart. Another work from 1907, Sleeping Girl, depicts a young woman asleep on a yellow-green couch. Delaunay emphasizes the girl’s relaxed facial features in repose. Compared to Philomene, Sleeping Girl utilizes a softer palette in a closely cropped composition focusing on the girl’s relaxed face, her head resting on her right arm. The yellow pendant necklace dangling from her neck matches the yellow-green of the couch. The girl’s brown hair is tinged with yellow as well as with the navy blue of her sweater. Delaunay’s expressionistic use of pink and blue paint to highlight and shade the girl’s cheekbones, nose, lips, ear, and hand seem inspired by Derain. Yellow Nude (1908) Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979), Yellow Nude, 1908. Oil on canvas, 98 x 65 cm. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, Nantes. Image courtesy of Artsy. In 1908, Delaunay painted Yellow Nude, her most iconic early work, merging the wild colors of Matisse and the Post-Impressionist brushwork of Gauguin. A woman wearing nothing but black stockings lies atop a floral print pillow against a flat chevroned background. Her closed legs are cropped from the portrait below the knee. Delaunay’s exuberant yellow, blue, green, orange and purple tones rival the bright color scheme of Philomene. The blue-green outlines around the vivid yellow of the woman’s body accentuate her skin’s glow. Contrary to avant-garde depictions of reclining nudes by male artists, Delaunay’s nude is not sexualized, though a large abdomen suggests she may be pregnant. Her eyes are shadowed yet there is a look of indifference on her face. There is but a slight hint of breast, a suggestion of nipple, and an obscured pubic region. Aside from the belly, she has an almost boyish figure that nearly bursts from the frame. Marriage and Meeting Robert Delaunay During her first year in Paris, Delaunay met the German art dealer and collector Wilhelm Uhde (1874-1947), with whom she entered into a marriage of convenience on December 5, 1908. This allowed her access to her dowry and gave Uhde cover for his homosexuality. Through her marriage, she also gained entrance into the Parisian art world and had her first solo exhibition at Uhde's gallery, the Galerie Notre-Dame des Champs, in Montparnasse, where she met many leading painters of the time including Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Georges Braque (1882-1963), and Maurice de Vlaminck (1876-1958). In early 1909, Delaunay, nee Sonia Terk Uhde, met the Neo-Impressionist and Divisionist painter Robert Delaunay (1885-1941). He and his mother, Berthe, the Comtesse de Rose, were regular visitors to her husband’s gallery. By 1910, Delaunay and Robert had become lovers and Delaunay found herself pregnant. She and Uhde divorced by mutual agreement and Delaunay married Robert later that fall. Their only child, Charles (1911-1988) was born on January 18, 1911. About her new husband, Delaunay said: "In Robert Delaunay I found a poet. A poet who wrote not with words but with colors". Some thirty years later, Robert died of cancer on October 25, 1941, at the age of 56. Simultanéisme (1911-1913) Along with Robert, Delaunay explored the possibilities of color in paintings influenced by the theories of the French chemist Michel-Eugène Chevreul (1786–1889), who pioneered the concept of simultaneous contrast, defining it as the tendency for a color to appear to shift toward the complementary of its neighbor, both in terms of hue and darkness. They called their experiments in color and design simultanéisme (Simultaneism, from the Latin simul, meaning together), derived from the theories of Chevreul whose book on color theory, De la loi du contraste simultanée des couleurs (On the Law of the Simultaneous Contrast of Colours), had been published in 1839. In his book, Chevreul identified the phenomenon of colors looking different depending on the colors around them. The Delaunays defined Simultaneism as the reflection of the motion of color in light. Quilt cover, 1911 Delaunay’s transition from perspective and naturalism in her art to geometric shapes and abstraction is dated by contemporary art critics to a patchwork quilt she made for her son’s crib in 1911. Now in the collection of the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris, the blanket was created spontaneously using geometry and color. Speaking about the quilt, Delaunay stated: About 1911 I had the idea of making for my son, who had just been born, a blanket composed of bits of fabric like those I had seen in the houses of Ukrainian peasants.When it was finished, the arrangement of the pieces of material seemed to me to evoke cubist conceptions and we then tried to apply the same process to other objects and paintings. Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979), Quilt cover, 1911. Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris. Image courtesy of Art Blart. In addition to the quilt for baby Charles, Delaunay’s interest in simultaneous contrast spread to collage, as well as book bindings, small painted boxes, cushions, waistcoats and lampshades. She wanted her art to be a way of life. She also invented in 1913 what she called the “simultaneous” dress (la robe silmultanée), a mix of squares and triangles of taffeta, tulle, flannelette, moiré, and corded silk. Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979), Simultaneous Dress (La Robe Simultanée), 1913. Image courtesy of Minniemuse. Unknown photographer, Sonia Delaunay in Simultaneous Dress, ca. 1913. Image courtesy of ArtBlart. Casa Sonia (1917-1929) During World War I and the 1920s, Delaunay went on to create more of these dresses, establishing her own fashion house in Madrid in 1918 called Casa Sonia that married art with fashion. The 1925 painting Robes simultanées (trois femmes, formes, couleurs) or Simultaneous Dress (Three Women, Forms, Colours) depicts three mannequins in front of a patterned changing screen. Founded in partnership with the French manufacturer Jacques Haim, Delaunay created costumes for plays and film, private commissions for celebrities such as the actress Gloria Swanson, men’s waistcoats, driving caps, coats and bathing suits. Unfortunately, the onset of the Great Depression forced her to close the business in 1929. In the 1930s-1950s, she ventured into textile and interior design, including drapery and carpets, with the Holland-based department store Metz & Co. Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979), Robes simultanées (trois femmes, formes, couleurs) Simultaneous Dress (Three Women, Forms, Colours), 1925. Oil on canvas, 146 x 114 cm. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain. Image courtesy of Minniemuse. Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979). Coat made for Gloria Swanson, 1924. Image courtesy of Minniemuse. Two models wearing fur coats designed by Sonia Delaunay and manufactured by Jacques Heim, with the car painted after one of Sonia Delaunay’s fabrics, in front of the Pavillon du Tourisme designed by Mallet-Stevens, International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts, Paris 1925. Bibliothèque nationale de France. Image courtesy of Phaidon. Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979), Beachwear Designs, 1928. Image courtesy of Minniemuse. Orphism (1911-1914) In 1913, the poet and art critic Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918), a friend of the Delaunays, coined the term Orphism to describe their new post-Cubist painting style after the Greek god Orpheus who was known for his musical talents. Blending the French philosopher Henri Bergson’s (1859-1941) theory of creative evolution with experiments in symbolism and abstraction, Orphism is distinguished by faceted compositions, vibrant color, and contemporary subject matter that conveyed delight in modern life and its technological innovations. Unlike Pointillism, in which primary color dots placed next to each other are "mixed" by the eye and affect each other, Orphism was an offshoot of Cubism but with a new emphasis on color and the idea that painting should be kinetic, like music. Le Bal Bullier (1913) Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979), Le Bal Bullier, 1913. Oil paint on mattress ticking, 3.9 m wide. The Centre Pompidou, Paris. Image courtesy of Khan Academy. Among Delaunay’s first paintings in the Orphist style were several versions of a work entitled Le Bal Bullier (1913). The versions are nearly identical depictions of a Parisian dance hall that she frequented with her husband. The largest of these panoramic paintings measures over twelve and a half feet in length. It portrays abstracted couples dancing and twirling under circular lights who seem to blend in with the shapes around them. The emphasis is on the juxtaposition of blocks of bold color and contrast between light and dark. A sense of movement is created through the swirling pattern of paint. Prismes électriques (Electric Prisms), 1914 Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979), Prismes électriques (Electric Prisms), 1914. Oil on canvas, 250 x 250 cm. Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris. Image courtesy of Artsy. Electric Prisms (1914), another defining work from Delaunay’s Orphist period, is both a celebration of color and modern life. Inspired by the freshly installed electric lamplights on the boulevard Saint-Michel in Paris, a new invention at the time, the over eight foot square canvas consists of several overlapping circles within which other circles increase in size from the center outwards, as though casting beams of light. Delaunay has divided the upper portion of the canvas into quadrants of primary and secondary colors with lines that intersect in the middle, where they darken in tone. Small squares of paint are interspersed in between the circular forms; interlocking rectangles, ovals, and arches of color populate the canvas. Unlike Bal Bullier,Electric Prisms is a purely abstract work except for a small stack of books inserted on the left side that includes a collection of modern poetry by Delaunay’s friend Blaise Cendrars (1887-1961). The Simultaneous Book: La prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France (Prose of the Trans-Siberian and of Little Joan of France), 1913 Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979), Last section of La Prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France (Prose of the Trans-Siberian and of Little Jehanne of France),1913. Illustrated book with pochoir and hand-painted parchment wrapper. 196.9 x 35.6 cm unfolded, 18.4 x 10.5 x 1.6 cm closed. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image courtesy of The Art Story. Apollinaire introduced Delaunay to the Swiss-born modernist poet and novelist Blaise Cendrars, the pen name of Frédéric-Louis Sauser, who became her friend and collaborator. She famously illustrated Cendrars’ 1913 poem La Prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France (Prose of the Trans-Siberian and of Little Jehanne of France) which narrated the poet’s fictional 1905 journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway with “Little Jehanne,” a French prostitute, whose name is an allusion to Joan of Arc, the patron saint of France. In the poem, the poet and Jehanne travel from Moscow to Siberia, China, the North Pole, and finally to Paris, as suggested by the Eiffel tower motif–a famous symbol of modernity at the time–at the bottom left. Delaunay and Cendars called this merging of text with design “the first simultaneous book.” They believed that they were connecting the work’s visual impact to the thrilling simultaneity of modern life–the fast-paced, consciousness-altering dynamism brought about by innovations in transportation and communication. Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979), La Prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France (Prose of the Trans-Siberian and of Little Jehanne of France),1913. Illustrated book with pochoir and hand-painted parchment wrapper. Image courtesy of WikiArt. Unlike the traditional book format that is read sequentially from page to page, this book is printed to unfold accordion-style to a nearly seven-foot long length on which text and illustration can be noted at once. When folded, the illustrated poem tucks into a parchment cover each hand-painted by Delaunay. The planned print run of 150 copies was purposefully meant to reach 300 feet high (if all copies are connected end-to-end)–the height of the Eiffel Tower. However, only about 60 copies were ever printed despite the sensation it caused in the art world. The simultaneous book was featured at Berlin’s 1913 Autumn Salon. Cendrars described the book as “a sad poem printed on sunlight.” Legacy Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979), Rythme Colore (Coloured Rhythm), 1968. Oil on canvas, 49 x 53 cm. Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany. Image courtesy of The Art Story. According to Artsy, “Sonia Delaunay’s innovative explorations of color and form were integral to the development of abstract art in the early 20th century.” Still a working artist into her eighties and nineties, one painting of note from Delaunay’s late career is Rythme Colore (Coloured Rhythm, 1968), painted when she was eighty-three. An Orphist piece, Coloured Rhythm borrows its circular theme from 1914’s Electric Prisms, infusing it with an overlapping pattern of squares and rectangles. Delaunay’s paint application varies from heavy to thick and light to dark, with brush strokes visible in some of the squares and rectangles. In the work, blue, red, green, and purple shades predominate with black, white, yellow, gray and tan accents that vary in hue and intensity. The overall effect is an exploration of color, geometry, and movement. Sonia Delaunay died on December 5, 1979, in Paris at the age of 94. She was buried in Gambais, France, next to her husband Robert. If you enjoyed today’s post on Sonia Delaunay, please share it.

By Emily Burkhart July 2, 2023 Hilma af Klint (1862-1944), Altarpiece No. 1, Group X, 1915, from the Altarpiece series. Oil on gold on canvas. Private collection. Image courtesy of ArtReview. The paintings were painted directly through me, without any preliminary drawings, and with great force. I had no idea what the paintings were supposed to depict; nevertheless I worked swiftly and surely, without changing a single brushstroke. Hilma af Klint An artist ahead of her time, Swedish artist and mystic Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) created deeply spiritual paintings exploring abstraction and the unconscious prior to the Abstract Expressionists and decades before the Surrealists. She is recognized today for creating among the first abstract works known in Western art history. Trained as an academic painter, af Klint produced her first abstract in 1906, predating the works of male artists Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, and Piet Mondrian by some five years. She is now generally considered to be the pioneer and inventor of abstract art. Once little-known beyond art world circles, af Klint’s reputation has risen steadily since the first solo retrospective of her work in 2013 at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm which established her legacy. Anonymous, Hilma af Klint in her studio on Hamngatan St. in Stockholm, Sweden, ca. 1885. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Early Life and Education Hilma af Klint was born on October 26, 1862, at Karlberg Palace in Solna, outside Stockholm, the fourth child of Mathilda Sonntag and Captain Victor af Klint, a Swedish naval commander. As a child, af Klint spent summers at the family manor home, Hanmora, on the island of Adelsö in Lake Mälaren where her family owned two farms. There, she developed a love of nature and natural forms, which would become an inspiration in her work. Af Klint exhibited an aptitude for art at an early age. When the family moved to Stockholm in 1879, she began study of portraiture and landscape painting at the Tekniska Skolan (now Konstfack), the University of Arts, Crafts, and Design. She also took courses at the private art school of painter Kerstin Cardon (1843-1924).At age twenty, af Klint was admitted to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts where she continued her studies between 1882 and 1887, graduating with honors in 1887. That same year she won a prize in the Academy’s annual art competition for her oil painting from a human model, Andromeda at the Sea. Upon graduation, af Klint was awarded a scholarship in the form of a studio in the Atelier Building owned by the Royal Academy. The Atelier Building was located between Hamngatan and Kungsträdgården Streets in central Stockholm, the main cultural hub at the time. There she established herself as a respected artist, even serving briefly as secretary of the Association of Swedish Women Artists. Hilma af Klint, Andromeda at the Sea, 1887. Oil on canvas. Image courtesy of Facebook. Hilma af Klint, Self-Portrait, ca. 1890. Oil on canvas. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Early Career Af Klint earned critical recognition for her landscapes, botanical drawings, and portraits. This “conventional” work became the source of financial income, while mystical abstract paintings that she referred to as her “great work” remained a separate practice of which few had any knowledge. Attempts to exhibit these esoteric paintings in her lifetime were unsuccessful and remarks in her notebooks indicate that she felt that the world was not quite ready for the message they were intended to communicate. Af Klint exhibited her more conventional work though in more than two dozen exhibitions organized by the Sveriges Allmänna Konstförening, the Swedish Association for Art, between 1886 and 1914. She also participated regularly in group exhibitions and traveled to Germany, Norway, Holland, Belgium and Italy. Hilma af Klint, Eken (The Oak), n.d. Oil on canvas, 55 x 79 in. Image courtesy of Artnet. Spiritual and Philosophical Awakening Af Klint’s interest in abstraction and the unconscious came from her involvement in Spiritualism, the view that spirit is a prime element of reality and that the spirit exists as distinct from matter, or is the only reality. Popular at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, Spiritualism was a quasi religious movement based on the belief that departed souls could interact with the living through séances, meetings at which people would attempt to communicate with the dead. In 1879, af Klint participated in her first séance in the circle of painter, photographer, and medium Bertha Valerius (1824-1895). With the death of her younger sister, ten-year-old Hermina, in 1880, the spiritual dimensions of af Klint’s life grew rapidly. She soon became a medium herself and developed an interest in alchemy. From there, she became interested in Theosophy, Rosicrucianism, and Anthroposophy, philosophies founded in the late nineteenth century maintaining that a knowledge of God may be achieved through spiritual ecstasy, direct intuition, or special individual relations. These modes of spiritual engagement were especially popular in artistic and literary circles as people sought to reconcile religious beliefs with scientific advances and a new awareness of the plurality of religions. De Fem (The Five), 1896-1908 While still at the Academy of Fine Arts, af Klint befriended Anna Cassel, one of four women with whom she would establish De Fem (The Five), a group exploring spiritual realms through meditation and séances along with Cornelia Cederberg, Sigrid Hedman, and Mathilda Nilsson, who had been members of the Edelweiss Society (Edelweiss Förbundet), a Stockholm association that combined Christian ideas,Theosophical teachings, and spiritualism. Also known as the Friday Group, De Fem was a spiritualist collective active between 1896 and 1908 that purported to receive mystical messages through a dial planchette (an instrument for recording spirit communications similar to a ouija board) or human trance medium. Af Klint believed herself a mystic who received and shared enlightenment and was the vehicle for the transmission of spiritual information in the group. The women recorded their meetings in notebooks in the form of messages from higher spirits they called The High Masters (Högar Mästare) by way of spiritual beings named Amaliel, Ananda, and Gregor who acted as intermediaries for The High Masters with automatic writing and drawings long before the Surrealists who were also interested in these ideas. Af Klint’s artistic direction was profoundly changed following a séance in 1904 when she heard the voice of “Ananda” telling her to execute “astral paintings" in order to “proclaim a new philosophy of life.” In 1907, af Klint received a message claiming that she should be the leader of De Fem, but the other four members objected to this and the group ceased to work collectively, dissolving in 1908. The Paintings for the Temple, 1906-1915 In 1906, at the age of 44, af Klint painted her first series of abstract paintings upon receiving a celestial message from the spiritual being “Amaliel” who offered her a commission to create works for a “Temple” depicting the “immortal aspects of man”. Created between 1906 and 1915, the series entitled The Paintings for the Temple consists of 193 paintings grouped within six subseries. Af Klint imagined installing her works in a spiral temple that sadly never came to fruition. This period was af Klint’s most prolific phase of painting. She kept meticulous notebooks documenting her artistic efforts with black and white photographs of The Paintings for The Temple series paired alongside watercolor sketches and notes explaining the letters and symbols in the paintings. The following six paintings provide an overall flavor of her work. Primordial Chaos No. 7 (1906-1907) Hilma af Klint, Primordial Chaos No. 7, 1906-1907, from the Paintings for the Temple series. Oil on canvas. Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm, Sweden. Image courtesy of The Art Story. Primordial Chaos No. 7 (1906-1907) is one of 26 works that make up the first subseries of the Paintings for the Temple cycle, called Primordial Chaos, in which af Klint investigates the origin and primordial essence of the universe. The painting is rich with symbolism. At first glance, one sees a circular object bisected by a blue kite with yellow tassels with the letters W and U on either side against a blue and yellowish-green background. Sperm-like shapes swim inside the yellow halves while yellow sperm outside appear to penetrate the egg, indicating the moment of fertilization when the sperm meets the egg. For af Klint, the initial W represents man and matter whereas U stands for woman and the spiritual. Indeed, the Primordial Chaos series is also referred to as the “WU” series. Af Klint developed her own visual language here whereby blue tended to represent male and yellow female. When combined, blue and yellow create green, a harmony of opposites implying that marriage of polarity is spiritually important. No. 7, Adulthood (1907) Hilma af Klint, No. 7, Adulthood, 1907 from The Ten Largest series of the Paintings for the Temple. Oil and tempera on paper and canvas. Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm, Sweden. Image courtesy of The Art Story. No. 7, Adulthood (1907) is one of ten monumental paintings, each some ten feet tall by seven feet wide, illustrating the phases of human life including childhood, youth, maturity, and old age from af Klint’s The Ten Largest series. This huge painting is composed of organic forms, letters and scrolling lines against a lilac background. Inspired by af Klint’s lifelong botanical studies, the central yellow shape resembles a flower bulb from which a bloom emerges. The overlapping circles that form an almond shape, called a vesica piscis, is an ancient symbol for the development towards unity and completion. The circular objects throughout are also symbols of unity and infinity. The floral theme is echoed in the red clover-esque curling form on the left and the black and red lined blossom floating within it. Here again af Klint employs yellow as the female principle with blue and yellow making green as the harmonious merging of opposites.The yellow and white eyelet and hook forms represent masculinity and femininity. The snails in the upper left represent development and the striped, spiral shells evolution. Af Klint had a great interest in Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution as exposited in On the Origin of Species (1859) and “by the ways nature’s forms and plant growth are dictated by mathematical progression” according to art critic Adrian Searle. Photo by Jerry Hardman-Jones, 2016. Four paintings from Hilma af Klint, The Ten Largest, 1907 including No. 7, Adulthood at “Hilma af Klint: Painting the Unseen,” Serpentine South Gallery, London. Image courtesy of the Serpentine Galleries. Evolution, No. 16 (1908) Hilma af Klint, Evolution, No. 16, 1908 from the Evolution series. Oil on canvas. Private collection. Image courtesy of Arthive. Also known as the Seven-Pointed Star series, af Klint’s Evolution series explores abstraction, figuration, and religious iconography. In Christian tradition, the seven-pointed star is a symbol of protection with the seven points referring to the perfection of God and to the seven days of the creation story in the Bible. Evolution, No. 16 (1908) features a large black oval or egg shape horizontally bisected by a thin blue line. The circle configurations on either side of this line are in some ways mirror images of each other as one is light and the other dark. The black in the painting signifies power and protection, while red symbolizes passion, strength, and reproductive force. Here also U’s and W’s appear both singly and joined. Besides representing new life, the egg is an alchemical symbol of enlightenment and spiritual union. Af Klint has repeated the theme of duality and opposing male/female elements as can be seen in the four-pointed stars and petal tendrils within the circles. In Christianity, the four-pointed star stands for truth, hope, and spirit, embodying the idea of spiritual revelation. The cross or ladder-esque structures on either side of the “egg” are further Biblical allusions. In addition, the circular and bud-like accents on the joined letters UW and WU above the egg and below as U and W singly are significant. The whitish color denotes purity, innocence, and protection whereas the soft pink ground connotes femininity and love. Inside the oval, the lowercase letters A and O also have spiritual and esoteric meaning. A represents One God, the breath of life, and unity while O stands for the all-seeing eye of God, wisdom, and understanding. Evolution, No. 16 was the last painting af Klint completed in 1908 before taking a four-year hiatus (1908-1912) to care for her elderly mother who had gone blind. Tree of Knowledge, No. 1 (1913) Hilma af Klint, Tree of Knowledge, No. 1, 1913 from the Tree of Knowledge series. Watercolor on canvas. Image courtesy of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York. In a group of works from 1913 to 1915 titled the Tree of Knowledge, another biblical theme, af Klint took a more representational approach. Her green mushroom-shaped tree emerges from dark brownish-green soil inside a translucent brown circle resembling a pot or glass vase in Tree of Knowledge, No. 1. The “leaves” of the tree consist of a multitude of tiny, dotted brushstrokes that increase in size from the top down. At the tree’s crown, brown branches spread from an upside down goblet shape or mushroom cap that rests on top of the white trunk spanning the length of the tree. Af Klint’s color palette not only includes her signature masculine blue and feminine yellow components, but also white, pink, orange, red, and purple. Just as blue and yellow combine to form harmonious green, pink and red combine to create the rose pink seen in the sequence of interlocking lines that make up the roots of the tree. Pairs of doves, classic symbols of hope, peace, love, and the Holy Spirit, echo along the trunk among other symbols in the crown and the trunk. Also featured are two prominent pairs of yellow and blue structures just touching. The whole suggests fertility, new life, and growth. The Swan, No. 1 (1914-1915) Hilma af Klint, The Swan, No. 1, 1914-1915 from The Swan series. Oil on canvas. Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm, Sweden. Image courtesy of The Art Story. Af Klint’s more figurative The Swan, No 1. (1914-1915), like Primordial Chaos, No. 7 (1906-1907), depicts a spiritual polarity of opposites and duality. Swans represent the ethereal and stand for completion in alchemical tradition. The black swan is female with the yellow webbed feet, eyes, and pink beak with yellow accents whereas the white swan above her is male with blue feet, eyes, and red beak with blue accents. Interestingly, the black female swan is against a white or masculine ground while the white male swan is on a black or feminine ground, the divided canvas reminiscent of the opposing black and white colors of a Chinese yin/yang symbol. The swans are united by the sensual touch of a wing tip and by the meeting of their beaks in the center of the picture plane, as though kissing. The pink and red colors of their beaks fuse together in a passionate union of opposing but equal male and female energies. Photo by Helene Toresdotter, Moderna Museet, 2020. Installation view showing work from Hilma af Klint, The Swan, including The Swan, No. 1, 1914-1915 at “Hilma af Klint: Artist, Researcher, Medium,” Moderna Museet Malmö, Stockholm, Sweden. Image courtesy of Art Blart. Altarpiece, No. 1 (1915) Hilma af Klint, Altarpiece No. 1, Group X, 1915, from the Altarpiece series. Oil on gold on canvas. Private collection. Image courtesy of ArtReview. At first glance, one sees a pyramid shape against a black, starry night sky whose tip touches a large sun shape as though rising to the heavens. In cosmology, a pyramid represents the earth’s foundation at the bottom, and the pointed top represents the path to higher realms of consciousness, as can be seen in af Klint’s pyramid-shaped “altarpiece.” The golden sun with its cosmic rays and halo-shaped border can be interpreted as the light of God. Here, af Klint has deviated from the more figural painting of The Swan to a combination of abstract and representational components. The gradations of colors on the base that go from dark to light as they rise nearer the sun also remind one of the gradients on a color wheel. A line of gold discs down the center spanning the length of the pyramid decrease in size and change shape, from oval at the base to more circular in the center to oval again at the top, culminating in a last tiny oval or egg shape within a small black triangle. The discs are an ancient symbol of holiness, echoing the halo around the sun above the pyramid. Af Klint completed her Paintings for the Temple cycle in 1915. The final group was the Altarpiece subseries that af Klint envisioned for installation inside the Temple that never materialized. Afterwards, af Klint focused on watercolor botanical studies and geometric abstraction, paintings exploring scientific concepts and world religions. She also edited and revised her many artwork notebooks until her death. Hilma af Klint, Altarpieces, Group X, 1915 at “Hilma af Klint: The Secret Paintings,” Art Gallery of New South Wales . Image courtesy of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia, 2021. Death Although considered one of Sweden’s most esteemed artists today, Af Klint’s fall into obscurity may have been partially of her own doing. At her death at age 81 in 1944, it was found that af Klint, after years of discouragement, had stipulated in her will that her work not be exhibited publicly until twenty years following her death. She also insisted that no painting be sold separately, thus ensuring that her artworks could not become misunderstood commodities. Since she neither married nor had children (it is possible that she might have been covertly gay), Af Klint bequeathed the body of her work–over 1,200 paintings, 100 texts, and 26,000 pages of notes and sketches–to her nephew, Vice Admiral Erik af Klint (1901-1981) of the Swedish Navy. The Hilma af Klint Foundation It was not until January 1972, less than ten years before his own death at age 80, that Erik af Klint established The Hilma af Klint Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and managing the artistic legacy of his aunt. The Foundation encourages and assists academic research about Hilma af Klint. It also has a long-term agreement of cooperation with the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, confirming that works by Hilma af Klint are always shown in the collection. Photo by Jenni Carter, 2021. Three paintings from Hilma af Klint, The Ten Largest, 1907 at “Hilma af Klint: The Secret Paintings,” Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia. Image courtesy of The Guardian. International Recognition Af Klint’s work remained largely unseen until 1986 when some of her work was included in a group exhibition at the Los Angeles Museum of Art entitled “The Spiritual in Art, Abstract Painting 1890-1985.” This exhibition proved that af Klint’s work predated that of other renowned abstract artists. But it was not until 2013 that she finally became more widely acclaimed when the Moderna Museet in Stockholm hosted the exhibition, “Hilma af Klint–A Pioneer of Abstraction,” that toured internationally through 2015. More recently, the Moderna Museet featured paintings from af Klint’s Ten Largest series, “Hilma af Klint: The Ten Largest” which ran from September 22, 2022–January 8, 2023. The first major solo exhibition in the United States devoted to af Klint was at New York’s Guggenheim Museum. “Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future” ran from October 12, 2018–April 23, 2019, and had over 600,000 visitors, making it the most-visited exhibition in the museum's sixty-year history. Currently, the Tate Modern Gallery in London is hosting an exhibition featuring af Kilnt and her contemporary Piet Modrian in dialogue with each other. “Forms of Life: Hilma Af Klint & Piet Mondrian” opened April 20 and runs until September 3, 2023. Afterwards, the exhibition is traveling to the Kunstmuseum Den Haag in The Hague where it will be on view from October 7, 2023–February 25, 2024. Photo by David Lomas, 2023. Paintings by Hilma af Klint at “Hilma Af Klint & Piet Mondrian: Forms of Life,”Tate Modern, London. Image courtesy of Engelsberg Ideas. For more information, check out the Hilma af Klint Foundation here. And, if you enjoyed learning about the wonderful Hilma af Klint, please share this article and encourage others to explore additional women artists.

Text and photographs by Emily Burkhart* June 8, 2023 *Unless otherwise noted Salvador Dalí (Spanish,1904-1989), Remorse or Sphinx Embedded in the Sand, 1931. Oil on canvas, 7½ x 10½ in. Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University, Lansing, Michigan. Image courtesy of the Flint Institute of Arts. Surrealism is based on the belief in the omnipotence of dreams, in the undirected play of thought. André Breton (1896-1966) The Surrealist Manifesto, 1924 Surrealism…the term conjures a multitude of images and associations. More than a twentieth-century visual art movement, Surrealism (1917-1966) extended into literature, poetry, and film. Its enduring legacy exploring dreams, fantasy, the uncanny, fear, and desire influences artists into the modern day. A new exhibition at the Flint Institute of Arts entitled Beyond Dreams: Surrealism and Its Manifestations features artwork from Surrealist artists of the past and those of the present demonstrating the influence Surrealism has had on contemporary artists. The exhibition opened May 13 and runs through August 20, 2023. Surrealism is represented in the exhibition by such old guard artists as Salvador Dalí, Gerome Kamrowski, and Louise Bourgeois to more recent artists like Kyra Markham, Scott Fraser, and Kendra North. Curated by the Flint Institute of Arts, the exhibition consists of work from both the FIA’s own collection and loans from other museums and private collections. Working in a diverse array of mediums including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and film, the artists featured illustrate that the ideology, themes, and techniques of Surrealism are still alive today. An introductory wall panel gives an overview of the Surrealist movement from its literary origins in Paris in the late 1910s to its decline in the mid-1960s with the death of many first generation Surrealists and the emergence of Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. Supplementing the usual museum labels describing the artworks are two other explanatory panels discussing major Surrealist themes. “Glossary of Surrealism” defines important Surrealist ideas and influences including automatism, assemblage, biomorphism, the artistic and literary movement called Dada (1916-1924, considered the precursor of Surrealism), Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the uncanny, and the unconscious mind. Another panel entitled “What Lies Behind Reality: Chance, Dreams, Desire, and Fantasy” describes the pictorial and written technique of automatism pioneered by Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, whose ideas formed the basis of many Surrealist philosophies. The following discussion highlights some of the works in the exhibition. The Art Clarence Holbrook Carter, Balancing Act (1976) Exhibition introductory panel, Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan. From Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000), Balancing Act, 1976. Serigraph on paper. An enlarged reproduction of Clarence Holbrook Carter’s (1904-2000) 1976 serigraph called Balancing Act with the exhibition title printed on it introduces the exhibition. A former American Scene painter, Carter turned to Surrealism in the 1960s with works embracing otherworldly and spiritual themes. Balancing Act, the actual work appearing elsewhere in the exhibition, presents a giant egg shape with a photograph of a single human eye upon it. This shape balances on end atop a smaller, similar egg shape to form an exclamation point. For Carter, the egg–or “ovoid,” as he described it–came to represent fertility, death, and rebirth. Carter believed his mystical egg paintings or “Eschatos,” (The Final Things, from eschatology, the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul.) ultimately symbolized life. The museum label additionally notes the significance of the eye in Surrealist imagery, stating that “the Surrealists believed that the eye acted as a portal between the inner self and external world.” It further suggests that the egg in Balancing Act can be seen not only as a symbol of rebirth but because of its shell as “the hard defenses we build to protect ourselves.” The large ovoid “balanced” on the smaller also seems to indicate some difficulty in achieving this balance. Scott Fraser, Metronome (1990) Scott Fraser (American, b. 1957), Metronome, 1990. Oil on panel. Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan. Another artist using egg symbolism is Scott Fraser (b.1957), a realist painter known for taking ordinary objects and juxtaposing them in unique compositions. Fraser’s hyperrealistic painting Metronome (1990) is so lifelike that it may be mistaken for a photograph from a distance. Ordinarily, a metronome, a device used by musicians and dancers, marks time by giving a click at regular intervals. In Fraser’s painting, the lever of the metronome is tied down by a string attached to a table with a pushpin, stopping the rhythmic counting of time. Perched atop the metronome is an egg, its shadow thrown on the beige wall behind. More eggs and broken eggshells are arrayed on the table. Fraser uses the egg and metronome as symbols of vanitas representing time, mortality, and the fragility of life. Salvador Dalí, Remorse or Sphinx Embedded in the Sand (1931) Salvador Dalí (Spanish,1904-1989), Remorse or Sphinx Embedded in the Sand,1931. Oil on canvas, 7½ x 10½ in. Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University, Lansing, Michigan. Image courtesy of the Flint Institute of Arts. Remorse or Sphinx Embedded in the Sand (1931) by one of the most iconic Surrealist artists, Salvador Dalí (1904-1989), is as autobiographical as it is a reflection of Dalí’s inner state of mind. This tiny painting of only 7 ½ x 10 ½ inches portrays Dalí’s wife Gala in the foreground submerged in sand from the waist down with her back toward the viewer as she covers her face with one hand. On the ground before her, a deep shadow silhouette mirrors the grief of her form. Her figure faces jagged rock outcroppings receding into the distance. A woman's high heeled shoe and a glass of milk protrude from beneath her back’s translucent skin, adding a note of further incongruity to the piece. According to the museum label, women’s shoes and glasses of milk were fetishes of Dalí at the time. In the foreground of the picture near Gala’s side, a small egg-shaped stone casts its own dark silhouette. The alternate title, Sphinx Embedded in the Sand, refers to the creature in Greek mythology with a human head, the body of a lioness, and a bird’s wings who killed those seeking passage who could not answer her riddle. When Oedipus successfully solved the riddle, the sphinx killed herself. Dalí likened his wife to a sphinx as “a keeper of riddles and enigma.” Though for André Breton, a writer and leader of the Surrealist movement, the sphinx represented the figure of the femme fatale, in Dalí’s painting, she is a tragic figure. The word “remorse” in the title refers to the sorrow Gala and Dalí felt in their struggle with infertility. Gala’s despairing figure manifests the couple’s intense grief as do the shadows. Salvador Dalí, Cybele (1972-1973) Salvador Dalí (Spanish, 1904-1989), Cybele, 1972-1973, bronze. Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan. In addition to Remorse or Sphinx Embedded in the Sand, a rare sculptural work by Dalí is also included in the exhibition. A later piece, Cybele (1972-1973), too, draws inspiration from mythology. Cybele was the great mother of the Gods in Phrygia, a kingdom in Anatolia (modern Asian Turkey). Not only was she considered to be mother of the gods but she was believed to have birthed humanity, the animal kingdom, and all of nature. Dalí’s representation is a small bronze figure on a black marble base. His long necked Cybele is an armless, legless torso with massive primary breasts. The breast theme has been replicated down the front and sides of her torso, reflecting Cybele’s status as the universal mother and giver of life. Gerome Kamrowski, The Feted Wedding (1945) Gerome Kamrowski (American, 1914-2004), The Feted Wedding, 1945. Oil on canvas. On loan from the Gerome Kamrowski Estate. American artist Gerome Kamrowski’s (1914-2004) The Feted Wedding (1945) is the first artwork seen upon entering the exhibition. Kamrowski pioneered Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism in the United States. As the museum label notes, Kamrowski’s work “symbolizes an important shift in Surrealism from a movement concentrated in Europe to one internationally practiced.” He executed this painting using a palette of blue, green, brown, and red. The work consists of two swirling biomorphic forms, the figures neither human nor animal. The gender of the “couple” depicted cannot be determined. The painting is a study in color, cellular form, and expressive line against a dark blue background, reflecting Kamrowski’s interest in automatism or the avoidance of conscious intention as well as science. The Feted Couple was one of the last paintings Kamrowski produced while living in New York before moving to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to teach at the University of Michigan School of Art from 1946 until his retirement in 1984. Louis Bourgeois, Metamorfosis (1997) Louise Bourgeois (American, born France, 1911-2010), Metamorfosis, 1997. Aquatint on paper. Flint Institute Arts, Flint, Michigan. The French-born artist Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) was one of the Surrealists whose work often incorporated the influence of Sigmund Freud. In her lifetime, Bourgeois underwent psychoanalysis using the therapeutic method developed by Freud. In her art, she explored the memories and experiences she confronted during therapy. Metamorfosis (1997), Spanish for metamorphosis, a late career work, explores the unconscious mind. A faceless figure lies in a red floored, blue room with a single window in an old-fashioned bed with black headboard and footboard rails. The reclining figure is presumably female and asleep. She is covered by an undulating blanket composed of thin black lines and bold gray block stripes on white that hangs to the floor over the foot of the bed. Some of the bedding seems to flow off the head of the bed as well, the figure appearing to lie in a river of sleep. Reminiscent of an egg shape, a small white oval footrug lies next to the bed on the floor. Apparently the bed was a common autobiographical theme for Bourgeois who used it to “symbolize and explore her childhood experiences and the sexuality and innocence constantly at play, as well as her tumultuous relationship with her father.” Kyra Markham, Editorial in Paint (1952) Kyra Markham (American,1891-1967), Editorial in Paint, 1952. Oil on canvas. On loan from the collection of Ed and Karen Ogul. Another late career work, Kyra Markham’s (1891-1967) Editorial in Paint (1952) intricately blends art historical and surreal elements. In the center of the painting are four figures in rough triangular composition. Prominent are two androgynous women. One stands barefoot with her eyes closed in a short, open black blazer just covering her bare breasts and a pink tutu. She sports a mitre, a religious headdress, and grasps a crosier, a gold staff topped with a shepherd’s crook carried by bishops in the Latin Church. In her other hand, she nonchalantly holds a carrot as though about to take a bite. Her companion, severely featured and clothed, wears a short-sleeved white blouse, navy skirt, and orange sash, her feet clad in a pair of sensible loafers. She is kicking a copy of the Classical sculpture Venus de Milo off its base. On the right sits a cross-legged humanoid figure with a bull’s head and hooves wearing a monk’s robes. One of its horns is crooked and the ring held in its hand matches the ring in its nose. In front of this figure, a wide-eyed man with pointed ears speaks through a megaphone, while cocking an ear as if listening to himself speak. A cluster of headstones with the names of renowned artists and writers from the past, including Rembrandt, Paul Cézanne, Leonardo da Vinci, William Blake and others, occupies the lower left of the painting. In the bottom left foreground, a white arrow-shaped sign with the words “To Parnassus” points to “Mount Parnassus” in the middle ground of the painting, where the earlier described figures are arrayed. Mount Parnassus was the residence of the Muses in Greek mythology, known as the home of literature, science, and the arts. At the foot of the “mountain” in the bottom left corner, an old white-haired man and black-haired young boy lie on their knees, hands clasped in prayer as they look up to the woman with the crosier. Next to them, reclining against some rocks, is the artist Henri Matisse, presumably, depicted as a plump elderly man at work on one of his paper cutouts. Above, instead of Greek gods, is a collection of paintings suspended in the clouds as if on a gallery wall, including works by Giorgio de Chirico, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, and Marc Chagall, among others, all titans of modern art. A balding man in a brown suit holding a sketchbook gazes up at these representations, as if deciding which to copy or emulate, while another younger man in a black sweater seemingly influenced by these works holds a paintbrush and painting while staring at the viewer from over his shoulder. A patch of blue sky peeks through clouds from the upper lefthand corner illuminating this dream-like scene of the personification of art history. Looking at this work one feels the significance of each detail. Kendra North, Bliss (2012-2018) Kendra North (American, b. 1951), Bliss, 2012-2018. Ultrachrome pigment print. Gift of Kendra North. Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan. Besides dreams, Sigmund Freud, and the unconscious, the Surrealists were fascinated by photography and experimented with the medium in non-traditional ways as a means of expressing themselves. Contemporary artists such as Kenda North (b. 1951) have carried on the legacy of photography in the Surrealist movement to create their own unique imagery. North’s Bliss (2012-2018) completed over the course of several years, is an example. Taken underwater, the photograph consists of a human hand rising from the waves of rushing blue and white water. A dark mass on the right resembles a boulder in the waves, with waters rushing around it. In the background, a waterfall, and possibly more rocks cluster behind the boulder. The entire image is blurred and distorted except for the hand reaching from the water in the foreground which is clearly articulated. According to the museum label, North “believes that being submerged underwater brings you closer to an alternate reality where dreams and desires float within and around you,” like the hand suspended in the waves. In addition, the exhibition includes an interesting 2015 documentary about Surrealist photographic techniques called Photo: A History Behind the Lens of Surrealist Photography directed by Luciano Rigolini playing on loop. The documentary begins with the late 1920s discussing techniques such as double exposure, combination printing, montage, and solarization that Surrealist artists used to manipulate their images. It also discusses rayographs, photographic prints made by laying objects onto photographic paper and exposing it to light, a technique employed by André Breton, Man Ray, Dora Maar, and others. Beyond Dreams: Surrealism and Its Manifestations runs through August 20, 2023, at the Flint Institute of Arts. I especially encourage anyone not familiar with Surrealist art to visit the exhibition. All will come away enlightened and impressed.

by Emily Burkhart April 15, 2023 Edna Reindel, Lockheed Worker Working on the Fuselage of a P-38, 1942, from the series “Women at War,” Life Magazine, June 6, 1944. Oil on canvas, 38 x 26 in. National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C. Image courtesy of Google Arts & Culture. During World War II, the Detroit-born artist and illustrator Edna Reindel (1894-1990) received a commission from Life Magazine for a series of paintings documenting women aiding the war effort at Lockheed Aircraft Factory and Shipyard in Los Angeles. Calling the series Women at War, Reindel completed nine paintings based on studies and sketches between 1942 and June 6, 1944, when Life published the series as part of an article of the same name. Today, these may be her most well-known works. The following is a brief overview of Reindel’s life and art, particularly her House and Garden magazine covers, U.S. government commissions, and, of course, the Women at War paintings. Edna Reindel posing with her sketchbook in front of a P-38 plane at Lockheed Aircraft and Shipyard, Los Angeles, CA. n.d. Photographer unknown. Image courtesy of the Edna Reindel papers, ca. 1918-1990, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Biography A painter, printmaker, illustrator, muralist, sculptor, potter, teacher, and restorationist Edna Reindel was born in Detroit, Michigan, on February 19, 1894. Not much has been published about her personal life. We do know that she began study in 1918 at the Detroit School of Design, now the College of Creative Studies, a private art school. She then moved to New York in 1919 to attend the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn from which she graduated in 1923. She then established herself as a freelance artist, illustrating books and book jackets including Yesterday and Today: A Collection of Verse arranged and selected by Louis Untermeyer (Harcourt, Brace, and Company, 1927), Green Magic: The Story of the World of Plants by Julie Closson Kenly ( 1930), and The Merry Ballads of Robin Hood by Laurabelle Dietrick and Joseph Franz-Walsh (1931), among others. During this period, Reindel also received two Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Fellowships for further study, enjoyed her first solo show at New York’s Macbeth Gallery, won an award from the Art Directors Club of New York, and earned a first place prize at the Beverly Hills Art Festival, in addition to other honors. She became known for her flower and still-life studies, portraits of Hollywood movie stars, genre scenes, large-scale murals, landscapes featuring Martha’s Vineyard in New England where she would summer, and the Women at War series. Her work has been characterized as both Surrealist and American Regionalist and has been described as containing “a mysterious dynamic” that “featur[es] rich colors, unconventional cropping of space and unusual perspectives.” Edna Reindel, The Bull Fight, ca. 1936. Oil on canvas, 25 x 30.25 in. Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California. Image courtesy of Crocker Art Museum. House and Garden Covers Between 1933 and 1937, Reindel was tasked by Condé Nast with creating several still-life covers for House and Garden magazine. Today, these iconic covers can be ordered in reproduction from both Condé Nast’s online store and Fine Art America. Many of the covers feature sensuous flowers in surprising composition, somewhat reminiscent of Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986), in a style between surrealism and hyperrealism. Edna Reindel, House and Garden Household Equipment, August, 1933. Image courtesy of Condé Nast. House and Garden Four Rooms in Color, October, 1934. Image courtesy of Condé Nast. House and Garden Spring Gardening, March, 1935. Image courtesy of Condé Nast. House and Garden Fall Furnishing and Gardening, October, 1935. Image courtesy of Condé Nast. Edna Reindel, House and Garden Double Number: Spring Gardening and Building Details, March, 1937. Image courtesy of Condé Nast. Treasury Section of Fine Arts and WPA Murals In 1933, the Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture (later the Treasury Section of Fine Arts) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Public Works of Art Project commissioned Reindel to create a number of paintings, murals, and sculptural works for government buildings across the country. Two of the “easel paintings” commissioned by the WPA are still on display in the Pentagon and at the Department of Labor Building in Washington, D.C. Sadly, the location of others are unknown. We do know that in 1935, she received a commission from the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP) to paint a mural for the Stamford, Connecticut, housing project called Fairfield Court. Spanning four walls of a reception room, the exuberant mural no longer exists except in photographs, neither does another government mural Reindel executed around 1938 for the Governor’s House in Christiansted, St. Croix, in the Virgin Islands. It had an undersea theme but only a study survives. Edna Reindel in front of one of the murals for the Fairfield Court Housing Project, Stamford, CT, with her cat, Dozy ca. 1940. Photographed by Iris Woolcock. Image courtesy of the Edna Reindel papers, ca. 1918-1990, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Edna Reindel, Study for Mural, Governor’s House, St Croix, ca. 1938. Oil on canvas, 20 in. x 16 in. Image courtesy of MutualArt. Luckily, however, Reindel’s 1938-1939 Treasury Department mural for the local post office of Swainsboro, Georgia (now the Emmanuel County Courthouse), featuring Eli Whitney, called Experimenting with the First Model of the Cotton Gin, remains. It depicts Whitney’s 1791 experiments and demonstration of the cotton gin. Edna Reindel, Experimenting with the First Model of the Cotton Gin, 1939. Emmanuel County Courthouse, Swainsboro, Georgia. Photo by Jimmy Emerson, DVM. Image courtesy of Natasha Moore. Life Magazine Women at War Series In 1942, during World War II, Life Magazine commissioned Reindel to create a series of portraits of Rosie the Riveter-type women working at Lockheed Aircraft Factory and Shipyard in Los Angeles. Calling the series Women at War, Reindel studied and sketched women at work there between 1942 and 1944. From these sketches, she made nine paintings that were reproduced in color and published in the June 6, 1944, issue of Life. Later that year, the series was also exhibited at the Macbeth Gallery in New York. Prior to her death, Reindel gave four of these paintings to the new National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC–Assembly Line for the P-38 at Lockheed (1942), Lockheed Worker Working on the Fuselage of a P-38 (1942), A Woman at Lockheed Fastening the Plastic Canopy of the P-38 (1943), and Lockheed Welder of Intake Duct for a P-38 (1943). Edna Reindel speaking with a P-38 plane welder at Lockheed Aircraft Factory and Shipyard, Los Angeles, CA. n.d. Photographer unknown. Image courtesy of Edna Reindel papers, ca. 1918-1990, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. The Women at War paintings have often been compared to Diego Rivera’s (1886-1957) work in his Detroit Industry murals on the walls of the Detroit Institute of Arts. But while Rivera infused his work with a Mexican Magical Realist aesthetic as can be seen on the North Wall mural reproduced here, Reindel employs a more formalist realist approach informed by American Regionalism. This was an art movement that flourished in the U.S. from 1925-1945, embracing the ideal of art-as-storytelling during the Great Depression through the end of World War II. Interestingly, there are no women depicted on Rivera’s factory floor as his murals were painted prior to the exodus of men to war while Reindel’s pictures focus on the women occupying this space among a scattering of men remaining. Edna Reindel, Welder Working on the Intake Duct of a P-38, 1943, from the series “Women at War”, Life Magazine, June 6, 1944. Oil on canvas, 38 x 26 in.National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C. Image courtesy of Rabih Alameddine. Diego Rivera, Detroit Industry North Wall detail, 1932-1933. Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Move to the West Coast Reindel had been based in New York City until 1938 when she relocated to California to be near her critically ill brother. She remained largely in the Los Angeles area after he died in 1940 until her own death at the age of 96 on April 3, 1990. Over the decades, her work was the subject of many solo exhibitions as well as numerous group shows, from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA, 1940) and the Carnegie Institute (Pittsburgh, 1947) to the Dallas Museum of Art (1953), New York’s Whitney Museum (1934 and 1949), and the Detroit Institute of Arts (1978-79). Edna Reindel, Magnolia, 1947. Oil on canvas, h: 34 in. x w: 31 in. x d: 2 in. Image courtesy of 1stDibs. During her long career as an artist, Reindel worked in pen and ink, watercolor, and oils. She was also a muralist, illustrator, potter, and sculptor. She taught and wrote books on painting, acquired art restoration skills, and developed a portrait specialty painting Hollywood actors and some of their family members such as Spencer Tracy and Gregory Peck. In reaction to the development of the atomic bomb, she produced a series of anti-war drawings, widely acclaimed at the time, called The Effects of War on People that included Angels Wept at Los Alamos (1949), Hiroshima (1949), and Radioactive Mother and Child (1949) but their whereabouts seem to be unknown. Edna Reindel’s last years are not well-documented. There is even a discrepancy about the actual location of her death between Michigan, where she had family and kept a house for some time, and California, where she mostly lived from 1938 on. However, there is every indication that she continued to work and experiment with new media as long as she was able. If you liked learning about the artist Edna Reindel, please drop me a line and/or share this article with others. Edna Reindel in her studio, ca. 1942. Photographed by Charles Seeberg. Collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

by Emily Burkhart March 22, 2023 Ethiopia (Ethiopia Awakening), Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, ca. 1921. Bronze, height 67 x 16 x 29 in. National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Image courtesy of WikiArt. She was a multi-talented artist whose gifts included painting, writing poetry, and theatrical set and light design. But Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller (1877-1968) is perhaps best known today for her often metaphorical sculptures focusing on the African American experience. A protégée of renowned French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Fuller has been called “one of the most imaginative Black artists of her generation.” Her work anticipated the Afrocentric and Pan-African themes of the Harlem Renaissance (1918-1935). In honor of Women’s History Month, let’s recall Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller and her pioneering contributions to African American art. Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller photographed by Benjamin Griffith Brawley for Women of Achievement: Written for The Fireside Schools Under the Auspices of the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society, 1919. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Early Life The youngest of three children, Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller was born into a middle class family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 9, 1877. Her mother was a beautician and accomplished wigmaker who owned a salon serving wealthy white women while her father was a barber who owned several barber shops and was also involved in catering and real estate. Due to her parents’ financial means, Fuller received educational opportunities and cultural enrichment not open to many African-American children, including training in art, music, dance, and horseback riding. Fuller’s love of art began early. Her older sister Blanche studied art, and kept supplies including clay that Fuller used as a child for her own creations. She accompanied her father, who was interested in sculpture and painting, to exhibitions at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. They also attended the theater, piquing her interest in the dramatic arts. And, her brother William Henry and her grandfather would regale her with horror stories and folk tales that shaped her imagination and later her sculpture, notably Man Eating His Heart (ca. 1900/1901 sometimes called Secret Sorrow), The Wretched (1902),Peace Halting the Ruthlessness of War (1917), and Talking Skull (1939). Education Fuller took weekly courses at an industrial arts school, while attending a segregated Black public high school in Philadelphia.Her artistic career began after one of her high-school projects was chosen to be included in the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. At eighteen she won a three-year scholarship to the Pennsylvania Museum and School for Industrial Art, now the University of the Arts, a private art college in Philadelphia where she became interested in sculpture and was one of just a few Black students. She graduated with honors in 1898 and received a one-year graduate scholarship. Encouraged by her sculpture teacher, Fuller sailed to Paris where African Americans faced fewer restrictions to attend art academies than in the U.S. Paris, 1899-1903 Fuller arrived in Paris in late October 1899 to begin study at L'École des Beaux Arts. Before embarking, Fuller had contacted the American Girls Club and received approval to stay there during her sojourn in Paris. When she arrived, she found prejudice had followed as she was turned away by the director who told her girls from the south also staying there would object to her color. Instead, she found lodging with the African American expat painter and family friend Henry Ossawa Tanner and his wife. The director of the American Girls Club did introduce her to French artists Raphaël Collin, a painter who taught at the Académie Colarossi, and Jean-Antonin Carlés, a sculptor with whom she honed her skills in drawing and anatomy in 1900. She also studied sculpture at L'École des Beaux- Arts. Among Fuller’s best-known sculptural works made in Paris are Man Eating His Heart (ca. 1900/1901), also known as Secret Sorrow, and The Wretched (1902). Self-Portrait, n.d. Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, unfired clay. Dimensions unavailable. Image courtesy of WikiArt. Man Eating His Heart (Secret Sorrow, ca. 1900/1901) Fuller’s Man Eating His Heart (Secret Sorrow, ca. 1900/1901) is based on the poem “In the Desert” (1895) by the American poet, novelist, and short story writer, Stephen Crane (1871-1900): In the desert I saw a creature, naked, bestial, Who, squatting upon the ground, Held his heart in his hands, And ate of it. I said, “Is it good, friend?” “It is bitter—bitter,” he answered; “But I like it “Because it is bitter, “And because it is my heart.” After seeing the works of Auguste Rodin at the 1900 Paris Exposition, Fuller departed from the French Beaux-Arts tradition to explore subject matter more expressively as seen in Man Eating His Heart. Unlike the beastly creature described in Crane’s poem, Fuller depicted a moment of human sorrow in the figure of a crouching man with blank holes for eyes holding his own heart and eating it. Rodin was so impressed when he saw Fuller’s work that he was said to have exclaimed: “My child, you are a sculptor; you have the sense of form in your fingers.” With Rodin’s sponsorship, Fuller’s work began to receive recognition, including exhibitions at Solomon Bing’s L’Art Nouveau Gallery of modern art and design in Paris and the Société National des Beaux Arts Salon. In April 1903, before her return to Philadelphia, two of her works, The Wretched and The Impenitent Thief (ca. 1900, now lost) were shown at the Paris Salon in 1903. Man Eating His Heart (Secret Sorrow), ca. 1900/1901, Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller. Painted plaster, 7 x 3 x 2 in. Image courtesy of the Henri Peyre French Institute, City University of New York, NY. The Wretched, 1902 The Wretched, 1902, Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller. Bronze, 21 x 17 x 15 in. Collection of the Maryhill Museum of Art, Washington. Image courtesy of Obelisk Art History. Fuller’s The Wretched depicts a scrum of distressed figures in triangular composition. A man atop the group stares into the distance, another dismayed individual rests his knee on his chin in resignation while several others writhe and twist in pain. A young man, mouth agape reaches out struggling to emerge from the mass of bodies. The French press labeled Fuller the “delicate sculptor of horrors'' for her darkly expressive works such as this one inspired by folklore and mythology. Return to Philadelphia Upon her return to Philadelphia in 1903, Fuller established a studio on South Camac Street in a flourishing artistic neighborhood. Unfortunately, the "masculinity and primitive power" of her work that had generated interest and acclaim in Paris did not at home. Gallery owners shunned her on account of her race and gender. Unable to sell her work, she was told pejoratively that her sculpture was “domestic.” Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition, 1907 Fuller’s fortunes began looking up by 1907 when she became the first African-American woman to receive a U.S. government art commission . The Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition commissioned her to create fifteen tableaux of twenty-four inch high plaster figures depicting African American progress since the Jamestown settlement in 1607. Fuller produced the Warwick Tableaux–a ten foot by ten foot series of dioramas consisting of over 100 clothed and wigged figurines, painted backdrops, and architectural models. The dioramas were said to have begun with the arrival of slaves in Virginia in 1619 and went on to chronicle the progress and achievements of African Americans through the years. Fuller received a gold medal for the Warrick Tableaux but, unfortunately, the dioramas no longer exist. Marriage and Move to Massachusetts In 1909, Meta Vaux Warrick married Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller (1872-1953) a Liberia-born neurologist and psychiatrist at Massachusetts Hospital known for his work with Alzheimer's disease. The couple settled in the predominantly white neighborhood of Framingham. Together, they had three sons, Solomon Jr., William Thomas, and Perry, the youngest, who went on to become a sculptor himself. After marriage, Fuller’s output slowed considerably as she worked to balance the roles of artist, mother, and wife. 1909 Philadelphia Warehouse Fire Shortly after the birth of her first son, Solomon Jr. in 1910, a fire at the Philadelphia warehouse where Fuller kept tools and stored paintings and sculpture destroyed much of the work she had accumulated to that point, including pieces she had completed in Paris. Among her oeuvre, only a few early works stored elsewhere were preserved. Emancipation, 1913 Following the fire and the birth of her first child, Fuller had set aside sculpture, but in 1913 she created Emancipation to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation for the New York celebration of the 1863 abolition of slavery. She made the statue in plaster, calling it Spirit of Emancipation. This allegorical work features male and female figures emerging from the Tree of Knowledge at the center. Semi-nude, they are not being liberated by Abraham Lincoln or a former owner, but self-liberating. In 1999, Emancipation was cast in bronze and installed in Harriet Tubman Park in Boston’s South End. An engraved description from Fuller was added to its base in 2013: I represented the race by a male and a female figure standing under a tree, the branches of which are fingers of Fate grasping at them to draw them back into the fateful clutches of hatred. Humanity weeping over her suddenly freed children who, beneath the gnarled fingers of Fate, step forth into the world unafraid. - Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller Emancipation, Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, 1913. Cast in bronze in 1999. 84 in. Harriet Tubman Park, Boston. Image courtesy of WikiArt. Peace Halting the Ruthlessness of War (1917) Another work, Peace Halting the Ruthlessness of War (1917) employs allegorical symbols in protest of World War I. Fuller, a community activist and member of the Massachusetts Equal Suffrage League and Peace Movement, evokes the devastation and suffering inflicted by war, using the Classical motif of an equestrian. Straining at the reins with teeth bared and nostrils flaring, the horse of War lifts a front leg as Peace in the form of a rider strains to pull up War as it tramples humanity beneath its hooves. Peace Halting the Ruthlessness of War originated as Fuller’s entry in a 1915 competition sponsored by the Massachusetts Branch of the Women’s Peace Party. The Women’s Peace Party invited artists to enter works which they felt best represented the “constructive peace movement.” Fuller won second prize for the work, which critics applauded as one of her best. In Memory of Mary Turner As a Silent Protest Against Mob Violence, 1919 In Memory of Mary Turner As A Silent Protest Against Mob Violence, Meta Vaux Warwick Fuller, 1919. Painted plaster, 15 x 5 ¼ x 4 ½ in. Museum of African American History, Boston and Nantucket, Boston. Image courtesy of WikiArt. In Memory of Mary Turner As A Silent Protest Against Mob Violence (1919) was created by Fuller in the year after the savage lynching of Mary Turner, a young Black woman in Lowndes County, Georgia. Turner was eight months pregnant when she was murdered by a white mob after publicly denouncing her husband’s lynching. In retaliation for speaking out, a mob of hundreds captured Turner and hung her upside down from a tree, brutally killing her and her unborn child before setting her body on fire. Fuller portrays Turner cradling a tiny infant in her arms rising above the grasping hands and flame that threaten to engulf her. In Memory of Mary Turner As A Silent Protest Against Mob Violence is considered one of the first works of art created by an African American to depict the utter depravity of lynch mobs. Ethiopia (Ethiopia Awakening), 1921 Ethiopia (Ethiopia Awakening), Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, ca. 1921. Bronze, height 67 x 16 x 29 in. National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Image courtesy of WikiArt. Fuller sculpted probably her most well-known public work, Ethiopia (later called Ethiopia Awakening), for the 1921 America’s Making Exposition at the Armory in New York City. The two-week exposition was intended to celebrate the contributions of the nation’s immigrants. W. E. B. Du Bois organized the “Americans of Negro Lineage” section of the exposition. He commissioned Fuller “to create an artwork that would symbolize the musical and industrial contributions of African Americans to the development of the United States.” Fuller opted to go in a different direction with Ethiopia, portraying an African woman wearing a neme, the crown of ancient Egyptian pharaohs, as she emerges from a sarcophagus wrappings still covering her legs and feet. At the time Fuller created Ethiopia Awakening, only Ethiopia of all the African nations had successfully maintained its independence against European imperialists. Created at the dawn of the Harlem Renaissance, Ethiopia is widely considered the first Pan-African American work of art and among the first American artworks to reflect the influence of African sculpture. Talking Skull, 1939 Talking Skull, Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, 1939. Bronze, 71.7 x 101.6 cm. Museum of African American History, Boston and Nantucket, Boston. Image courtesy of Obelisk Art History. Talking Skull (1939) depicts a young man in a loincloth kneeling on the ground contemplating a skull. Now in the collection of the Museum of African American History in Boston, the inspiration for this sculpture may have come from an African folktale. As the story goes, a man comes across a skull in the forest who warns him, “tongue brought me here and if you are not careful, tongue will bring you here.” Returning to his village, the man reports his find to fellow tribesmen and brings the chief and other villagers to see the skull, but it will not speak. Thinking he has been deceived, the chief beheads the man on the spot for lying. Later, when everyone has gone, the skull speaks up, “tongue brought me here and I told you that if you were not careful, tongue would bring you here.” Fuller used the folktale as a cautionary tale for her children. Other interpretations of Talking Skull suggest it represents the desire for communication between the living and the dead or the African American longing for connection to an African ancestral past. Illness and Late Career By the 1940s, Fuller’s husband was in declining health and going blind. Her output diminished as she nursed him until his death in 1953 at the age of 81. Afterward, she herself became ill with tuberculosis and spent two years at a sanatorium where she wrote poetry, being too frail to create more than a few small sculptures. By 1957, Fuller was able to resume working, and though in her 70s, she returned to making art full-time. In the 1960s, she created many sculptural tributes to civil rights icons such as Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. For her lifetime achievements, Livingstone College, her husband’s alma mater in Salisbury, North Carolina, awarded her an honorary doctorate of letters in 1962. Additionally, the city of Framingham posthumously dedicated a public park in honor of Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller and Solomon Carter Fuller in 1973. Legacy Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller’s work celebrated African American heritage and cultural identity. She resisted the stereotypical representations of the black body that pervaded popular culture of the time. She died in 1968 at the age of 90. Since then, museums in Framingham and Harlem have mounted retrospectives of her work. Fuller is celebrated as the first black American artist to draw heavily on African themes and folk tales for her subject matter and is generally considered one of the first African-American female sculptors of importance. In 2015, the Danforth Museum in Massachusetts received a $40,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation to safeguard Fuller’s work. Despite decades facing racism and sexism, Fuller defied gender norms to explore the struggles and triumphs of African American experience at a time when the arts were not hospitable to women. In celebration of Women’s History month, I encourage you to look up the inspiring work of this little-known African American artist and others like her. Please share this article if you found it rewarding.