On Saturday, March 6, NMWA founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay died at age 98. Against tremendous odds and with dedication, drive, and a singular vision, Holladay created our museum to help address the underrepresentation of women artists in museums and galleries worldwide. In her New York Times obituary, Winton Holladay, Holladay’s daughter-in-law and vice-chair of the NMWA board, called her “the master of the possible.”
We will honor her memory in many ways, foremost through our continued work for the mission she truly believed was important in this world: exhibiting, sharing, and celebrating the work of great women artists. Learn more about Holladay’s life and legacy.
Front-Page Femmes:
The Washington Post reviews NMWA’s recent exhibition Sonya Clark: Tatter, Bristle, and Mend.
Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum will put works by Judith Leyster, Gesina ter Borch, and Rachel Ruysch on permanent display in its central Gallery of Honor for the first time in its 220-year history.
Accra-based Gallery 1957 has launched the Yaa Asantewaa Art Prize, the first award for African women artists living and working on the continent; it seeks to increase the visibility of African women artists on the international art scene.
Barbara Ess, a pioneering photographer, musician, and writer, died on March 4 at age 73.
Hyperallergic rounds up the award-winning photographs from the Leica Women Foto Project; Matika Wilbur, Karen Zusman, and Anna Boyiazis will each receive $10,000, a Leica Q2 camera, and mentorship.
The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Speed Art Museum will jointly acquire Amy Sherald’s portrait of Breonna Taylor, originally created for the cover of Vanity Fair.
Artnet interviews Celeste Dupuy-Spencer about her painting of the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol building, now on view at Nino Mier Gallery in Los Angeles.
Smithsonian magazine explores six architectural wonders by women architects, including Katherine Briçonnet, Plautilla Bricci, Louise Blanchard Bethune, Julia Morgan, Elisabeth Scott, and Beverly Loraine Greene.
Hyperallergic reviews the new reissue of Carolee Schneemann’s Parts of a Body House Book, originally published in 1972.
Vogue rounds up 20 of the best films directed by women, including recent favorites Nomadland (Chloé Zhao) and One Night in Miami (Regina King).
Shows We Want to See:
At the Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Lorraine O’Grady: Both/And challenges the fixed positions of thought, reflects on the poignancy of lives lived within dualistic frameworks, and sheds light on the ways Blackness has always existed at the heart of Western modernism. The New York Times reviewed the exhibition, calling it “a major corrective event.” Vulture profiled the artist, noting her 2015 appearance at NMWA as a Guerrilla Girl. O’Grady features in Artforum’s “Under the Cover” series. On view through July 18.
At the Dallas Museum of Art, the focus installation Frida Kahlo: Five Works presents four lesser-known paintings and a drawing on loan from a private collection, each acting as a vehicle for understanding larger aspects of Kahlo’s artistic practice. NPR profiled the show. Forbes examined the works.