Artist Spotlight

View of the museum from outside showing the Neoclassical building from one corner. The building is a tan-colored stone with an arched doorway, long vertical windows, and detailed molding around the roof.

5 Fast Facts: Toshiko Takaezu

Posted: February 22, 2016
Category: Artist Spotlight
Impress your friends with five fast facts about designer Toshiko Takaezu, whose work is on view in Pathmakers: Women in Art, Craft, and Design, Midcentury and Today through February 28,...
A black-and-white photograph of a light-skinned, dark-haired, Asian adult woman smiling while wearing a smock in her studio. In the foreground are two of her large sculptures; she has her hand on one of them.

“Fountain Lady”: Ruth Asawa in San Francisco

Posted: February 16, 2016
Category: Artist Spotlight
While visiting family in San Francisco, I visited some of the city’s public artworks by Ruth Asawa, one of the artists featured in NMWA’s exhibition Pathmakers: Women in Art, Craft,...
A black-and-white photograph of Ruth Asawa holding one of her large, wire crochet sculptures, draped over her shoulder and in both hands. She is a light-skinned, Asian, adult woman with black hair and blunt bangs.

5 Fast Facts: Agnes Martin

Posted: February 10, 2016
Category: Artist Spotlight
Impress your friends with five fast facts about Agnes Martin whose work is on view in Pathmakers: Women in Art, Craft, and Design, Midcentury and Today through February 28, 2016.
Painting with nine by twenty-six grids formed by pencil on a textured, gray background. Tiny silver nail heads hug the top and bottom of each section. Exact in design, the effect is one of imperfection as the lines are not perfectly straight and the nails do not totally line up.

Patterned Pathmakers

Posted: January 27, 2016
Category: Artist Spotlight
Dynamic women designers and artists from the mid-20th century and today create innovative designs, maintain craft traditions, and incorporate new aesthetics into fine art in Pathmakers: Women in Art, Craft, and...
View of a gallery space. On a black wall, it says " Pathmakers: Women in Art, Craft, and Design, Midcentury and Today" in big, white letters, Two pendant lights are hanging from the ceiling to the left.

Puzzling Pathmakers

Posted: January 19, 2016
Category: Artist Spotlight
Dynamic women designers and artists from the mid-20th century and today create innovative designs, maintain craft traditions, and incorporate new aesthetics into fine art in Pathmakers: Women in Art, Craft,...
View of a gallery space. On a black wall, it says " Pathmakers: Women in Art, Craft, and Design, Midcentury and Today" in big, white letters, Two pendant lights are hanging from the ceiling to the left.

Profound Pathmakers

Posted: January 12, 2016
Category: Artist Spotlight
Dynamic women designers and artists from the mid-20th century and today create innovative designs, maintain craft traditions, and incorporate new aesthetics into fine art in Pathmakers: Women in Art, Craft,...
View of a gallery space. On a black wall, it says " Pathmakers: Women in Art, Craft, and Design, Midcentury and Today" in big, white letters, Two pendant lights are hanging from the ceiling to the left.

Ancient Awakening: Lenore Tawney’s “Lekythos”

Posted: January 6, 2016
Category: Artist Spotlight
Pathmakers: Women in Art, Craft, and Design, Midcentury and Today, now on view at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, draws attention to influential women artists and designers...
View of a gallery space. On a black wall, it says " Pathmakers: Women in Art, Craft, and Design, Midcentury and Today" in big, white letters, Two pendant lights are hanging from the ceiling to the left.

Playful Pathmakers

Posted: January 4, 2016
Category: Artist Spotlight
Dynamic women designers and artists from the mid-20th century and today create innovative designs, maintain craft traditions, and incorporate new aesthetics into fine art in Pathmakers: Women in Art, Craft,...
View of a gallery space. On a black wall, it says " Pathmakers: Women in Art, Craft, and Design, Midcentury and Today" in big, white letters, Two pendant lights are hanging from the ceiling to the left.

Passionate Pathmakers

Posted: December 29, 2015
Category: Artist Spotlight
Dynamic women designers and artists from the mid-20th century and today create innovative designs, maintain craft traditions, and incorporate new aesthetics into fine art in Pathmakers: Women in Art, Craft, and...
View of a gallery space. On a black wall, it says " Pathmakers: Women in Art, Craft, and Design, Midcentury and Today" in big, white letters, Two pendant lights are hanging from the ceiling to the left.

Snowy Spectacle: NMWA’s Wintry Works

Posted: December 22, 2015
Category: Artist Spotlight
Explore two wintry works in NMWA's collection, Gabriele Münter’s Breakfast of the Birds (1934) and Joan Mitchell’s Sale Neige (1980), which encourage deep contemplation.
A vertical, abstraction features broadly painted strokes of pale gray, lavender, and cobalt in the upper two-thirds of the canvas. The colors continue in the lower third, along with touches of green, black, and other hues, but the expressive brushwork becomes denser and chaotic.