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.
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Women with Wanderlust

Posted: June 10, 2015
Category: Artist Spotlight
During the press preview for Super Natural, NMWA Chief Curator Kathryn Wat stressed one fact above all others about featured artist Maria Sibylla Merian: this woman was radical. Not only...
A detailed engraving portrays a large, black and tan lizard with a white belly in precise detail. Facing right and positioned over a green surface and a hatching egg, the reptile bites a long, red and black snake attacking another egg and curling around the lizard's tail.

5 Questions with Jennifer Celio

Posted: June 8, 2015
Category: Artist Spotlight
The fourth installment of NMWA’s biennial exhibition series, Organic Matters—Women to Watch 2015 is presented by the museum and participating national and international outreach committees. The exhibition’s artists redefine the...
View of a gallery space. In big letters green , the text on the wall reads "Women to Watch: Organic Matters, 2015."

5 Fast Facts: Rachel Ruysch

Posted: June 2, 2015
Category: Artist Spotlight
Impress your friends with five fast facts about Rachel Ruysch, whose work will be on view at NMWA in Super Natural, June 5–September 13, 2015.
A still life painting featuring an asymmetrical arrangement of flowers; the central section features pink, orange, yellow, and blue flowers and is dramatically highlighted compared to the background and outer edge of arrangement.

Not Losing their Luster—Ceramics by Daisy Makeig-Jones

Posted: May 28, 2015
Category: Artist Spotlight
NMWA exhibition Casting a Spell: Ceramics by Daisy Makeig-Jones features work that the artist (1881–1945) created for the Wedgwood pottery company. She is best known for Fairyland Lusterware, a Wedgwood...
Porcelain pedestal bowl featuring an iridescent lustreware glaze. Around the bowl, winged fairies and sprites cavort on a vibrant green field set against a deep blue background. The figures and the decorative elements along the rim and foot of the bowl are outlined in gold cloisonne.

“Say It Enough and It Becomes . . .”

Posted: April 8, 2015
Category: Artist Spotlight
Despite everything we learned in school about sticks and stones, language has an immense impact on the world. Words transform perceptions, and once words are spoken they can continue to...
A silhouette of a woman painting and several words in red and black. The words include "Defensive" and "Jitters", repeatedly painted onto the surface.

5 Fast Facts: Andrea Higgins

Posted: March 16, 2015
Category: Artist Spotlight
Impress your friends with five fast facts about Andrea Higgins, whose work is currently on view at NMWA in the collection galleries.
Close-up detail of a larger abstract artwork features thick black paint meticulously applied in small neat rectangles alternating orientation to form a grid. There is a minuscule amount of space between the tiles that allows a pink background to show through.

The Female Form through Female Eyes

Posted: March 12, 2015
Category: Artist Spotlight
Nearly 300 years apart, Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1656) and French artist Suzanne Valadon (1865–1938) both used their perspectives as women to capture the power and complexity of the female...
Against a dark black and brown background, a light skinned woman in a red dress with wavy reddish-brown hair wears a white cloth and gold crown around her head. Her right hand clutches a palm while her left grazes a spiked breaking wheel. She stares straight at the viewer.

Blood and Milk, Science and Culture: The Virgin as a Nursing Mother

Posted: February 4, 2015
Category: Artist Spotlight
The figure of the Virgin Mary has been used in art as an ideal woman, poetic beauty, and perfect mother. An example within Picturing Mary: Woman, Mother, Idea of the Virgin...
View of a gallery space with blue walls. On the left is a painting of a woman in a dark blue dress in a golden frame. Next to it is a red cloth framed in glass.

Recent library acquisitions: Bookplates by Helena Bochořáková-Dittrichová

Posted: January 27, 2015
Category: Artist Spotlight
Museum visitors may remember the recent exhibition in NMWA’s Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center featuring wordless novels by the first woman graphic novelist, Czech artist Helena Bochořáková-Dittrichová. Her bold black-and-white...
A bookshelf packed with colorful books about women artists.

5 Fast Facts: Sofonisba Anguissola

Posted: January 21, 2015
Category: Artist Spotlight
Impress your friends with five fast facts about Italian artist Sofonisba Anguissola, whose work is currently on view at NMWA in Picturing Mary.
Three quarter length painting of a woman standing against a dark background. She is wearing a sumptuous red Renaissance-style dress with a high lace collar. Standing next to her at bottom left is a child holding a small spaniel.