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National Museum of Women in the Arts

Library And Research Center

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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Now Open—Julie Chen: True to Life
Posted: October 12, 2020
Category: Library And Research Center
Julie Chen creates elaborate books that ask readers to do more than simply turn pages. NMWA's new exhibition presents more than a dozen captivating works from the artist's 33-year career.
A close up photograph of an artist's book. Each layer of blue paper has an organic, irregular shape cut out of the middle so the layers form a tunnel. A line of text is printed in small type on each page, receding into the tunnel like an underwater cavern.

Hit the Books with NMWA: Nonfiction
Posted: October 1, 2020
Category: Library And Research Center
In advance of NMWA's inaugural book club discussion in December, check out this series of genre-based reading lists inspired by the museum's mission to champion women artists. This week: nonfiction.
Three soft-colored paintings of prominent women artists—Kara Walker, Alice Neel, and Ana Mendieta (left to right)—against backgrounds of colorful shapes. Walker has medium-dark skin and dark hair; Neel has light skin and short, brown hair; and Mendieta had light skin and long, dark hair.

Opposites Attract: Linda Nochlin and Joan Mitchell
Posted: September 28, 2020
Category: Library And Research Center
The close friendship between art historian, critic, and curator Linda Nochlin and painter Joan Mitchell may have thrived in part because Nochlin’s analytic ice proved a valuable counterpoint to Mitchell’s...
Close-up detail of an abstract painting with very thick and gestural brushstrokes of mostly orange paint.

Hit the Books with NMWA: Graphic Novels
Posted: August 26, 2020
Category: Library And Research Center
In advance of NMWA's inaugural book club discussion in December, check out this series of genre-based reading lists inspired by the museum's mission to champion women artists. First up: graphic...

Linda Nochlin: The Maverick She
Posted: June 8, 2020
Category: Library And Research Center
Much of the way historians study art today can be traced to the contributions of Linda Nochlin, a scholar, critic, and curator who, beginning in the 1960s, tore through traditional...

Women Artists of the DMV: Maria Verónica San Martín’s “In Their Memory”
Posted: January 23, 2020
Category: Library And Research Center
Maria Verónica San Martín's work functions as a tactile form of resistance—it critically examines power structures and the sanitization of historical atrocities.

Women Artists of the DMV: Malaka Gharib’s “I Was Their American Dream”
Posted: November 27, 2019
Category: Library And Research Center
Malaka Gharib's graphic memoir, I Was Their American Dream, chronicles her multicultural upbringing as the daughter of a Filipino Catholic mother and an Egyptian Muslim father.

The Judy Chicago Research Portal: Preserving an Artistic Legacy
Posted: November 6, 2019
Category: Library And Research Center
Feminist artist Judy Chicago has spent her career teaching and making art that centers her experiences as a woman. As part of Chicago’s efforts to overcome the erasure that has...

Now Open: DMV Color
Posted: November 4, 2019
Category: Library And Research Center
Washington, D.C., and its surroundings have long been home to a rich community of artists of color, including those born and raised here and others who built connections to the...

Power in My Hand: Five Women Artists in Conversation with Emily Dickinson
Posted: October 23, 2019
Category: Library And Research Center
Five works in the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center’s exhibition Power in My Hand: Women Poets, Women Artists, and Social Change testify to the enduring legacy of Emily...