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A woman with light colored skin, wearing a black top and white pants, talks to a group of people in a gallery room. She stands in front of a large, painted portrait of a woman in a high-collared red dress.
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National Museum of Women in the Arts

Works of Distinction: Selected Donations and Loans

Ida Rittenberg Kohlmeyer, <em>Symbols</em>, 1981; Oil, graphite and pastel on canvas, 69 1/2 x 69 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay
Feb 3 to Apr 28, 1991

Please note: Information about this exhibition is limited.

Featured Artists

Isabel Bishop

A member of New York's 14th Street School, Isabel Bishop is best known for her graphic art and urban subject matter.
A black ink drawing of a woman on a beige ground. She is drawn from the neck up in three-quarter profile with a slight smile, her hair pulled back, her right hand held up to her right cheek, and her head tilted.

Leonora Carrington

Through her paintings and sculptures, Leonora Carrington often explored notions of femininity in the whimsical, dreamlike style of Surrealism.
Black-and-white photograph of a light-skinned adult woman with dark curly hair. She sits with her back to the viewer, looking over her left shoulder, her face in profile, surrounded by art supplies. A painting of nuns in a boat on rough seas sits on an easel in front of her.

Mary Cassatt

Recognized as one of the foremost 19th-century American painters and printmakers, Mary Cassatt is known for her prolific career and Impressionist artwork.
Black-and-white photograph of a seated older woman with light skin. She wears a dark dress with a fur stole and long necklace. Her dark hat is adorned with a group of large, wispy feathers and covers her hair. Her expression is open and calm.

Helen Frankenthaler

Helen Frankenthaler, a second-generation Abstract Expressionist painter, pioneered a stain technique that influenced Color Field painters like Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland.
A light-skinned older woman with short, wavy, red hair and brown eyes stands with her arms crossed. She leans against a white wall with part of a blue abstract painting behind her. She wears round silver-color earrings and a blue denim long-sleeve button-up shirt.

Frida Kahlo

Mexican painter Frida Kahlo is known for creating striking, often shocking, self-portraits that reflected her political ideology, cultural identity, and her turbulent personal life.
The artist stands in a stage-like space framed by white curtains. Beneath black hair woven with red yarn and flowers, heavy brows accent her dark-eyed gaze. Clad in a fringed, honey-toned shawl; long, pink skirt; and gold jewelry, she holds a bouquet and a handwritten letter.

Gabriele Münter

Artist Gabriele Münter, together with Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, was a founding member of Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), an influential group of German Expressionists.
A black-and-white photograph of a light-skinned adult woman with dark hair pulled back from her face. She is seated with her arm on her leg and face resting on her fist. She wears a dark collared dress with puffed sleeves and a long necklace, and makes eye contact with the viewer.

Georgia O’Keeffe

Georgia O’Keeffe was an American painter whose drawings and paintings of abstract forms, flowers, bones, and the New Mexico landscape mark her as a significant modernist painter.
A black-and-white photograph of a light-skinned older woman. Standing in front of stacked wood, she is posed from the waist up with her head turned to the left in profile. She has grey hair pulled up into a large bun. She wears a blazer with a large abstract brooch.

Lilla Cabot Perry

Although she had no formal art training until age 36, Lilla Cabot Perry became a professional painter and a devotee of French Impressionism with a formidable body of work.
Black-and-white interior photograph of a light-skinned adult woman in profile with dark hair in a bun and a light-color dress. She stands in front of an easel and holds a palatte and brushes in her left hand. She rests her right hand on a painting of a light-skinned young girl.

Judy Chicago

After more than four decades, Judy Chicago continues to be an influential feminist artist, author, and educator. Her work helped establish the Feminist Art Movement of the 1970s.
A light-skinned older woman with short purple-and-white hair smiles slightly, arms out to the side. She wears a blue sequin top with long black lace sleeves, a gold necklace, hoop earrings, and blue glasses. The sky and tree branches are behind her.

Loïs Mailou Jones

In a career spanning more than 70 years, Loïs Mailou Jones overcame racial and gender prejudices to become a successful and influential painter, designer, and educator.
Black-and-white photograph of a smiling medium-skinned older woman with white curly hair. She wears a patterned blouse and necklace with figure pendant. She holds brushes in her left hand and rests her right hand on her hip. Behind her is a painting with a figure and shapes.

Lee Krasner

Lee Krasner was one of the first generation Abstract Expressionist painters. Through six decades devoted to art, she continually explored innovative approaches to painting and collage.
Black-and-white photograph of an older light-skinned woman with short grey and white hair. She stands in a doorway, and rests her right hand against the door frame to her left and her left hand on her right forearm. She wears a dark blouse and shawl.

Dorothy Dehner

Award-winning sculptor Dorothy Dehner produced abstract works in various mediums.
A black-and-white photograph of a light-skinned older woman with short hair stands looking at a black rectangular sculpture. She wears a dark long sleeved shirt and several beaded necklaces. Both her arms are outstretched as she touches other black sculptures beside her.

Barbara Hepworth

Barbara Hepworth was among the first artists in England to create abstract sculptures, often drawing on the natural world for inspiration.
A black-and-white photograph of a light-skinned older woman with short, dark, wavy hair. She sits thoughtfully beside one of her large, white, round, abstract sculptures with her chin resting on one hand

Alma Woodsey Thomas

Alma Woodsey Thomas developed her signature style of large, abstract paintings filled with dense, irregular patterns of bright colors in her 70s.
A black-and-white photograph of an older adult woman wearing a dress with square patterns resembling a quilt. She smiles, surrounded by her paintings, holding one herself. The paintings feature different colored, thick, similarly shaped brushstrokes that create vertical stripes.

Anne Truitt

Anne Truitt created colorful wood sculptures that have been linked to Minimalism and the Washington Color School although she resisted such labels.
A black-and-white photograph of a light-skinned adult woman looking straight-on at the viewer. She sports a bowl cut with bangs cut significantly above her brow, and a collared shirt under a dark colored jacket. Behind her are delicate branches with leaves.