Rotunda
Rubra, 2016
Joana Vasconcelos (b. 1971, Paris)
Murano glass, hand-crocheted wool, ornaments, LED lighting, polyester, and iron; Gift of Christine Suppes
Vasconcelos admires the history of what she calls “feminine techniques” such as crochet, and she revels in needlework’s capacity to transcend conventional ideas about elegance. An iron chandelier festooned with wool, blown glass, and ornaments, Rubra is functional but also extravagant, startling, and joyous. The artist describes her sculpture as “a festive, baroque dance,’” meant to draw each of us into the fun.
Alpeyt—Wild Flowers, 1999
Audrey Morton Kngwarreye (Alyawarre language group, b. ca. 1952, Ngkwarlerlaneme and Arnkawenyerr, Australia)
Acrylic on canvas; Gift of Ann Shumelda Okerson and James J. O’Donnell
Kngwarreye’s image interprets the acacia plant (called alpeyt in the artist’s language group); its seeds were long used as a food source for Indigenous Australian communities. In the 1970s and 1980s, Kngwarreye participated in batik workshops related to the Land Rights Movement, in which Aboriginal people sought to sustain their culture and reclaim their homelands. In addition to batik, members of these communities began to make paintings, with women artists quickly becoming a dynamic force in contemporary Australian art.
Call to Church and Flowers, 1970
Clementine Hunter (b. 1886 or 1887, near Cloutierville, Louisiana; d. 1988, near Natchitoches, Louisiana)
Oil on canvas; Gift of Dr. Robert F. Ryan
Hunter worked as a cook at a plantation in northern Louisiana before teaching herself to paint. Her images depict activities that shaped her community, including planting, harvesting, laundry days, visits to the honky-tonk, and gatherings at church. Over the last five decades of her life, she created quilts and paintings on canvas, bottles, boards, jugs, spittoons, and lampshades and became one of her state’s most admired artists.
Great Hall
Untitled (Savannah’s Birthday Party), 2006
Angela Strassheim (b. 1969, Bloomfield, Iowa)
Chromogenic color print; Gift of Heather and Tony Podesta Collection
Goshogaoka Girls Basketball Team: Chihiro Nishijima; Sayaka Miyamoto and Takako Yamada; Kumiko Shirai and Eri Hashimoto; Kumiko Kotake, 1997
Sharon Lockhart (b. 1964, Norwood, Massachusetts)
Chromogenic color prints; Gift of Tony Podesta Collection
Untitled (Ashley on Her Horse), 2006
Angela Strassheim (b. 1969, Bloomfield, Iowa)
Chromogenic color print; Gift from the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Gift of Heather and Tony Podesta Collection)
Tempelhof at Dawn, photographic still from The Rape of the Sabine Women, 2005
Eve Sussman and Rufus Corporation
Eve Sussman (b. 1961, London; Rufus Corporation, founded 2003)
Chromogenic color print; Gift of Heather and Tony Podesta Collection
Themis in the Bird Cage, photographic still from The Rape of the Sabine Women, 2005
Eve Sussman and Rufus Corporation
Eve Sussman (b. 1961, London; Rufus Corporation, founded 2003)
Chromogenic color print; Gift of Heather and Tony Podesta Collection
For her eighty-minute, dialogue-free film The Rape of the Sabine Women, Sussman sought inspiration in art history, Roman legend, and the stylish 1960s. Now primarily a filmmaker, she draws on her photography background to compose precise scenes. She notes, “If you stop filming at any moment, you will see a compelling photograph.” Framed to emphasize the intersection of the prominent bird cage and a female figure, this scene conjures both the ancient tale of abduction and Themis, the Titan goddess of divine law and order.
Women in the S-Bahn, photographic still from The Rape of the Sabine Women, 2005
Eve Sussman and Rufus Corporation
Eve Sussman (b. 1961, London; Rufus Corporation, founded 2003)
Chromogenic color print; Gift of Heather and Tony Podesta Collection
Mezzanine
Portrait d’une jeune femme (Portrait of a Young Woman), 1873–74
Eva Gonzalès (b. 1849, Paris; d. 1883, Paris)
Oil on canvas; Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay
A French Impressionist painter, Gonzalès was interested in how colors and textures could be affected by changing conditions of light. Her sitter’s attire allowed Gonzalès to draw out a spectrum of nuance in a white dress and hat by using different techniques. The silky satin sheen of her sleeves and bodice, diaphanous stole around her arms, and delicate wisps of feathers on her hat—made by short rapid strokes from a dry brush—demonstrate Gonzalès’s mastery of Impressionist techniques.
Blue Lady, 2004
Amalia Amaki (b. 1949, Atlanta)
Digital print; Museum purchase: The Lois Pollard Price Acquisition Fund
Instead of aiming to capture the specific likeness of an individual, Amaki created this blue-hued photograph to pay homage to all Black women who contributed to the evolution of the musical genre known as the blues. Women, particularly their influence on Black culture, are a common subject in Amaki’s work, which includes photography, quilts, and collage.
Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky, 1937
Frida Kahlo (b. 1907, Coyoacán, Mexico; d. 1954, Coyoacán, Mexico)
Oil on Masonite; Gift of the Honorable Clare Boothe Luce
Kahlo began painting while she recuperated from an accident that left her in chronic pain for the rest of her life. In numerous self-portraits, Kahlo explored her inner psychology and recorded significant moments in her life. She dedicated this self-portrait to the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky, with whom she had an affair while he was living in exile in Mexico. Using the format of traditional Mexican retablos, private devotional images, Kahlo presents herself wearing clothing associated with Zapotec women of southwest Mexico, thereby aligning herself with the anti-colonial Mexicanidad movement.
The Bride, 2001
Hung Liu (b. 1948, Changchun, China; d. 2021, Oakland, California)
Lithograph on paper; Promised gift of Steven Scott, Baltimore, in honor of the artist and the thirtieth anniversary of the National Museum of Women in the Arts
In her layered artwork, Liu commemorated the lives of forgotten individuals in history, particularly women. Basing her compositions on historical photographs from pre-revolutionary China, she created portraits that counter the erasure of her subjects’ cultural histories and personal stories. The Bride depicts a young woman in a traditional red wedding dress and an elaborate headpiece. Liu added traditional Chinese pictorial motifs, such as flowers and dragons, as well as her hallmark streaks of color that seem to drip or “weep” down the surface of the work.
Self-Portrait, 1917
Alice Bailly (b. 1872, Geneva; d. 1939, Lausanne, Switzerland)
Oil on canvas; Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay
Bailly was one of Switzerland’s most radical painters in the early twentieth century, and her Geneva apartment was a popular meeting place for artists, poets, and musicians. Reflecting her creative spirit, this dynamic self-portrait fuses elements of various artistic movements. The strong, angular outlines of her hands, neck, and shoulders recall Futurist painting, while the combination of bright colors is a hallmark of Fauvism. Her deconstructed paintbrush and palette, which seem to hover above her hand, borrow from Cubism, in which multiple perspectives are incorporated in one image.
Portrait of an Artist, ca. 1795
Adèle Romany (b. 1769, Paris; d. 1846, Paris)
Oil on canvas; Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay
The woman in this portrait is traditionally identified as “Mademoiselle Halbou,” who may be related to French printmaker Louis Michel Halbou (1730–1809). The composition features items suggesting that she, too, is an artist, such as the stylus in her hand and folio of papers, presumably sketches. Sheets of music may allude to her talent in that art form as well.
Portrait of Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, 2007
Nati Cañada (b. 1942, Oliete, Spain)
Oil on wood; Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay
Stairwell Landing, Second Floor
Bacchus #3, 1978
Elaine de Kooning (b. 1918, Brooklyn, New York; d. 1989, Southampton, New York)
Acrylic and charcoal on canvas; Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay
Stairwell Landing, Third Floor
Superwoman, 1973
Kiki Kogelnik (b. 1935, Bleiburg, Austria; d. 1997, Vienna)
Oil on canvas; Gift of the Honorable Joseph P. Carroll and Mrs. Carroll
Elevator Lobby, Fourth Floor
What if Women Ruled the World, 2016
Yael Bartana (b. 1970, Kfar Yehezkel, Israel)
Neon; Museum purchase: Belinda de Gaudemar Acquisition Fund, with additional support from the Members’ Acquisition Fund