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.
Political Ribbons (Fondazione Furla/GAM Milan), 2022
Andrea Bowers (b. 1965, Wilmington, Ohio)
Silkscreen ink on satin ribbons; Courtesy of the Shah Garg Collection
Bowers works through a feminist lens, examining contemporary political issues such as immigration, climate change, labor, and women’s rights within the larger context of American history and feminist activism. Motivated to create a historical record of artistic and political movements through her own art practice, she uses a variety of mediums to approach complex topics through an accessible and direct vocabulary. The participatory work Political Ribbons (Fondazione Furla/GAM Milan) illustrates the aesthetic power of language. The piece consists of hundreds of ribbons printed with phrases such as “Sexism Sucks” and “It Is Not Enough to Be Compassionate.”
Great Hall: Ms. Americana
In honor of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, this presentation of ten historical paintings from the collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts shares a deeper story behind artistic traditions in the United States. Charming still lifes, stately portraits, and vibrant landscapes by nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century artists embody the “Americana” aesthetic, evoking the nation’s history and nostalgia for the past. The women who created these paintings pursued their own independence and personal enlightenment. They traveled the world, ran their own businesses, and actively engaged politicians and heads of state.
This installation is an extension of the museum’s collection galleries on the third floor, where artworks are organized around themes.
June, ca. 1893
Ellen Day Hale (b. 1855, Worcester, Massachusetts; d. 1940, Brookline, Massachusetts)
Oil on canvas; Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay
Love’s Young Dream, 1887
Jennie Augusta Brownscombe (b. 1850, Honesdale, Pennsylvania; d. 1936, Bayside, New York)
Oil on canvas; Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay
Born and raised in rural Pennsylvania, Brownscombe painted genre scenes inspired by her own life. Her works grew in popularity for their sentimental atmosphere and romanticization of U.S. history. To support herself, she sold the rights to reproduce more than one hundred of her paintings as inexpensive prints that were circulated around the country. While her popularity and financial success largely came from the sale of her prints, toward the end of her career, she also sold her oil paintings for high sums.
Still Life with Strawberries, ca. late 1820s
Anna Claypoole Peale (b. 1791, Philadelphia; d. 1878, Philadelphia)
Oil on canvas; Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay
Still Life with Watermelon, Pears, and Grapes, ca. 1859
Lilly Martin Spencer (b. 1822, Exeter, England; d. 1902, New York City)
Oil on canvas; Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay
Ethel Page (Mrs. James Large), 1884
Cecilia Beaux (b. 1855, Philadelphia; d. 1942, Gloucester, Massachusetts)
Oil on canvas; Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay
Beaux received critical acclaim when she first exhibited this richly brushed portrait at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Prominent Philadelphia-based artist Thomas Eakins (1844–1916) took false credit as her mentor, and an annoyed Beaux made it known that Eakins had little influence on her work. She went on to exhibit her paintings at institutions across the U.S. and Europe. In 1933, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt presented Beaux with Chi Omega sorority’s gold medal to honor her exceptional contributions to American art.
Susan Avery, 1821
Sarah Miriam Peale (b. 1800, Philadelphia; d. 1885, Philadelphia)
Oil on canvas; Museum purchase: Lois Pollard Price Acquisition Fund
Part of a large family of artists, Peale enjoyed great success as a portrait painter. Remaining unmarried, she operated multiple painting studios and attracted high-profile clients, including the Marquis de Lafayette, renowned as a military hero of the American Revolutionary War. In this portrait of Philadelphian Susan Avery, whose husband, Isaac, likely manufactured or sold luxury goods, Peale’s precise brushwork and thin oil glazes emphasize the varying textures of Avery’s skin, hair, lace collar, and gleaming jewelry.
Isaac Avery, 1821
Sarah Miriam Peale (b. 1800, Philadelphia; d. 1885, Philadelphia)
Oil on canvas; Museum purchase: Lois Pollard Price Acquisition Fund
Beach Scene, ca. 1935
Jane Peterson (b. 1876, Elgin, Illinois; d. 1965, Leawood, Kansas)
Oil on canvas board; Gift of Caryl and Martin Horwitz
Seeking rigorous artistic training, a teenaged Peterson left the Midwest to study at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She became well known for her impressionistic cityscapes, though she later acquiesced when her first husband (whom she married when she was forty-nine years old) encouraged her to paint floral still lifes. After his death, however, Peterson developed the more modern style seen in this image of Florida’s Palm Beach. Archival photographs show the artist working outdoors, with the legs of her easel sunk deep into the sand.
Lady with a Bowl of Violets, ca. 1910
Lilla Cabot Perry (b. 1848, Boston; d. 1933, Hancock, New Hampshire)
Oil on canvas; Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay
Although she did not begin formal training as an artist until her thirties, Perry quickly achieved success, selling her works to support her family. At the turn of the century, she moved to Tokyo due to her husband’s career, making her one of few American women artists of the period to study and exhibit work in Japan. Her art reflects the inspiration and influences she found there. In Lady with a Bowl of Violets, the artist used loose, impressionistic brushstrokes and added a Japanese-inspired print and floral arrangement behind the sitter.
Call to Church and Flowers, 1970
Clementine Hunter (b. 1886 or 1887, near Cloutierville, Louisiana; d. 1988, Natchitoches, Louisiana)
Oil on canvas; Gift of Dr. Robert F. Ryan
Hunter worked in the fields and kitchen of Melrose Plantation in Louisiana for decades before the property’s owners developed it into an artists’ retreat. Inspired by visitors, Hunter taught herself to paint in her late fifties and created thousands of paintings on canvas, wood, gourds, cutting boards, and plastic milk jugs. Her portrayals of flowers, landscapes, weddings, funerals, and farming scenes were instantly popular with folk art collectors, and numerous forgers created works that they attempted to pass off as Hunter’s.
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