blogwomeninarthistory-blog

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Maria Montoya Martinez. Black-on-black ceramic vessel. 1939. blackware ceramic. 11 1/8”x 13”. Tewa, Puebloan.

Maria Montoya Martinez, born in 1887 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is considered the best known Native American potter and ceramic artist of the 20th century. Her work transformed the view of Native art into what is considered to be fine art. Traditional Puebloan pottery and ceramic vessels were meant to be functional for storage, cooking, and ceremonial practices. Unfortunately the demand for these vessels declined in the late 19th century. Martinez began selling her ceramics as fine art instead of a functional vessel, and they gained popularity once again. Her unique style of matte black on polished black appealed to the outside world, and helped her gain her success as a well known artist. She learned her ceramic techniques from her family members, and in her later work, begins signing her pottery with her family’s name, as pottery in the Puebloan community is considered a group activity where every process is shared amongst the community.

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Camille Claudel. “Vertumnus and Pomona”. 1905. Marble on red marble base. H 91cm; W 80.6cm; D 41.8cm. S1293.

Born in 1864 in Fère-en-Tardenois, France, Camille Claudel was known for her narrative and emotion captured within her sculptures. She’s able to sculpt very fluid, organic shapes that give her sculptures movement and energy. Although she is closely associated with her teacher and lover, Auguste Rodin, she has certainly made a name for herself as an artist, and her work proves that. Most of Claudel’s work depicts scenes of love. Unfortunately after 1905, Claudel was admitted into the psychiatric hospital, Ville-Évrard in Neuillu-sur-Marne. It is unclear whether or not she was indeed mentally ill. Some reports say that she was schizophrenic, while there are documents showing that Claudel’s doctors tried to convince her mother and brother that she should be released from their care. Claudel’s family refused to allow her to leave, and never visited her. After 30 years of being in the asylum, Claudel died and had no funeral, and was buried in a communal grave.

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Ike (Tokuyama) Gyokuran. “Autumnal Landscape”. Edo period. Fan mounted as a hanging scroll. ink and color on paper. 7 1/2”x 20 9/16”.

Tokuyama Gyokuran was a female Japanese literati painter during the late Edo Period. Born in 1728, she was raised by her mother and grandmother, who were both respected poets who also owned a tea house together. Since she was born out of wedlock, it is unclear who her father was, but it is popular belief he was a samauri. She was trained under Yanagisa Kien, who she met at her mother’s tea house. Gyokuran’s husband, Taiga, also trained under Yanagia and likely matched them together, and taught her the Nanga or southern painting style. Gyokuran and her husband’s relationship was considered eccentric at their time, as they considered eachother equals, which was very unusual as japanese society during the Edo period believed men were superior to women. It was also very rare for there to be female painters in Edo Japan. Gyokuran was best known for her sliding door and fan paintings, calligraphy, and poetry, which typically depicted landscape and other natural scenes.

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Gertrude Käsebier. “Blessed Art Thou Among Women”. 1899. photograph, platinum print. 23x13.2 cm. 33.43.132

Gertrude Käsebier, born 1852 and died 1934, was an American female photographer from Des Moines, Iowa. After raising her family, Käserbier studied at the Pratt Institue in Brooklyn, New York. This photo is a representation of ideal motherhood and the appropriate female role. This photo was purposely over exposed for a etherial quality around the mother, who is dressed in white. This is a stark contrast to her daughter, who is dressed in a dark school uniform. The biblical title of the photo also emphasizes the Victorian ideals of the time, along with the print of “The Annunciation” behind the two women. Domestic images were not uncommon subjects for female artists, as that was typically what they were exposed to in their day to day life. These mundane and domestic scenes were gaining popularity in the world of photography in art. Käsebier was also known for her portrait photographs of Native Americans.

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canvas at VMFA

Howardena Pindell, “Untitled,c.” 1968. acrylic and cray-pas on canvas. 1104x1200

Howardena Pindell is an african american painter, mixed media, and performance artist. Pindell was born in 1943 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her work explores politics, racism, feminism, slavery, and violence and how these issues are connected to one another. Pindell studied at both Boston University and Yale University, worked as an exhibition assistant and associate curator of illustrated books and prints at the MoMA, and published many essays on race and feminism and the inclusion of black female artists in museums. Pindell’s early works are described as paper versions of the large brush strokes of the post-impressionist painters. Her work also explores the blandness and repetition of office work in her “Untitled” 1977 piece of the repetitive hole punching action. Pindell’s style of abstraction and mixed media is uniquely her own in her use of both bright, saturated color in her later pieces and simple black and white palettes to represent the mundanity of her early pieces.

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Harriet Powers. “Bible Quilt”. 1885-86. 75”x89”. cotton fabric, thread, and filling. TE.T14713

Harriet Powers was a female, slave textile artist from rural Clarke County, Georgia. Powers was born in 1837 into slavery in Athens, Georgia, then was freed after the civil war and got married to Armstead Powers. As a slave she learned appliqué techniques from her plantation mistress and other slaves before being emacipated. Her work depicts biblical scenes, local legends, and astronomical influence. Her quilting style uses pictoral designs that she creates using traditional appliqué techniques. This quilt in particular was sold to a woman named Jennie Smith, who was the head of the art department at the Lucy Cobb institute, for $5 in 1891. In 1895, Smith entered Powers’s quilt in the “1895 Cotton States and International Exposition” in Atlanta where it gained a lot of attention. After this Powers was commissioned to create another narrative quilt in 1898 for the Reverend Charles Cuthbert Hall. This quilt had both biblical and astronomical events.