Throughout history, women have been creating art forever! They have also been
overlooked and undervalued compared to their male counterparts. The
challenges they have faced due to gender has created huge barriers in education,
training, traveling and representation. They have also been stereotyped as using
certain mediums such as textiles and ceramics with insinuations of demoting
them to the category of arts and crafts.
We have dealt with women artists for as long as I’ve been an art dealer who have
utilized a variety of mediums such as painting, sculpture and photography. I have
always found that women seemed to be freer with their creative attitudes and
observations trusting their inner curiosity, intuition and following their instincts.
This approach applied more to the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries as the majority
of these artists, at that time, were from wealthy families and weren’t as
competitive with their male counterparts. This changes dramatically in the 20 th
century as the founding of the American Abstract Artist Group and the New York
School of Abstract Expressionism entered the scene which re-invented American
art forever.
In 1936 the American Abstract Artist Group was founded to advance abstract art
which was met with extreme criticism. Among the founding members were
Esphyr Slobodkina and Alice Trumbull Mason, both having strong opinions and
voicing the need to provide exhibition opportunities, publications and panel
discussions. This contributed to the acceptance of abstract art in the United
States. Both of these women became presidents of the organization for their
leadership at a time when that was uncommon.
The Ab Ex movement, as it is referred to, is mainly remembered and defined by
Jackson Pollack and Willem de Kooning with their hard drinking, machismo and
gestural action painting. The women of that movement had fallen out of art’s
historical spotlight until recently and were recognized more as followers instead
of true pioneers, as compared to their male peers. Occasionally, they were invited
to the Eighth Street Club, known as the “The Club”, to debate their personal
aesthetics and emotions. Eventually the male members of “The Club” accepted
this hard-core group of women artists as it was difficult to deny their valuable
input regarding the tenets of the Ab Ex doctrine.
This core group of women never gave in and rose above the gender bias by
creating some of the greatest work of the period. Woman like Elaine de Kooning,
Mary Abbott, Joan Mitchell, Perle Fine, Michael Corinne West, Alma Thomas and
Elizabeth Catlett became role models for women artists over the past 80 years.
Our catalogue honors twenty-five women artists for who they were and respect
each of their contributions to the history of art, applauding their individual voices
that continue to reveal the inner visions that will inspire us forever.