Visiting MoMA: shining a light on women artists

Feb 2

Feb 2 Visiting MoMA: shining a light on women artists

The $450 million expansion has added 47,000 more square feet.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York city reopened in October 2019, after a major expansion that adds more gallery space, more performance space, more places to eat, and room for many more people.

The materials and light are beautiful, it feels more connected to its location. The space flows beautifully but it is disorienting because there is so very much to see.

There has been a clear and assertive rethinking of how the art is presented and it’s exhilarating. More work from more of the world is on display which feels like discovering buried treasure. Especially thrilling is discovering new works by artists (I (thought) I already knew, and finding new artists unfamiliar to me.

A significant number of the artists new to me were women. Time and time again I would be drawn to a piece, check the accompanying text and find it was done a woman. It is deeply satisfying to dig deeper into the history of modern art and find so much there.

Here are some of my favorite new-to-me works by women (and the descriptions from the gallery labels):

Paula Modersohn-Becker German, 1876-1907 Self-Portrait with Two Flowers in Her Raised Left Hand 1907. Oil on canvas. From the MoMA gallery text: ”In this self-portrait, the pregnant artist looks out at us with a steady, self-possessed gaze. She re… — **Paula Modersohn-Becker**
German, 1876-1907
*Self-Portrait with Two Flowers in Her Raised Left Hand* 1907.
Oil on canvas.

From the MoMA gallery text: ”In this self-portrait, the pregnant artist looks out at us with a steady, self-possessed gaze. She rests one hand protectively on her swelling belly, and raises the other to hold two flowers—symbols of fertility. Modersohn-Becker is believed to have been the first woman to paint herself while pregnant. She was also one of the first German artists to experiment with the audacious color and simplified forms of modernism and too pursue the emotional charge such distortion s might provoke. “Personal feeling",” she wrote, “is the main thing.” This was among the last paintings the artist made: she died of complications from childbirth later the same year.

Janet Sobel American, born Ukraine. 1894-1968 Milky Way, 1945 Enamel on canvas. — **Janet Sobel**
American, born Ukraine. 1894-1968
Milky Way, 1945
Enamel on canvas.

Gertrude Greene American, 1904-1956 Construction, 1935 painted wood, board, and metal. — **Gertrude Greene**
American, 1904-1956
*Construction*, 1935
painted wood, board, and metal.

Alexandra Exter Russian, 1882-1949. Construction, 1922-23 Oil on canvas. — **Alexandra Exter**
Russian, 1882-1949.
*Construction*, 1922-23
Oil on canvas.

““This is one of the few remaining works by the artist because Nazis ransacked her studio and destroyed almost all its contents in 1939.””

— MoMA on Kobro

Katarzyna Kobro Polish, born Russia. 1898-1951 Spatial Composition (5) 1929 Painted steel.From the MoMA text: ”This work—one of Korbro’s eight Spatial Compositions, all made of painted steel—reflects her view of sculpture as a tool for “the shaping … — **Katarzyna Kobro**
Polish, born Russia. 1898-1951
*Spatial Composition* (5) 1929
Painted steel.
From the MoMA text: ”This work—one of Korbro’s eight Spatial Compositions, all made of painted steel—reflects her view of sculpture as a tool for “the shaping of space” rather than of mass, which she saw as “a betrayal of the essence of sculpture.” Her goal in creating these abstract forms was to achieve a unity between the work and its environment, a quality she found lacking in traditional sculpture.To that end, she used think, intersecting planes to create spatially open structures that have an architectural feel. Kobro believed that sculpture could function as a prototype for new urban structures and forms of experience. This is one of the few remaining works by the artist because Nazis ransacked her studio and destroyed almost all its contents in 1939.”

Sophie Taeuber-Arp Swiss, 1889-1943 Head 1920 Painted wood with glass beads on wire. — **Sophie Taeuber-Arp**
Swiss, 1889-1943
*Head* 1920
Painted wood with glass beads on wire.

Katherine S. Dreier American, 1877-1952 Abstract Portrait of Marcel Duchamp 1918 Oil on canvas.From the MoMA text: “Dreier described her painting of Marcel Duchamp as a “psychological portrait” that captures his character through color and form. The… — **Katherine S. Dreier**
American, 1877-1952
*Abstract Portrait of Marcel Duchamp* 1918
Oil on canvas.
From the MoMA text: “Dreier described her painting of Marcel Duchamp as a “psychological portrait” that captures his character through color and form. The two artists were lifelong friends, and it seems he liked the way she depicted him: it was Duchamp who encouraged MoMA to acquire Dreier’s painting. In 1920 they cofounded the Société Anonyme, which organized numerous exhibitions of European and American modern art. Dreier also amassed a private collection featuring an array of artists. Upon her death she made Duchamp an executor of her estate enabling him to gift artworks to MoMA including many of his own…”

Grace Hartigan American 1922-2008. Shinnecock Canal 1957. Oil on canvas. — **Grace Hartigan**
American 1922-2008. *Shinnecock Canal* 1957. Oil on canvas.

“Society hasn’t given us anything to believe in. There’s no icons. We don’t have any saints, we don’t have any Madonnas; we don’t have any Christs, we don’t have any kings, queens, empresses.

So what do we have? We have artists on one hand that say, okay you don’t believe in anything; we believe in painting. And artists paint about painting.”

— Grace Hartigan (in 1990, from archival recording)

Alice Neel American 1900-1984 Georgie Arce, 1952 Oil on canvas.From the gallery label: “I love you Harlem,” Neel wrote in her diary in the early 1940s, “for the rich deep vein of human feeling buried under your fire engines.” Born in Pennsylvania, … — **Alice Neel**
American 1900-1984
*Georgie Arce*, 1952
Oil on canvas.
From the gallery label: “I love you Harlem,” Neel wrote in her diary in the early 1940s, “for the rich deep vein of human feeling buried under your fire engines.” Born in Pennsylvania, Neel lived from 1938 to 1962 in Spanish Harlem, where she painted portraits of her friends, family, neighbors, and fellow artists. A chance encounter with a boy named Georgie Arce on a local street sparked a lasting friendship; Neel went on to sketch and paint him several times. Here, she describes him in thick black contours and loose brushstrokes reminiscent of 1920s German Expressionism, an important aesthetic touchstone for her.

Alice Neel American, 1900-1984 Sam and Richard, 1940 Oil pastel on colored paper — **Alice Neel**
American, 1900-1984
*Sam and Richard,* 1940
Oil pastel on colored paper

Honoré Sharrer American, 1920-2009 Workers and Paintings, 1943 Oil on board From the gallery label: Sharrer worked downtown, near Manhattan’s Union Square, but shared with her Harlem peers a desire to celebrate “ordinary people.” “It is these disti… — Honoré Sharrer
American, 1920-2009
*Workers and Paintings,* 1943
Oil on board

From the gallery label: Sharrer worked downtown, near Manhattan’s Union Square, but shared with her Harlem peers a desire to celebrate “ordinary people.” “It is these distinguished-undistinguished players,” she said, “that moved and interested me.” Sharrer depicts American families presenting and reacting to well-known paintings, including Grant Wood’s iconic *American Gothic* (1930) and Pablo Picasso’s *Girl before a Mirror* (1932). In different ways, most of the artists she chose to represent here—including the French realist Jean-François Millet and the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera—were known for their sympathetic portrayals of working people.

There are many more works by better known women artists: Louise Nevelson, Frida Kahlo, Louise Bourgeois, Helen Frankenthaler, and Yayoi Kusama for example. And there’s a wonderful temporary exhibit Artist’s Choice: Amy Sillman, The Shape of Shape, which looks like they have an artist pick things they like from the collection and strew them around a gallery like very high end yard sale. I loved it and look forward to seeing more.

Final thoughts: there’s a lot of overly contentious debate these days about identity in art and culture. The MoMA is doing wonderful job of revisiting the traditional narrative of modern art and shining a light on the overlooked and under-appreciated. We are all the better for it.