Women of Modern Art

  Yayoi Kusama,  Narcissus Garden.  1966. (Image from Daily Art Magazine ) Artist Background   Yayoi Kusama was born in 1929 in Matsumoto, Japan. Though she was born into a wealthy family, she had a distressing childhood. Her mother and father endured an unhappy, unfit arranged marriage and from a young age, Kusama was instructed by her mother to spy on her fathers affairs with other women. Her mother was emotionally and physically abusive towards her. Needless to say, much of her childhood had left her with trauma and issues with her mental health throughout her life. She began to experience hallucinations around age 10, which sparked the beginning of her experimentation with art. She studied art in Japan and later moved to New York City in the late 1950's because she felt Japanese culture and society limited her artistic expression. She is mostly known as a contemporary artist, however, her work is so influential and extraordinary that I felt the need to write abou...

Louise Bourgeois  (Image from tate.org.uk ) Bourgeois, Louise.  Femme Maison Series. 1946-47, Museum of Modern Art.  (Image from Wikipedia -Fair Use )    Artist Background     Louise Bourgeois was an American-French artist born in Paris, France in 1911. Her parents sold tapestries and from a young age, she often helped in their tapestry workshop. She first began drawing by helping with the tapestries. Bourgeois was very close with her mother however her father had a continuous affair with Bourgeois' tutor, who happened to live in their house. According to her biography on The Art Story , this experience molded some of the themes in Bourgeois' later work, including themes of "family, motherhood, relationships, fidelity, abandonment, the body, and trust." She received extensive education in both Paris and later New York City. She was involved in Surrealist circles but became more greatly associated with the American Abstract Artists Group. Much of her le...

Fini, Leonor.  Little Hermit Sphinx. 1948, Tate Gallery.  (Image from Artstor ) Leonor Fini (Photo by Dora Marr) (Image from leonor-fini.com ) Artist Background      Leonor Fini was born in Bueno Aires, Argentina in 1907. She was known to be a rebellious and artistic child from a young age. As a young girl, she often spent time drawing though she was never professionally taught. As she grew older, she learned more through experiences with other artists than from schooling. Not only did she paint surrealist, fantastical images, she embodied them. She was known to dress extravagantly, often wearing masks and flashy garments. She was also said to have a very flamboyant, friendly spirit. Although she rejected labels, she is widely cited a one of most influential female artists of the Surrealism period.  Artwork Background     Her piece Little Hermit Sphinx  was painted in 1948. The painting shows a setting of a rundown house in which the wallpape...

Höch, Hanna.  Das Schöne Mädchen. 1920.  (Image from Artstor ) Hannah Höch   (Image from The Art Story ) Artist Background        German artist Hannah Höch was born in Gotha, 1889. As a young girl, her father emphasized the traditional role of a woman and discouraged her from pursuing art (though her mother was a painter herself). She began to study glass design and graphic arts throughout her education. However, when World War I broke out in Germany, she put her education on pause to join the Red Cross. Later she began working for a magazine and newspaper publisher. In 1918, Höch first discovered the practice of photomontage or collage, which was the basis of her later work. She was fascinated with the practice of reframing and altering images from their original states and placing them in different contexts. She was considered to be a part of the Dada movement , though much of her work was overshadowed and unrecognized due to the largely male domina...

  Alma Thomas (Photo taken by  Michael Fischer 1976 ) (Courtesy of National Museum of American Art) Thomas, Alma.  Light Blue Nursery. 1968, Smithsonian American Art Museum.    (Image from Smithsonian American Art Museum ) Artist Background     Alma Thomas was born in 1891 in Columbus, Georgia. Her family moved to Washington D.C. at 1907 "to escape the racial violence in the south", according to the National Museum of Women in the Arts . When she was young, she was interested in being an architect though it was a lofty dream at the time for any woman. She attended Howard University - with one of her professors being Loïs Mailou Jone s - and was the first graduate of its newly formed fine arts department in 1924. After graduation, she became an art teacher for 35 years at a junior high school in D.C. She later earned her Masters in Art Education. Although she painted throughout her teaching career, once she retired in 1960 she began to take her art...

Tanning, Dorothea.  Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. 1943, Tate Gallery.  (Image from dorotheatanning.org )   Dorothea Tanning (Image from wikiart.org ) Artist Background           Dorothea Tanning was an American painter born in 1910 in Galesburg, IL. Tanning was a mostly self taught artist, who took a very limited number of classes during her college years. In 1935, she moved to New York from Chicago and lived as a commercial artist. Much of her work is inspired by Surrealism and contains surreal elements. Many of those pieces also contain female figures. The authors at The Art Story write how her "exploration of the female form has led to her association with the Feminist movement." Her legacy, outside of her paintings, is greatly shaped by her work to reduce any stigmas around women working in art.  Artwork Background     Eine Kleine Nachtmusik was painted in 1943. It is an important, distinctive piece from Tanning's early works. T...

Perle Fine (Image from wikiart.org ) Fine, Perle.  Polyphonic. 1945, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.  (Image from Guggenheim.org ) Artist Background   Perle Fine was born in 1905 in Boston after her parents had immigrated to the United States from Russia. She had interests in art throughout her early life and later studied at multiple art schools and took classes from other artists such as Hans Hofmann. Wikiart.org describes her as "among the most prominent female artists associated with American Abstract Expressionism." During the late 1930's, Fine became interested in nonobjective art, which the Tate website describes as a type of abstract art that uses geometric forms to convey simplicity and purity. Among her peers were renowned artists such as Jackson Pollock, Williem de Kooning, and Louise Nevelson. Much of her work is abstract with little to no recognizable forms.  Artwork Background     Polyphonic, which means "producing many sounds simultaneously,...

  Kahlo, Frida.  The Wounded Deer. 1946.                               (Image from fridakahlo.org )                              Frida Kahlo (Image from fridakahlo.org ) Artist Background     We cannot discuss women in modern art without mentioning Frida Kahlo. Kahlo was born in 1907 in Coyoacán, Mexico City. As a child, she was very close with her father, who was in the photography business. Kahlo had a rich and expansive academic background growing up. At 18, Kahlo was involved in a near fatal bus accident that left her bedridden. During this time, she picked up art after being given paints and an easel by her parents. In 1929, she married renowned artist Diego Rivera, with whom she shared a tumultuous relationship with, due to numerous infidelities. Kahlo suffered many health issues in h...

  Kay Sage (Image from wikiart.org ) Sage, Kay.  Tomorrow is Never. 1955, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  (Image from wikiart.org ) Artist Background     Kay Sage was an American painter born in 1898 in Albany, NY. As a child, she spent a lot of time traveling and living abroad in Europe with her mother after her parents divorced. During her time in Europe, she became fond of drawing, writing, and painting. Once she moved back to the United States, she attended the Corcoran Art School in Washington, D.C. A large amount of her art is a part of the cultural movement of Surrealism, which took place in the modern art period. Her pieces are intense, vivid, and capture a great deal of depth. One common motif throughout her pieces, which exists in Tomorrow is Never , is a flowing cloth or drape.  Artwork Background     Tomorrow is Never was painted in 1955, just months after Sage's husband Yves Tanguy suddenly died. The piece seems to be reflective of t...

Jones, Loïs Mailou.  Les Fétiches. 1933, Smithsonian American Art Museum.  (Image from Smithsonian American Art Museum website ) Loïs Mailou Jones (Image from blackpast.org )   Artist Background Loïs Mailou Jones was an American painter, born in 1905 in Boston, MA. She grew up experimenting with art and eventually graduated from the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1927. She was the first African American to do so. Later in life, she taught art at the Palmer Memorial Institute and Howard University. Much of her art has themes of African culture and use of bold or vibrant color, although she also painted traditional landscapes and some portraits. Though she was not originally from New York, she was considered to be an influential artist of the Harlem Renaissance.  Artwork Background     While on sabbatical in Paris, Jones encountered depictions of African art. Using African tradition and tribal practices as inspiration, she painted Les  Fétic...