Displaying items by tag: Women Artists

On April 28, the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) unveils a major exhibition examining the contributions and the legacy of women working in the applied arts during the mid 20th century, a time when curatorial attention and prestige were lavished on
 their male counterparts and those working in the fine arts. Installed on two floors of the museum, “Pathmakers: Women in Art, Craft, and Design, Midcentury and Today” showcases works by three dozen artists associated with craft centers such as the Bauhaus in Germany and later, the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan.

Until 2005, the 78-year-old Institute of Contemporary Art had no permanent collection, assembling most of its shows with borrowed works. Philanthropist and ICA board member Barbara Lee gave the museum one of its first pieces: British sculptor Cornelia Parker’s “Hanging Fire (Suspected Arson),” an ethereal work that has become a favorite of visitors.

Now Lee has given the ICA a much weightier gift: a group of 43 works by 25 international artists, all women. The Barbara Lee Collection of Art by Women, the institution’s largest gift of art ever, will expand the ICA’s holdings by roughly 30 percent, ICA director Jill Medvedow said.

These were the candid and elated words of newspaper correspondent Charlotte Ricker when, in 1882, she reached the summit of New Hampshire’s South Twin Mountain along with the first group of women ever to ascend the peak. During the latter half of the nineteenth century, Ricker was one of a larger group of women who played pioneering roles in the exploration of the American outdoors and lived impressive lives as writers, poets, hikers, and landscape painters. The achievements of these women—who broke the bounds of imposed gender restrictions to carve out lives of accomplishment, adventure and independence—appear all the more extraordinary when one considers the historical and social context within which they took place.