Anna Ancher is the face of A World Apart, but hers is not the only visage gracing canvases. The Skagen artists painted the local townspeople but also modeled for each other’s works. These portraits provide glimpses into artists’ interrelationships within the colony.

Anna Ancher, The new hunting boots, 1903

Anna Ancher used her husband Michael Ancher as the subject of several of works set inside their home, depicting him dining in Breakfast before the hunt, painting in Michael Ancher before an easel, and deliberating between shoe options in The new hunting boots. The latter provides a humorous narrative, poking fun at Michael’s indecisiveness over a trivial matter while emphasizing his paunchy belly. Anna’s unflattering depiction of her husband is harmless and signifies the couple’s easy relationship.

In Michael’s Anna Ancher returning from the field, the Skagen native wears a loose-fitting dress and straw hat. Michael portrayed her as active and content while confidently meeting the viewer’s gaze. The sunny composition exemplifies Michael’s talents and reflects his warm relationship with his wife.

In contrast, P.S. Krøyer’s Summer Evening in Skagen depicts a melancholy woman—the artist’s wife, Marie Krøyer. Elegant but reserved, she is shown turned from the viewer. Her fashionable dress pops against the blue expanse behind her. Perhaps Krøyer’s rendering of Marie’s wistful beauty alludes to their troubled relationship.

(Left) Michael Ancher, Anna Ancher returning from the field, 1902; (Right) P.S. Krøyer , Summer evening at Skagen, 1892

The tightly-knit artists portrayed each other as artistic and societal equals—or rivals. In By the fireside (Portrait of Holger Drachmann with a red fez), Krøyer depicts his fellow artist with polish and pomp. Rendered with all the trappings of a distinguished individual, Drachmann sports shiny shoes and an eccentric red fez. Framed art clutters the walls of his comfortable room, and various pipes lay scattered on a side table.

P.S. Krøyer, By the fireside (Portrait of Holger Drachmann with a red fez)

The work seems to present a collaborative, lively friendship. Much to Drachmann’s displeasure, however, Krøyer was frequently ill and took longer than expected to finish the painting. Unsympathetic, Drachmann expressed his frustrations at the amount of time he’d spent modeling for Krøyer:

 “Let us not beat about the bush. It will be completely impossible for me to give you more than at the most a further week to finish the painting…I must again have my days and evenings completely at my disposal. I, too, must live by my work…One must be economical with other people’s time and strength—and you are not.” ¹

Drachmann’s lack of compassion for Krøyer’s afflictions may be due, in part, to his resentment of Krøyer’s reputation as the most famous talent of the colony.

Anna Ancher, Old man whittling sticks, (Fisherman Lars Gaihede), 1880

In contrast to the artists’ grand depictions of one another, the show also features small portraits of rustic townspeople, including Anna Ancher’s unidealized portrayal of a fisherman in Old man whittling sticks. With serious faces against stark backgrounds, they are shown in a “no frills” manner. Conversely, Skagen painters also elevated fishermen as heroic subjects for braving the formidable seas.

Connecting faces with names, A World Apart offers visitors the rare opportunity to understand the works of these Skagen painters, both as artists and as models.

—Emily Haight is the publications and marketing/communications intern at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Notes:

1. Svanholm, L. (2004). Northern Light: The Skagen Painters. Denmark: Gyldendal, p. 184.

“Natural forms have a voice, have a pulse,” artist Freya Grand told NMWA visitors on International Women’s Day, as she talked about her works on view in Minding the Landscape.

The exhibition showcases enlivening paintings and drawings of mountains, seashores, and plains, subjects drawn from her extensive travels.

Grand traces the “conversion experience” that started her landscape painting to a fateful hiking trip in the Andes in 2000. She realized that nature was “the most authentic thing I could explore.” From that point on, she describes, “I try to absorb [natural forms], possess them, make them my own.”

Immersed in her own emotions and associations, Freya’s works are painted memories of her experiences.

In Glen Etive, she conveys the melancholy quality of Scotland by depicting its craggy mountain peaks, just barely visible under a layer of thick, milky fog. Grand says the landscape helped her to “understand the wailing, mournful sound of bagpipes.”

Tungurahua, 2011; Oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in.; Image courtesy of the artist

The large-scale painting Tungurahua exemplifies her ability to capture the ominous beauty of a place. Depicting the “business end” of the Peruvian volcano, Grand visually links its “blunt power” and “lush, sensual beauty” through fluid brushstrokes and luminous colors.

Grand’s small block paintings—“the excerpted pieces of the movie of where I’d been”—feel to the viewer like “looking through a small aperture.”

These compressed works offer a complement to her large paintings on canvas. Exploring a variety of perspectives, they range from long-distance glimpses to abstracted close-ups and bird’s-eye-views, providing a whirlwind impression of Grand’s journeys.  In one series of surging seascapes, the “mood of the water and architecture of wave shapes” is evident.

Where “travels are the research,” Grand collects photos, notes, and sketches from her trips to later translate onto her canvas.

NMWA presents works that illustrate the breadth of Grand’s process, including rarely-exhibited drawings (she confesses, “I don’t usually show them…they are records for me”).

Drifting over a scarred African desert in Burning Fields or peering through mist to the twinkling waterways of Obstruction Point, viewers are transported in Freya Grand’s animated landscapes.

—Emily Haight is the publications and marketing/communications intern at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. 

(This is Part 1 of a series on Freya Grand—click here for Part 2.)

At her recent artist’s talk, Freya Grand discussed her process of creating the inspiring works currently on display at NMWA. Emphasizing her travels to remote and wild places, she related her habit of documenting what she sees with photographs and small sketches on site, even creating watercolors if weather permits, and then taking all that back to her studio in Washington, D.C. Her head full of images of what she has seen, the artist proceeds to get those visual memories out onto paper in exquisite graphite studies for her paintings.

Freya Grand, Plume, 2005; Courtesy of the artist

With each step of the process, Grand separates out the details, the accidental human or animal appearance in the scene, and focuses on the earth, the air, the water, and the fire—the elements, as it were, that underlie her subjects. The exhibition’s title gives us a hint here. Grand’s work is so compelling because it is not descriptive in the ordinary sense. These paintings are not an imitation of nature, but a re-creation of experience achieved from mind to hand to canvas in a process that is in many ways reminiscent not only of the great Romantic painters of the 19th century, but going back further, to the example and the concepts of Leonardo da Vinci.

Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer Above the Sea Mist, 1818

The first word that probably comes to mind when looking at Grand’s landscapes is “sublime.” Like many, I have noted connections with painters like J.M.W. Turner or Caspar David Friedrich, artists who tried to find ways to manifest 18th-century philosopher Edmund Burke’s ideas concerning the notion of the sublime in actual works of art. The sublime is an experience that involves the element of fear, something beyond the merely beautiful or picturesque because of that fact. It is something that most people have experienced in nature, for example while standing on the edge of a rocky cliff, feeling simultaneously exhilarated and overwhelmed at the greatness of what is in front of us, but feeling the fear of its danger at the same time.

Such experiences inspire Grand on her explorations into nature, and it is why her works are so moving and contemplative for most viewers. Her work completely conveys the sense of the experience of the artist confronting the natural scenes that are captured in both small and large paintings in this exhibition. Precisely because they are not specific, and that they often defy an understanding of scale, beyond admiration they provoke memories of such things in the viewer of his/her own moments of the sublime. The first time I saw Grand’s work, these rushed in on my mind, and kept me looking, and thinking, for a long time.

—Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D., is Professor of Art History in the School of Art + Design at Montgomery College (Silver Spring, MD). She is also an AICA-awarded art critic and freelance curator in the Washington, D.C., metro region.

(This is Part 2 of a series on Freya Grand—click here for Part 1.)

In addition to the Romantic and sublime that can be seen in Freya Grand’s work, the idea of “minding the landscape,” and her way of presenting it, also recalls the thinking of Leonardo with regard to the earth and the elements. Leonardo spent many years researching geology and water, and conceptualizing the formation of the earth, both in his writings and his paintings. He too went exploring mountains, which were, for him, the most visible manifestation of the way the earth came into being, and to some extent, he can be seen to have anticipated Burke’s theory of the sublime.

Leonardo da Vinci, Virgin of the Rocks, ca. 1486

Leonardo wrote that coming upon a great cavern he “stood for some time, stupefied and incomprehending of such a thing…Suddenly two things arose in me, fear and desire: fear of the menacing darkness of the cavern, desire to see if there were any marvelous thing within it.” This experience gave rise to the cavernous rocks in his painting The Virgin of the Rocks (1483, Louvre, Paris).

But Leonardo also spoke of the earth being a body, a living being that resembled the human body in many ways. The rocks are like bones, he said, the framework of the body. The rivers and streams are like the veins and arteries. The ocean tides are like the earth’s breathing.

I feel that Grand’s paintings convey this connection of body and earth, depicting a sense of deep, hidden life in those waters moving over rocks, in those magnificent volcanoes and sweeping mountain ranges. In her representation of them, they seem to breathe and move, as if still in formation.

Freya Grand, (Left) Study for Cloonagh, 2010; (Right) Cloonagh Rocks, 2012; Images courtesy of the artist

Thought of in this way, Grand’s art has a rich art historical pedigree. Her art reflects Leonardo’s love and awe of nature and her systems, and connects to European Romanticism. But her family line includes the great landscape painters of America like F.E. Church who, like Grand, sought out the wild beauty of remote places. She has added her own misty link to that chain.

—Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D. ,is Professor of Art History in the School of Art + Design at Montgomery College (Silver Spring, MD). She is also an AICA-awarded art critic and freelance curator in the Washington, D.C., metro region.

The art of Leonora Carrington (1917–2011) belongs to “a magical realm between sleep and waking, conscious and unconscious.”¹ On April 6, 2013, we celebrate the enchanting artist on what would have been her 96th birthday. From a grade-school rebel to rising in Surrealist ranks, Carrington escaped Nazis and mental institutions, and found herself at home in Mexico.

From an affluent family in England, Carrington was groomed to be a debutante.  Resisting the confines of conformity, Carrington ran away from boarding schools and was reportedly expelled for exhibiting “anti-social tendencies and supernatural proclivities.”

Leonora Carrington in her studio in Mexico City, ca. 1950, by Emeric Weisz; Courtesy of Paul Weisz-Carrington

Ultimately, her parents yielded to her passions and allowed her to pursue an arts education in London, under cubist Amédée Ozenfant.

Carrington became inspired by Surrealist art after visiting London’s International Surrealist exhibition in 1936. A year later, she met and fell in love with a pioneer painter of Surrealism, Max Ernst, and lived with him after he divorced his wife.

She began to paint her own dreamlike works and attend Surrealist gatherings, where she famously served guests omelettes with their own hair. Adored by the group but also recognized for her artistic talent, Carrington exhibited with them internationally.

During World War II, German-born Ernst was imprisoned and Carrington escaped to Spain where she had a breakdown and was committed to a mental asylum. When her family sent their nanny to collect her, Carrington fled to the Mexican embassy. She married Mexican diplomat Renato Reduc to facilitate her flight from Europe.

Upon moving to Mexico City, Carrington became an integral part of a thriving artistic community along with her friend and fellow Surrealist, Remedios Varo. After divorcing Leduc, she married Hungarian photographer Emeric Weisz and had two sons.

Leonora Carrington, Samhain Skin, 1975; Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay; © 2012 Leonora Carrington / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Carrington enjoyed a successful career with many solo and group shows around the world, including a one-woman exhibition at New York’s Pierre Matisse Gallery.

As a painter, sculptor, and writer, Carrington’s works integrate imagery from disparate cultural sources. Inspired by Mayan folklore, Celtic legends, Tibetan Buddhism, alchemy, and the occult, her otherworldly works are both eerie and whimsical.  Chimeric figures often animate her complex interiors and magical landscapes.

NMWA’s collection contains two of Carrington’s works. Carrington painted Samhain Skin on animal skin, recalling an ancient Celtic festival. This work’s anthropomorphic figures allude to mythical fairy people, sprung from the stories her Irish grandmother told her.

In a dimension between genius and insanity, Carrington’s heightened mental state conjured some of Surrealism’s most visionary works. Although she was a charismatic artist with a prolific, seven-decade career, she remains an enigma. A rogue in her own right, Leonora Carrington refused to reveal the meanings behind her haunting images, and they will forever be left to viewers’ imaginations.

In honor of A World Apart: Anna Ancher and the Skagen Art Colony, on view through May 12, 2013, we’re researching other delightful, innovative, and interesting Danish women in the arts. Click here to learn more about NMWA’s current exhibition.

Some of the earliest seeds for NMWA’s current exhibition, A World Apart: Anna Ancher and the Skagen Art Colony, were planted nearly a decade ago when curatorial staff members visited Scandinavia to research Nordic Cool: Hot Women Designers. This exhibition, on view at NMWA during April–September 2004, was a hit, and although it was NMWA’s first-ever design exhibition, it opened the curators’ eyes to Scandinavian women artists such as fascinating Danish painter Anna Ancher.

Women in the Arts magazine cover, Spring 2004, with Nanna Ditzel’s “Bench for Two,” 1989

Several of the Danish designers whose work was on view at NMWA were creating domestic-use products that addressed gender roles—such as Johnna Sølvsten Bak’s tablecloth with “iron burns incorporated into the design” as Jordana Pomeroy described in the spring 2004 issue of Women in the Arts magazine. Another example, “Danish industrial design team PAPCoRN (Lene Vad Jensen and Anne Bannick)…created compostable dinnerware from corn by-products.”

Of furniture by Nanna Ditzel—pieces with “curvilinear structures [that] would be as comfortable in a gallery as in a living room”—Pomeroy said, “Ultimately design is highly personal, often bearing traces of the artist’s hand, reflecting the proportions of the designer’s body, and deriving from the most intimate emotional memories. Ditzel’s designs flow with the human body while simultaneously drawing on other natural sources: seashells, coral, flowers, and butterflies.”

—Elizabeth Lynch is the editor at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Unsurprisingly, Skagen artists found willing models in their family members. Anna and Michael Ancher painted each other as well as other members of the close-knit Brøndum family, as shown in the “Family” section of A World Apart: Anna Ancher and the Skagen Art Colony.

Michael Ancher, Christmas Day 1900 (Marie, Hulda, and Ane Hedvig Brøndum, Helga and Anna Ancher), 1903; Oil on canvas, 55 ⅞ x 87 in.; Skagens Museum

In Christmas Day 1900, Michael Ancher painted Anna and her female relatives in the dining room of Brøndum’s hotel. Owned by Anna’s family, the inn was the only one in Skagen and became a quasi-clubhouse for Skagen artists. Nearly life-size, this work depicts Anna (at the far right) alongside her sisters, mother, and daughter, Helga. In contrast to the turbulent seascape paintings behind them (also painted by Michael Ancher), the Brøndum and Ancher women seem reserved and serene. While this painting is representative of official group portraits of the time, it also provides an intimate look at their family.

Skagen artists drew influence from Dutch masters like Rembrandt, Haals, and Vermeer. The figures in Christmas Day 1900 are reminiscent of those in 17th-century painting, in which seated and standing figures face outward around a table.

Anna’s mother, Ane Brøndum, became one of her favorite models. She painted her aging mother many times over the years, keeping her company as she sat. Two portraits of Ane Brøndum showcase Anna’s wide range of styles.

(left) Anna Ancher, Portrait of mother (Mrs. Ane Brøndum), 1913; Oil on canvas, 31 x 24 ⅞ in.; Skagens Museum and (right) Anna Ancher, Mrs. Ane Hedvig Brøndum (Anna Ancher’s Mother), ca. 1905; Oil on canvas, 21 7/8 x 17 1/2 in,; Skagens Museum

The profile portrait of her mother (1905) is rendered in dark colors with controlled brushstrokes. In contrast, a frontal portrait of Ane Brøndum (1913) depicts the older woman in a lighter palette of pastel blues, pinks, and purples. Not just a study in form, this work illustrates Anna’s interest in light and color. Her fluid paint application and unblended brushstrokes effectively capture the effects of light and shadow.

The thematic gallery’s family focus provides an additional layer of context with which to consider Anna Ancher and her contemporaries. As seen in the personal portraiture of the Skagen artists, Anna and her fellow painters reference the past and simultanteously embrace the avant-garde.

—Emily Haight is the Member Relations Associate at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

In honor of A World Apart: Anna Ancher and the Skagen Art Colony, on view through May 12, 2013, we’re researching other delightful, innovative, and interesting Danish women in the arts. Click here to learn more about NMWA’s current exhibition.

Nanna Ditzel

At the end of World War II, Denmark emerged as the standard-bearer for a revolutionary wave of furniture design hallmarked by a profound simplicity and practical functionality designed to fit the needs of small-scale European living spaces. Although Danish design was largely the realm of men, Nanna Ditzel (nee Hauberg, 1923–2005) emerged as one of the most successful and influential Danish designers, male or female, of the 20th century. A virtuoso designer of furniture, jewelry, and textiles, Ditzel produced a staggering oeuvre during her six-decade career. Her work—known for its sleek style, innovative mediums, and bold color choices—has had a lasting impact. Many of her designs are still in production by Danish firms, while other works continue to fetch high prices at auction.

Born in Copenhagen, Nanna enjoyed a family atmosphere that fostered passionate interest in the arts and design. One year after graduating high school in 1942, she studied carpentry at the Copenhagen School of Arts and Crafts; in 1944, she attended the prestigious Danish Royal Academy of Art, graduating with a degree in architecture while also studying philosophy and nurturing an interest in art history. At the Royal Academy, Nanna met her future husband, Jørgen Ditzel (1921–1961), with whom she shared a romantic, artistic, and professional partnership. Even before marrying, the couple jointly exhibited their work many times in various competitions, winning a silver medal for their furniture designs at the Copenhagen Cabinet Maker’s Exhibition in 1945.

Nanna Ditzel’s Hanging Chair, 1959

Beginning in the 1950s, Nanna and Jørgen began designing silver jewelry for the well-known Danish silversmith Georg Jensen; their pieces became very popular (some are still produced today), boasting sleek, modern forms, asymmetry, and curvature designed to complement and fuse with the human body. In 1956 the couple was awarded the prestigious Lunning Prize for their jewelry designs; with money from the prize, the couple traveled to Mexico to seek inspiration for further work. Through the rest of the 1950s, Nanna and Jørgen successfully designed furniture and textiles and went on to win three silver medals and one gold medal at the Milan Triennale furniture design competition.

One of the Nanna and Jørgen’s most recognizable collaborations is their 1959 Hanging Chair, nicknamed “Egg Chair,” a design notable for its organic, rounded shape, hanging construction, versatile indoor/outdoor use, and its primary medium of wicker. Still produced and sold today through Italian and Japanese companies, Hanging Chair has become an iconic image of modern Danish design. Tragically, Nanna and Jørgen’s creative partnership ended abruptly when Jørgen died at age 40, leaving Nanna with a family to raise (the couple had three daughters together: Dennie, born 1950, and twins Lulu and Vita Vita, born 1954) as well as a studio to run. Resiliently, Nanna carried on and continued to enjoy an extraordinarily successful career marked by numerous international solo exhibitions.

—Raphael Fitzgerald is an art historian and researcher.

In honor of A World Apart: Anna Ancher and the Skagen Art Colony, on view through May 12, 2013, we’re researching other delightful, innovative, and interesting Danish women in the arts. Click here to learn more about NMWA’s current exhibition.

Click here for Nanna Ditzel: Part 1 of 2!

One of Ditzel’s “Stairscapes”

The 1960s were a time of great experimentation for Nanna Ditzel, particular in her choice of media, which included polyester, fiber glass, wicker, cane, teak and foam rubber, as well as her color scheme, which often incorporated vibrant reds and blues, as well as sharply contrasting patterns of black and white. Nanna additionally experimented in split-level floor seating, featuring low-lying chairs and cushions for Danish homes that often featured sunken or raised platforms in their living spaces. An example of Nanna’s split-level seating experiments is the “stairscape” she created in 1966 for the showroom of the Danish firm Unika-Voev, for whom she designed various textiles. In the realm of textile design, one of Nanna’s most enduring innovations is the simple yet durable 1965 pattern Hallingdal, still produced and distributed by Kvadrat and used widely throughout Denmark.

Ditzel’s Butterfly Chair

In 1968, Nanna entered into a marriage and artistic partnership with fellow designer Kurt Heide. The couple lived in England together for fifteen years, where they founded the company Interspace International Design Center, a firm specializing in jewelry, textiles and furniture that still enjoys its reputation as a leading international furniture house. After Heide’s death in 1985, Nanna returned to Copenhagen and began working for Fredericia, a leading Danish design manufacturer renowned for its exquisitely made furniture. Two of Nanna’s most popular designs were created during her tenure with Fredericia: Bench for Two (1989)—a sculptural, plywood piece adorned with mesmerizing black and white geometric patterning that won a gold medal in Japan’s 1990 International Furniture Design Competition—as well as her vibrant Butterfly Chair (1990), a dramatic, red and black piece that cleverly evokes inspiration from the natural world. These two designs boosted Fredericia’s reputation as a producer of cutting-edge designs.

In the 80s and 90s, Nanna took an active role in the leadership of many Danish art and design organizations. In 1995, she received the “Order of the Dannebrog,” one of the highest honors that can be awarded to a Danish citizen. She was elected Honorable Royal Designer in London in 1996, and received the lifelong Artists’ Grant from the Danish Ministry of Culture in 1998. In 1999, she was awarded the Bindesbøll Medal to honor her contributions to Danish design. Up until her death in 2005 at age 82, Nanna Ditzel continued to design and exhibit her work. Her furniture, textile and jewelry designs continue to receive international acclaim, and are revered as the work of one of the most inspired Danish cultural icons of the 20th century.

—Raphael Fitzgerald is an art historian and researcher.

“If you ask Danes to name a woman artist, they will say Anna Ancher,” declared Skagens Museum curator Mette Bøgh Jensen in an enlightening gallery talk of A World Apart: Anna Ancher and the Skagen Art Colony. Jensen, curator of the 2009 exhibition I am Anna. A homage to Anna Ancher in Skagen, Denmark, the site of the artist colony, is a noted authority on the artist.

Kicking off the tour with Michael Ancher’s Christmas Day 1900, visitors learned that earlier sketches included male family members and table clutter such as coffee cups and cakes. Their omission in the finished painting highlights “what this family is about—it’s about the women.” Anna is shown at the far right, with her daughter Helga, her mother, and two sisters.

Her family’s support was crucial in her success. With mutual respect as artists, Michael and Anna collaborated on Judgment of a day’s work, in which they painted each other’s portraits. “You see them as equals,” says Jensen. Only after marrying Michael did Anna get her own studio, to which she did not allow visitors access. “She got good reviews but didn’t want people to see the works before they were finished.”

Other artists who came to Skagen stayed at the inn run by Anna’s family—the only one in town. Pausing at the serene Portrait of mother (Mrs. Ane Brøndum), Jensen says Anna’s devout mother “welcomed [the artists] to the hotel,” even though “they drank and they had parties and that’s not what she believed in.” Joining this bohemian group was the famous painter P.S. Kroyer. Michael Ancher was initially “afraid [Kroyer] would take over,” but the pair became friends. An attractive locale for artists, the seaside town had “cheap models and relatively cheap accommodations.”

Anna Ancher, A field sermon, 1903; Skagens Museum

Of Anna Ancher’s breakthrough works, Jensen says, “the outside really doesn’t interest her that much.” Her interior paintings, in particular, are “more about the color and light than anything else,” a style that Jensen characterizes as “typical Anna.” One exception, Anna’s largest painting, A Field Sermon, depicts Skagen’s religious life.

Jensen ranks Anna as “the closest to a Nordic Impressionist of the Skagen painters.” Her stunning preparatory studies (or “painted diaries,” as Jensen calls them) showcase Ancher’s remarkable interpretation of light and color. Light is often the only subject in her works, as is the case in Interior. Without figures or furniture, the composition is “very modern—there’s no story. It’s all about color and light.”

Ancher was an innovative artist—as Jensen characterizes, “It’s really Anna Ancher who was the modern one of the colony.”

—Emily Haight is the member relations assistant at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

When Anna Ancher painted rooms in her family home in Skagen, Denmark, she presented very different images when she associated herself versus her husband with the represented space. Depictions of her artist husband, Michael Ancher, in prosperous surroundings diverge from paintings of her own space, which she presented simply, often devoid of inhabitants or ornamentation.

Anna Ancher, Interior with Clematis, 1913; Skagens Museum

Interior with Clematis (1913), for example, reduces Anna Ancher’s studio—her only private room—to a table, flowers, and a large window. She leaves the space ambiguous by eliminating both herself and expected objects. In contrast, Ancher depicts her husband surrounded with signifiers of his profession and social status. These differences underscore Anna Ancher’s independence and the modern orientation of her art.

In Ancher’s paintings of Michael, he emerges as a successful, well-fed, bourgeois artist. In Breakfast before the Hunt (1903) he eagerly attacks an ample morning meal. Nearby, his gear signals the imminent excursion, and the dog sits alert in anticipation. Her detailed rendering of the table setting and the upholstery announce Michael’s financial achievement as the provider of a comfortable home. His prosperity is also evident in The New Hunting Boots (1903), where he contentedly stretches his stockinged feet across the big parlor rug. The gold chain of a pocket watch outlines his full, round belly. His boots’ soft, supple leather gleams. Finally, in Ancher’s 1920 portrait of Michael in his spacious studio, he appears with brushes in hand, dressed in vest and coat as if to meet a wealthy client. Giant canvases and heavy furniture surround him. Ancher’s hint of a painted seascape on the wall alludes to the paintings of fishermen that built Michael’s career.

Anna Ancher, The new hunting boots, 1903; Skagens Museum

Ancher does not invite viewers to feel the same familiarity with her personal space. Although her studio was adjacent to Michael’s in the house, its character appears opposite. In Evening Sun in the Artist’s Studio (after 1912), her focus on tactilely rendered light indicates neither her profession nor her gender. The modest proportions, austere furnishings, and the absence of painter’s tools obscure Ancher’s celebrity as the 1913 recipient of Denmark’s prestigious Ingenio et Arti award.

In creating these images, Ancher implies that her role is observer, rather than subject. While Ancher signified Michael’s bourgeois masculinity, she omitted references to herself as his female counterpart, imperceptibly reversing gender roles. Like most middle-class males in this period, Michael could traverse freely the boundaries separating the public arena from the private zones of the home.¹ Ancher’s letters reference Michael’s travels while she remained in Skagen; her own trips abroad were always in his company.² In these paintings, however, he is home and she is absent.

Ancher’s refusal to define herself in relationship to the home distinguished her from Scandinavian women colleagues. For example, Norwegian Modern Breakthrough author Amalie Skram described feminine spaces with stifling details of shaded lamps, velvet sofas, embellished screens, large stoves and lingering smells.³ Furthermore, Ancher continued to engage professionally in the public sphere, marketing her work through exhibitions and dealers, unlike Marie Krøyer in Skagen or Karin Bergöö Larsson in Sweden. Both those women interrupted their painting practices to produce decorative domestic objects for their homes. Remarkably, Anna Ancher’s physical absence from her representations of home quietly asserted liberation from its traditionally restrictive boundaries.

—Alice Price is a PhD candidate at Temple University, Tyler School of Art. She can be reached at alice.price@temple.edu.

Notes:
1. Suzanne Singletary, “Le Chez-Soi: Men ‘At Home’ in Impressionist Interiors,” in Impressionist Interiors ed. Janet McLean (Dublin: National Gallery of Ireland, 2008), 30-51.
2. Lise Svanholm, ed., Breve fra Anna Ancher [Letters from Anna Ancher], Denmark: Gyldendal, 2005, 99-102.
3. See for instance Amalie Skram’s description of Marie Hansen’s house in Constance Ring (Norway, 1888). Trans. Judith Messick with Katherine Hanson (1988; repr. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2002), 91.

Spring in D.C. is a treat for nature lovers, so this month we’re featuring an extraordinary Japanese woodcut print artist, Naoko Matsubara, whose lyrical woodcuts of trees evoke beauty, majesty and visual appeal. Highly original and spontaneous, her impressive oeuvre covers a broad range of styles and subject matter.

Naoko Matsubara’s Tree Spirit

The exhibition catalogue featured in this post, Tree Spirit: The Woodcuts of Naoko Matsubara (Royal Ontario Museum, 2003), features about 60 pieces of her work out of a collection of 177 at the Royal Ontario Museum, created over four decades between 1957 and 1996. This collection comprises only a small sample of her overall oeuvre, which consists of well in excess of 1,000 pieces.

Naoko Matsubara, Plum Blossoms, 1985; black woodcut print (single block, pine, on pure kozo paper), 68.6 x 49.5 cm.; As featured in Tree Spirit

Matsubara was born and raised in Japan; she now lives in Canada, where she is still producing woodcut prints. Throughout her life, she has been extremely active as a printmaker, with at least 75 solo national and international exhibitions. Her distinctive style integrates East Asian pictorial traditions with Western geometric abstraction.

Tree Spirit illustrates Matsubara’s artistic development over the years, from monochromatic to bold color, from organic forms inspired by nature to abstract geometric forms. Readers will also have the opportunity to learn about Matsubara’s background and the recurring themes in her work. The catalogue has been produced in full color with wonderful reproductions of many of her pieces, organized by theme.

We welcome all to stop by to look at this beautiful book in person. The Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center is open to the public Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–noon and 1 p.m.–5 p.m. If you’re touring the museum’s exhibitions, the library makes a great starting point on the fourth floor! In addition to the beautiful books and comfy reading chairs, visitors enjoy interesting exhibitions of artist’s books, archival manuscripts, and rare books. Reference Desk staff are always happy to answer questions and offer assistance. We hope to see you soon!

—Jennifer Page is the Library Assistant at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Bice Lazzari (1900–1981), whose career balanced design and fine arts, created compositions by drawing free-hand lines, often over washes of soft color. Her poetic works resemble graphs, maps, and—representative of her lifelong passion for music—musical staffs and notes.

Bice Lazzari, Grigio + Giallo (Gray and Yellow), 1966; Acrylic on canvas; Courtesy of Archivio Bice Lazzari

Born in Venice, Lazzari, who would become one of Italy’s most revered modern artists, was discouraged from studying the figure in art school in the 1910s because of her gender. She pursued the visual arts regardless, adopting the informel style, the prevailing movement in abstract European painting in the mid-twentieth century.

Bice Lazzari (left) and Acrilico K, 1979; Acrylic on canvas; Both images courtesy of Archivio Bice Lazzari

As her career developed, she further simplified her imagery, drawing or painting grids, lines, rows of dots and dashes, and irregular shapes against a monochromatic background. Though her marks are exact and rigorous, Lazzari created her compositions freely and drew by hand. The lines and forms in Lazzari’s compositions create rhythms that interact, emphasizing the play between surface and depth, and brilliantly bringing her works to life.

Bice Lazzari: Signature Line is on view at NMWA May 10–September 22, 2013, as part of 2013—Year of Italian Culture in the United States, an initiative organized by Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Italy, Washington, D.C. This exhibition presents a selection of 25 paintings and drawings from the Archivio Bice Lazzari in Rome.

On the evening of Monday, May 20, the National Museum of Women in the Arts hosted a reception in collaboration with the Embassy of Italy, Washington, D.C., in honor of the exhibition Bice Lazzari: Signature Line.

Il Cerchio (The Circle), 1967; Tempera and pencil on canvas; Courtesy of Archivio Bice Lazzari

Remarks were made by NMWA Founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, His Excellency Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero of Italy, and NMWA Chief Curator Kathryn Wat. In addition, a charming short video was also presented of the director of the Archivio Bice Lazzari in Rome, Mariagrazia Lapadula, who lent the works for the exhibition. Visitors enjoyed the remarks and toured the gallery where Lazzari’s paintings and drawings are on view.

Remarks at the opening were given by NMWA Founder Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, left, and His Excellency Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero of Italy, who also presented a video recording of the director of the Archivio Bice Lazzari in Rome, Mariagrazia Lapadula

Signature Line features paintings and drawings by Lazzari, whose work commonly features sets of hand-drawn lines, often over fields of color. Her style was influenced by Art Informel, a European free-form abstract movement that has parallels with Abstract Expressionism and Action Painting. Lazzari’s goal was to move beyond form and use her art to evoke pure emotion.

Left: Autoritratto (Self-Portrait), 1929; Oil on cardboard; and right: Senza titolo (untitled), 1966; Pastel on paper; both courtesy Archivio Bice Lazzari

Bice Lazzari: Signature Line is open through September 22 at NMWA—make plans to visit this summer!

Bice Lazzari: Signature Line is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, in collaboration with the Embassy of Italy, Washington, D.C., and the Archivio Bice Lazzari, Rome, with additional support from the members of NMWA.

The exhibition is presented as part of 2013—Year of Italian Culture in the United States, an initiative held under the auspices of the President of the Italian Republic and organized by Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Italy in Washington, D.C., with the support of the Corporate Ambassadors Eni and Intesa Sanpaolo

For centuries, women have struggled for equality in the workplace and balance in their daily lives. The media and popular culture figures continue to debate and fret about women’s roles—Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg encourages women to Lean In, a Pew Research Center study called “Breadwinner Moms” cites Americans’ ambivalent reactions to the increased prevalence of primary-earner women, and politicians continue to make headlines with awkward characterizations of working women.

Judith Leyster, Self-portrait, ca. 1630

This dilemma also plagued 17th-century painter Judith Leyster. Leyster not only established herself as an independent artist, a feat rare for women of her time, but maintained her own workshop where she taught students. She was also one of few women inducted into the prestigious Guild of St. Luke.

After her marriage and the birth of her children, Leyster’s artistic output decreased, as she likely managed her family’s business affairs and helped her husband with his art. Though she seemingly relinquished her ambitions for the sake of her family, a self-portrait and group portrait may give us more insight. In Self-portrait, ca. 1630, Leyster depicts herself at her easel, owning her identity as an artist and broadcasting it to viewers. The figure exudes self-confidence as she looks straight out at the viewer in a relaxed, seated pose.

Judith Leyster, The Concert, ca. 1633; Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay

In NMWA’s The Concert, Leyster paints a scene of a lively musical performance, a frequent and favorite subject. The three figures are remarkably well defined, as Leyster places the musicians in the foreground, a contrast against the monochromatic wall behind them. Leyster demonstrates her mastery in depicting depth and perspective through the positioning of the lute held by the figure on the right. According to scholars, this composition features a self-portrait of the artist, center, with her husband, the artist Jan Miense Molenaer, depicted playing the violin.

Because the musicians play “in concert” to produce their melody, many believe this work represents the value of working in harmony—perhaps she subtly included her family in her works so that, at least in one small way, these important spheres of her life could coexist.

—Alee Petrucelli is the publications and marketing/communications intern at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Opening June 21 at NMWA, Awake in the Dream World: The Art of Audrey Niffenegger reveals the artist’s range. In addition to her bestselling novels, Niffenegger is a visual artist who paints, draws, and creates book art, lithographs, and prints.

Audrey Niffenegger, Life Under Ground, 2004; Colored pencil and graphite on paper, 8 x 12 in.; Collection of Mary Jean Thomson, Riverwoods, Illinois

The exhibition has already received attention from the media. In a Huffington Post article, her influences and dreamlike style were showcased: “Channeling Edvard Munch here and Gustav Klimt there, the works reveal a wide variety of surreal styles that never shy away from the absurd or nonsensical.”

Artwork from Niffenegger’s artist’s book The Adventuress is installed at NMWA

Installation of the works is underway—the more than 200 pieces of Niffenegger’s art in this midcareer retrospective reveal her talent for narrative. Her book artwork often follows tragic, courageous heroines as they encounter dark, dreamlike, yet whimsical situations. In her self-portraiture, the artist presents herself in guises and characters that seem to tell their own compelling stories.

Artist-designed cover of The Time Traveler’s Wife

In addition to this work, the exhibition features a trove of absorbing works, such as a stream of red hair across a book cover (representing the redheaded protagonist) that she designed for an edition of The Time Traveler’s Wife, and a suite of etchings featuring skeletons and deathly figures that she created for a portfolio, Vanitas, inspired by poetry.

Niffenegger says, “We should look carefully at ourselves and things around us, and not be oblivious to life as it passes us by. I use fantastic elements in my art to startle people into noticing and paying attention.”

Awake in the Dream World will be on view June 21–November 10 at NMWA.

One of the perks of cataloguing in NMWA’s Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center is the opportunity to discover interesting books that we’re adding to the library. I recently had the fortune to process an amazing folio-sized Joana Vasconcelos monograph.

It is an impressive book, measuring over 40 cm. high, and it includes 350 pages with 200 full-color reproductions of her work spanning 15 years. Added perks include layout and design by award-winning graphic designer Ricardo Mealha, careful editing by publisher Livrario Fernando Machado, an interview with the artist, and full-page images of this amazing artist’s work.

For those who aren’t familiar with Joana Vasconcelos, she’s worth knowing. Now living and working Lisbon, Portugal, she creates sculptures and site-specific installations that appropriate elements of everyday life—ready-mades, Nouveau Réalisme, and pop come to mind—with a mastery of color and sense of scale. Objects are removed from context and placed in surprising and creative arrangements that challenge the viewer to imagine new meanings. I especially love her large-scale colorful installations. Check out her Contaminação on pages 18–33, and animal sculptures wrapped in crochet mesh, pages 116–140. (Also, click here to see her work Viriato in NMWA’s collection!)

We welcome all to stop by to look at this beautiful book in person. We’re open to the public M–F, 10 a.m.–noon and 1–5 p.m. If you’re touring the museum’s exhibitions, the library makes a great starting point on the fourth floor! In addition to the beautiful books and comfy reading chairs, visitors enjoy interesting exhibitions of artists’ books, archival manuscripts, and rare books. Reference Desk staff are always happy to answer questions and offer assistance. We hope to see you soon!

—Jennifer Page is the library assistant at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Tackling the female nude—a principal subject of male artists for centuries—Lotte Laserstein (1898–1993), a German realist painter, offered a woman’s perspective on this motif in 1930 with Morning Toilette. A portrait of her friend and tennis coach Traute Rose, Morning Toilette features the woman bathing herself. Laserstein depicted her friend realistically, and her observations of the athletic woman are rather unflattering by conventional standards. With Rose’s thick, muscular legs, small, flattened breasts, close-cropped hair, and a hand covering her genitalia, the figure could nearly be mistaken for a male. Through this portrayal, Laserstein wanted to present the neue Frau (“new woman”), independent and powerful.

Lotte Laserstein, Morning Toilette, 1930; NMWA Collection, Gift of the Board of Directors

While the artist champions female empowerment by depicting this capable, athletic woman, she also implicitly rejects idealized portraits of the female nude. The established art historical tradition often featured subjects in an erotic, sexualized manner. In Laserstein’s composition, however, the task of bathing is underwhelming, even banal. In Morning Toilette, Laserstein reclaims the tradition of female nudity and rejects the connotation of exploitation, reengineering the meaning to empower the neue Frau generation.

Almost a half-century later, as the second wave of the feminist movement influenced the art community, Kiki Kogelnik (1935–1997) responded to female exploitation by reclaiming another genre in which women are often idealized and misrepresented—comic book culture. Female superheroes primarily function as sexualized companions to the original male creation, a memorable example being Wonder Woman. As portrayed in a 1970s television show, Wonder Woman had long, flowing hair and large breasts, saving the world in a glorified swim suit. This characterization allows that women can be strong and capable, saving the world—as long as they look sexy while doing it.

Kiki Kogelnik, Superwoman, 1973; NMWA Collection, Gift of the Honorable Joseph Carroll and Mrs. Carroll

Kiki Kogelnik’s Superwoman, 1973, reinvents this version of female superheroes created to satisfy male fantasies and presents the viewer with a capable heroine sans objectification. Like Laserstein’s nude, Kogelnik’s  Superwoman possesses a combination of cliché masculine and feminine indicators, juxtaposing her grey camouflage full-coverage jumpsuit and combat boots with her shape and dark red lipstick. The figure stands tall as she holds a massive pair of scissors confidently between her legs as her ironic, pointedly funny weapon. Like Laserstein, the artist chooses a subject where women are typically objectified and transcends that characterization to empower both her female figure and the female viewer.

—Alee Petrucelli is the publications and marketing/communications intern at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

One of the foremost French painters of the 17th century, Louise Moillon (1610–1696) was a leading proponent of still-life works. Her luscious, meticulously detailed renderings of fruits and vegetables elevated the popularity and credibility of still-life painting in France—a genre considered on the lower rungs of the artistic hierarchy as determined by the French Royal Academy, and which did not share the time-honored prestige in France that it did in the Netherlands.

Louise Moillon, Bowl of Lemons and Oranges on a Box of Wood Shavings and Pomegranates, n.d., Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay

A Parisian-born Protestant in predominantly Catholic France, Moillon grew up in the bustling environment of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. This area, on the left bank of the Seine River in Paris, pulsed with ideas and energy that attracted a wide range of intellectuals and artists. Protected by the 1598 Edict of Nantes, which granted religious tolerance to Protestants in France (many of whom settled in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés area, along with Protestants fleeing persecution in the southern Netherlands), Moillon and her family enjoyed religious and economic security for much of her lifetime.

From an early age, Louise Moillon and her six siblings benefitted from artistic family members: her father, Nicholas Moillon (1555–1619), was a noted still-life, landscape, and portrait painter who owned a prestigious art gallery in Saint-Germain-des-Prés; her mother, Marie Gilbert (1560–1630), the daughter of a prominent Parisian goldsmith, was a strong supporter of Louise’s career; and Isaac Moillon (1614–1673), Louise’s brother, became a famous portrait painter and sculptor at the court of Louis XIV at Versailles. This background, along with the rich artistic atmosphere of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the access it afforded Louise to observe the techniques of numerous artists, fostered Moillon’s early artistic passion and talent.

At age nine, Moillon attended convent school—fashionable for young Parisian girls whose families wanted them to learn art, drawing, and other skills considered socially advantageous. It was here that Moillon’s talent became immediately obvious. She continued her artistic training under her father until his death in 1619, and then under her stepfather, François Garnier (c. 1600–1672), also an artist and dealer. It has been speculated that Moillon may have also been a pupil of Jacques Linard (1597–1645), another noted Saint-Germain still-life artist with whom Louise shared close stylistic similarities and with whom she collaborated on a 1641 painting. Like her father and stepfather, Louise excelled in still-life painting—her works often feature close observations of lush produce being transported into Saint-Germain by farmers from outlying provinces.

Louise Moillon, The Fruit and Vegetable Costermonger, 1631; Louvre Museum

Moillon spent countless hours absorbed in painting: she always worked indoors, with her subjects carefully positioned near sunlight streaming through a window—facilitating her mastery of chiaroscuro, the use of light and shadow. Louise usually arranged her subjects—varied produce with vibrant colors, interesting surface textures, or unusual shapes—asymmetrically in one to three bowls on a table. She often placed a small object, such as a pea or leaf, near the edge of the table in her paintings, energizing the scene with the possibility of its falling; a good example of this technique is the Louvre’s The Fruit and Vegetable Costermonger, 1631, in which a fruit rind precariously balances on the edge of the table laden with an impressive array of produce.

Louise also frequently incorporated miniscule trompe l’oeil elements into her paintings, such as the highly naturalistic water droplets seen on the bottom left edge of the table in Basket of Apricots, 1634, also in the Louvre. The vivacity and immediacy seen in her still lifes, and those of many fellow artists from Saint-Germain, directly contradicted the term nature morte, the less than flattering French terminology translating literally to “dead nature” used to reference still life painting.

—Raphael Fitzgerald is an art historian and researcher.

Click here for Part 2 of 2!

Every year the Fourth of July promises picnics, fireworks, and summery snacks—it’s a time of celebration with family and friends. However, Independence Day also brings to mind those people who have not always enjoyed the freedoms we celebrate. We praise America as the land of the free and the home of the brave, but is it? Different stories, such as Faith Ringgold’s, show us our ideals through the prism of failures, nuances, and hardships in our past.

Faith Ringgold, American People #18: The Flag is Bleedingm 1967; Courtesy of Faith Ringgold and ACA Galleries, (c) Faith Ringgold 1967

In her American People series, included in the NMWA exhibition American People, Black Light: Faith Ringgold’s Paintings of the 1960s, Faith Ringgold explores this question as it related to African Americans in the 1960s, during the Civil Rights Movement and feminist movement. Her paintings depict everyday Americans, both white and black, struggling under social pressures, masking their feelings behind façades, and uneasily forming relationships. This closer look reveals Ringgold’s perspective on the African American struggle for equality during the turbulent ’60s.

Her 1963 piece Between Friends depicts two women, one black and one white, meeting at a doorway. Although the women may seem close, there is distance and unease in their meeting, showing Ringgold’s belief that while the two women could talk, they were divided by a racial barrier, keeping them from closer friendship. Ringgold explains that the cross formed by the wooden beams was intended as a reference to religious practice, particularly the divisions she saw exacerbated as white worshippers attended white churches and black worshippers attended black churches.

Faith Ringgold at NMWA with (right) American People Series #1: Between Friends, 1963; Collection Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art, (c) Faith Ringgold

While creating this piece, Ringgold was staying with a family friend in her home at Oak Bluffs, a predominately African American community on the traditionally white Martha’s Vineyard. While there, she witnessed many interracial interactions and relationships; she internalized what she saw and explored these themes—particularly overt and hidden hostilities—in her art.

Faith Ringgold’s art speaks volumes about our recent past, and the Fourth of July is an opportune moment to reflect on the struggles that many people have endured, and others still endure, to achieve the freedoms that we celebrate. NMWA will be open on July 4, and American People, Black Light will be on view through November 10, 2013.

 —Allyson Hitte is an education intern at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.