old master drawings - Museum of Fine Arts - Florida State University

Historical Women in ArtFebruary/March2009women artists. In Paris, the Salon, the exhibition of workfounded by the Academy, became open to non-academicpainters in 1791, allowing women to showcase their work inthe powerful annual exhibition. In addition,women were more frequently accepted asstudents by famous artists, such as Jacques-Louis David and Jean Baptiste Greuze.In the beginning of the nineteenthcentury, women such as Marie Ellenrieder andMarie-Danise Villers worked in the field ofportraiture and Rosa Bonheur excelled inMary Cassatt, Summertime,1894, oil on canvas.realistic painting, particularly of animals.Also, in this era, photography was a newmedium and several women like MargaretElisabeth Vigee-Lee Brun,Portrait of Marie-Antoinette,1783, oil on canvas.Carmeron and Gertrude Kasebier became well-known in thisfield. Later, in the 1860s and 1870s, manywomen became involved in the FrenchImpressionist Movement including Mary Cassatt and Lucy Bacon.The twentieth century shows an array of new movementsand rapid transitions. Georgia O’Keefe, one of the leading paintersin modernist art, was renowned for her works featuring flowers,bones, and landscapes of New Mexico. Maria Stanisia became oneof the greatest painters in religious art by overcoming thepatriarchal attitudes both within early twentieth century Chicagoand the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. There wereseveral noted women in Abstract Expressionism such as HelenFrankenthaler, Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, and Jane Frank.In the Art Deco era, Hildreth Meiere, who is known for large-scaleDorothea Lange, Migrant Mother,1936, photography.Georgia O’Keefe, No.13Special, 1916-1917,charcoal on paper.mosaics, was honored with the Fine Arts Medal of theAmerican Institute of Architects, a first for women. Womenalso made significant contributions to twentieth centuryphotography. Among these were Lee Miller for high fashionphotography, Dorothea Lange for documentaryphotography, and Margaret Bourke-White for industrialphotography. There were also art movements founded orco-founded by women: Constructivism, Cubo-Futurism,and Suprematism, by Aleksandra Ekster; Orphism byDelaunay; Color Field Movement by Helen Frankenthaler;the Society of Layerists by Mary Caroll Nelson; andFeminist art by Judy Chicago.Recently, women artists have been increasinglyprominent and their artistic accomplishments have beenrediscovered.Background Information Page 10-11