Exhibitions : Upcoming Exhibitions
Better Half, Better Twelfth: Women Artists in the Collection
Date(s): April 2, 2010 thru April 1, 2011
The exhibition Better Half, Better Twelfth: Women Artists in the Collection, opening April 2, 2010, showcases American women artists from the Sheldon Museum of Art’s Permanent Collection. “Better half” historically referred to a wife or lover, acknowledging the significance of an unnamed woman by a man writing or speaking the words. “Better Twelfth” refers to the approximate ratio of female to male artists represented in the collection. The intent of the exhibition is to better acquaint Sheldon visitors with these artists and to recognize their accomplishments. To see images of some artworks on view, please click:
Better Half, Better Twelfth slideshow
The Museum’s yearlong focus on women artists also presents an opportunity to identify gaps in the collection. Some gaps in the exhibition will be filled with loans from private and corporate collections. Galleries will be divided into abstract and representational painting, photography, sculpture, and prints, beginning with a gallery dedicated to pioneer women artists.
Artists who developed long-standing careers in their chosen medium and inspired subsequent generations of women artists include painters Mary Cassatt and Georgia O’Keeffe, sculptors Bessie Potter Vonnoh and Malvina Hoffman, photographers Julia Margaret Cameron, Berenice Abbott and others.
A gallery for prints will include abstract work by artists Vija Celmins and Pat Steir, feminist figurative work by Nancy Spero and cross-cultural imagery by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. Including works by Diane Arbus, Ana Mendieta, Cindy Sherman, and Barbara Kruger, the photography gallery will highlight women artists who use photography to tease out social and gendered identity.
The sculpture gallery will include predominately figurative works by artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Anne Truitt and Louise Nevelson. The representational gallery will include work by artists Alice Neel, Hung Liu and a new acquisition by Lois Mailou Jones. It will also feature artists including Impressionist painter Jane Peterson and Regionalist painter Isabel Bishop.
Location: Sheldon
