November 19, 2012 The Woodinville Weekly I The Northlake News I The Valley View I vnnv.nwsews.com
i
Women take over SAM with two new dynamic exhibitions
by Deborah Stone
Staff" Writer
Women artists are at the
core of Seattle Art Museum's
new and exciting exhibitions:
"Elles: Women Artists from
the Centre Pompidou, Paris"
and "Elles: SAM - Singular
Works by Seminal Women
Artists."
The former is a fascinating
survey of painting, sculpture,
drawing, photography, video
and installation by visionary
women artists from one of
Europe's most extensive
collections of modem and
contemporary art.
It is a groundbreaking
exhibitthat offers amemorable
sensory experience,
which challenges viewers'
assumptions about art of the
past century.
Over 125 works of art
created by 75 women artists
during the time period of
1909 to 2007 are on display,
revealing ahistory of 20th and
21 st century art from a new
and enlightening perspective.
Included in the exhibit
are seminal pieces by such
notable artists as Frida
Kahlo, Diane Arbus, Sonia
Delaunay, Louise Bourgeois,
Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman,
Sophie Calle, Gina Pane,
Hanna Wilke and more.
Although other museums
have organized exhibitions
exploring female artists and
feminism in recent years,
"Elles" is distinctive in its
broader historical scope.
This is due primarily to the
Centre Pompidou's vast and
rich collection.
SAM's curators were
inspired by the Pompidou's
acclaimed"Elles" show back
in 2009, which took over the
museum's galleries in Paris
for a period of nearly two
years.
From this milestone
exhibition, co-curators Cecile
Debray from the Pompidou
and Marisa Sanchez of SAM
selected pivotal works and
created a unique collection
to showcase in Seattle.
It's the first time these
pieces have travelled together
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Page 11
as a collection and the
exhibition's specific focus on
female artists brings attention
to significant works of art that
until now have not been on
continual view to the public.
SAM is the only U.S.
Suzanne Valadon's "The Blue Room"
venue for the show. "Elles"
is installed thematically
and follows a very loose
chronological order.
The exhibition begins by
chronicling women's art
from the first half of the 20th
century with galleries devoted
to "The Early Avant-Garde,"
"Surrealism," "Paris in the
1920s and 1930s,""Bauhaus"
and "Paris/New York."
Withinthese rooms, women
artists who made important
contributions to significant
movements in Modernism
are spotlightedwhile issues of
sexuality, gender and identity
are explored.
Suzanne Valadon's "The
Blue Room" for example, a
painting from 1923, depicts a
reclining female, sans corset,
with a cigarette hanging out
of her mouth.
Her appearance is clearly
in conflict with Western
conventional ideals of
beauty and presents a radical
rethinking of what it is to be
a modem woman.
Women artists of this time
used their art as a vehicle to
grapple with their experiences
and deal with the various
obstacles they faced within
society.
Their work shows a desire
to move beyond conventional
boundaries, explore self-
limits and redefine identity.
Artists in the Surrealist
group were involved in
experimenting with images
that freed the mind and defied
logic by blurring the line
between dream and reality.
Photographer Dora
Maar used her pictures as
psychological probes, while
filmmaker Gennaine Dulas
dissected the psyche.
On display is Dulas' avant-
garde film, "La Coquille et
le Clergyman," an intriguing
piece ofworkworthy of much
Photo courtesy of SAM
examination.
Also of special note is Frida
Kahlo's "The Frame," one of
the most well-known of the
artist's self-portraits.
Interestingly, Kahlo,though
regarded as a Surrealist by
many in the art world, decried
this distinction, claiming that
she painted her own reality.
The exhibit moves forward
into the Post World War
II period with galleries
identified by such themes
as "Eccentric Abstraction,"
Feminism and Critics of
Power,""TheActivist Body,"
"MusesAgainst the Museum"
and "Figures of Speech."
Here, a flair for the dramatic
takes center stage with works
representing performance,
activist and guerrilla art,
among other styles.
In "Muses Against the
Museum," for example,
artists express their criticism
of some museums' "holier-
than-thou" positions and
authoritative judgment of
artists and their Work.
Andrea Fraser's "Museum
Highlights," a video
performance where the artist
assumes the persona of a
straight-faced docent and
tours an unsuspecting group
through the museum while
providing an-often amusing
narration, is spot-on as a
commentary on the notion of
wealth and power within this
environment.
An entire gallery is devoted
to "The Body," where photos
and videos representing the
female body -- its stereotypes
and paradoxes regarding the
clich6 of ideal beauty as
formulated and propagated
by the media-- are the focus.
Artists such as Marina
Abramovic, Cindy Sherman,
Valerie Belin and Rineke
Dijkstra explore the ways in
which beauty is reinforced
and invented.
Dijkstra, a Dutch
photographer, details the
unsettling transitional beauty
of an adolescent girl in
"Hilton Head Island, S.C.,
USA."
The photo is one of a
celebrated series of full-figure
shots in which swimsuit-clad
preteens in all their awkward
glory echo the stately poses
of 17thcentury Dutch figure
painting.
Belin's "Untitled" photo
fromthe series "Mannequins"
is another notable piece that
captures a picture-perfect face
that is seemingly real, but
which in fact is an image of
a stylized mannequin.
Individual narratives are
the subject ofthe"Narrations"
gallery, where contemporary
artists such as Annette
Messager and Nan Goldin
draw upon their personal
experiences and bring their
stories to viewers via a
combination of language and
images.
Messager uses this
technique to disturbing
ends in installations such
as "The Borders," where
she challenges conventional
definitions of art and deals
with issues of abuse, sin and
obsession using "female"
materials and techniques such
as knitting and embroidery.
• /1, see page 16
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