MAKING SPACE:
Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction
The Museum of Modern Art
April 15, 2017–August 13, 2017
“Yellow Abakan.” 1967-58.
Sisal, 124 x 120 x 60″
(315 x 304.8 x 152.4 cm).
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Mr. Walter Bareiss, Mrs. Watson K. Blair, Mr. Arthur Cohen, Mr. Don Page, and Anonymous Donor, 1974.
© 2017 Randy Gener | iCult1World
CRITICISM WITHOUT BORDERSÂ | Â Documentary Record
Tuesday, April 11, 9:30-11:30 a.m. (press preview)
Floor Three, Exhibition Galleries
Making Space shines a spotlight on the stunning achievements of women artists between the end of World War II (1945) and the start of the Feminist movement (around 1968). In the postwar era, societal shifts made it possible for larger numbers of women to work professionally as artists, yet their work was often dismissed in the male dominated art world, and few support networks existed for them. Abstraction dominated artistic practice during these years, as many artists working in the aftermath of World War II sought an international language that might transcend national and regional narratives—and for women artists, additionally, those relating to gender.
Atsuko Tanaka (Japanese, 1932–2005). Untitled. 1956. Watercolor and felt-tip pen on paper, 42 7/8 x 30 3/8″ (108.9 x 77.2 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchased with funds provided by the Edward John Noble Foundation, Frances Keech Fund, and Committee on Drawings Funds, 2010. © 2017 RGener
Drawn entirely from the Museum’s collection, the exhibition features more than 100 paintings, sculptures, photographs, drawings, prints, textiles, and ceramics by some 50 artists. Within a trajectory that is at once loosely chronological and synchronous, it includes works that range from the boldly gestural canvases of Lee Krasner, Helen Frankenthaler, and Joan Mitchell; the radical geometries by Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape, and Gego; and the reductive abstractions of Agnes Martin, Anne Truitt, and Jo Baer; to the fiber weavings of Magdalena Abakanowicz, Sheila Hicks, and Lenore Tawney; and the process-oriented sculptures of Lee Bontecou, Louise Bourgeois, and Eva Hesse. The exhibition will also feature many little-known treasures such as collages by Anne Ryan, photographs by Gertrudes Altschul, and recent acquisitions on view for the first time at MoMA by Ruth Asawa, Carol Rama, and Alma Woodsey Thomas.
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Organized by Starr Figura, Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints, and Sarah Hermanson Meister, Curator, Department of Photography, with Hillary Reder, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Drawings and Prints.
Generous funding for the exhibition is provided by The Modern Women’s Fund.
Additional support is provided by the Annual Exhibition Fund.
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