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Woman Made: Women Artists from the Hickory Museum of Art Collection

October 20, 2016 Karin Borei
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Our Woman Made exhibition opened on December 17, 2016 and closed April 23, 2017. It featured almost one hundred works of art including oils, watercolors, pastels, prints, drawings, sculptures, pottery, textiles, and glass,  all created by female artists who are part of HMA’s Permanent Collection. Works included perennial favorites, seldom displayed older works, less familiar works by familiar artists, and a selection of our most recent acquisitions. Many of the artists included have North Carolina connections.

The show was intended as a celebration and encouragement of women in the arts, to be shared with a diverse audience, multi-generational and representative of varied backgrounds with regards to ethnicity and socioeconomic status.

Among the just over 80 artists in the show were the following. The highlighted names are links to individual blog posts.

Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012) “Printmaking for Catlett is a consciously political practice. At the same time, however, her prints ... manifest her understanding that the power of an image resides in the artist’s command of form, sensitivity to materials and technical proficiency.” (Art historian and Catlett scholar Melanie Herzog, 2005)

Maud Florance Gatewood (1934-2004) was a powerful force in the North Carolina art community. As a painter, teacher, activist and staunch individualist, she delighted viewers, inspired students, supported organizations, and served as a role model for how to participate in a world of images and ideas.

Lillian Mathilde Genth (1876-1953)  James McNeill Whistler likely influenced Genth to turn in 1906 from landscape painting to the nudes in outdoor settings for which she is primarily known. These she painted from models posed away from prying eyes at her woodland summer home in the Connecticut Berkshire Mountains.

Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington (1876-1973)  The first of Huntington’s equestrian sculptures of Joan of Arc was exhibited in the prestigious Paris Salon of 1910 and earned her a first-place award; but the award was taken back when the judges stated that the work was too good to have been created by a woman.

Jane Peterson (1876-1965)  Peterson’s ambition was to be judged not as a woman but as a painter, and this she achieved. She became famous for a wide range of works from landscapes to still-lives. Her The Windowseat continues to be a favorite of HMA visitors. 

Shirley Pruden (1927-2007)  In 1952, eight years after HMA’s founding, North Carolina artist Pruden's The Aerialist was the first work by a woman artist purchased by the Museum.

The memory paintings of Minnie Reinhardt (1898-1986) show life in the rural North Carolina farming community where she grew up. Although the seeming simplicity of her paintings may inspire nostalgia for a seemingly simpler time, she showed all the hard work it took to provide for yourself and your family on a small farm.

Ella E. Richards (active 1st half of 20th cent.) After Richards' death, Paul Whitener approached her sister Laura about purchasing two of Ella's works for HMA. Laura, in a letter to Paul dated July 30, 1950, responded that "I will be glad to present The Violinist, which is considered one of her finest works."

Kara Elizabeth Walker (born 1969) Probably Walker's most controversial work is her first public sculpture project in 2014, A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby, a colossal sugar-coated sphinx constructed at the one-time Domino Sugar Factory in Brooklyn, NY.

Bessie Harvey (1929-1994) Bessie Harvey is considered to be one of America's foremost visionary artists. Her art arose from her fundamental beliefs in the relationships of man, nature and God and is a testament to the enduring acts of faith and creativity.

Ardyth Cowart Hearon has lived, studied art and painted in Hickory since the 1980’s, declaring “I cannot not paint.” She says of her art that “Tearing fabrics and applying them to canvas, mixing various media in with the paint, and building surfaces over time is the foundation of my process." 

A catalog that includes every artist featured in that exhibit along with pictures of most of the works will be available in the Museum's gift shop eventually. It has been put together but has hit a production snag. We haven't lost sight of it however!

Post by Karin Borei, HMA Project Coordinator, writer and editor as needed, and HMA blogger since March 2015.

← Bessie Harvey (1929-1994)Shirley Pruden (1927-2007) →

Click for list of 30 most recent blog posts

Featured
Matthew Diffee (born 1970)
Apr 10, 2018
Matthew Diffee (born 1970)
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All about Matt Diffee and his ONE MAN GROUP SHOW that includes not only the original drawings for his cartoons and illustrations, but also for the first time  his more traditional artistic endeavors: realist landscapes, abstract paintings, and collages.

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Benjamin Franklin Long IV (born 1945)
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Benjamin Franklin Long IV (born 1945)
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Ben Long grew up in Statesville, NC; and although he is by now a muralist and portraitist of world-wide renown, Long currently divides his time between Italy and Asheville, NC, saying that Asheville "just feels good." 

Feb 19, 2018
Herbert Singleton (1945-2007)
Feb 4, 2018
Herbert Singleton (1945-2007)
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When discussing Singleton's work, "I would always tell him 'Forget the label self-trained, outsider or whatever,' " artist Willie Birch said. "He was a great artist and at some point in his life his work would be recognized as great art."

Feb 4, 2018
Beverly Lacy Schoonover (Born 1933)
Jan 30, 2018
Beverly Lacy Schoonover (Born 1933)
Jan 30, 2018

As I’ve mulled over what to say about the execution of Reflections II, I’ve found myself learning things about my working process of which I was previously only marginally aware. So it’s been an interesting exercise.

Jan 30, 2018
Elizabeth Bradford
Jan 23, 2018
Elizabeth Bradford
Jan 23, 2018

“[My] work is informed by the needlework traditions of southern women since North Carolina was settled. … It bows to the traditions of abstraction, while also striving to clearly represent the depth of my experience of nature.”

Jan 23, 2018
Jerry Goodnight (born 1941)
Jan 21, 2018
Jerry Goodnight (born 1941)
Jan 21, 2018

Jerry Goodnight credited Mickey Whitener Coe, HMA's second director, with encouraging him to continue with his art, beginning in college. “Mickey Coe is one of the greatest things that ever happened to me” he once said.

Jan 21, 2018
Samuel Colman (1832-1920)
Jan 20, 2018
Samuel Colman (1832-1920)
Jan 20, 2018

This undated oil is one of the works featured in the new HMA show (January 13 - March 11, 2018) "Playing with Light: Reflections from the Hickory Museum of Art Collection." Its painter, Samuel Colman, was a successful 19th century Hudson River School artist. He (read more).

Jan 20, 2018
New acquisitions 2017
Dec 1, 2017
New acquisitions 2017
Dec 1, 2017

A rotating exhibit of recent new acquisitions will be displayed in HMA's second floor Windows and Objects galleries through the rest of 2017 and continuing until July 15th 2018. Here's a sampling.

Dec 1, 2017
Mary Evelyn Pickering De Morgan (1855-1919)
Nov 18, 2017
Mary Evelyn Pickering De Morgan (1855-1919)
Nov 18, 2017

On November 18th, 2017, at the conclusion of a day of "Light up the Season" pre-holiday events, Evelyn De Morgan's oil painting The Undiscovered Country was unveiled for HMA dignitaries and visitors. The work will be displayed at HMA throughout 2018. (read more)

Nov 18, 2017
Laura Lee Baker Wilfong (1905-1980)
Oct 31, 2017
Laura Lee Baker Wilfong (1905-1980)
Oct 31, 2017

Laura Lee Wilfong, entrepreneur, florist, and painter, was also very active in the Hickory community in a number of areas. She was one of Paul Whitener’s biggest supporters in the creation and ongoing success of HMA, including (read more)

Oct 31, 2017
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