 |
About MP | What's New | InPrint Newsletter | Resources
|
|
|
|
Home |
 |
|
Search |
|
|
Contact Us |
| |
|
InPrint Article
Read this article, or see other newsletter articles. February, 2005 Interview with Britta Konau, Associate Curator, and Harriet McNamee, Curator of Education By Janet Maher
The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., seeks to recognize women artists in all stylistic and geographic areas and periods as well as to educate the public about the history of women in art. Britta Konau, Associate Curator, and Harriet McNamee, Curator of Education, explained the NMWA curators' attempts to strike a balance (within the limited budget available) between acquiring the works of recognized artists, which attracts visitors to the museum, coupled with the desire to also present lesser known women artists to the public. Strong library and research holdings and public programs help to support these goals. The collection's strength at present is in its artworks from the Americas and Europe, and includes more than 3,000 pieces in all. Portraiture is dominant in the historical parts of the collection, given that typical direction into which women artists were educated and channeled before and beyond the 16th century. The daring adventurer, Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717), who traveled to remote regions with her daughter to document exotic flora and fauna, and the painter of monumental works featuring animals, Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899), are two of the important artists in the collection who thwarted the expectations of their times. Continually attempting to identify where there may be gaps in the collection and to broaden the scope of what the museum owns, the curators' goals are to have an equivalent strength in holdings of artworks by Asian and African women as well as to increase acquisitions in the areas of electronic works and new media. Very generous collectors continue to loan artwork for display and to donate works to the museum. At the heart of the NMWA collection is Modern and Contemporary Art. Due to affordability and ease of storage there are many contemporary prints and photographs. Some prints are always displayed on the third floor. Works on paper are exposed to light for no longer than three months at a time, however, before they are rotated back into storage. This both protects the art and ensures an ever-changing experience upon visiting the museum.
The wide variety of prints includes works by such historical figures as Wanda Gag, Anna Lea Merritt, Claire Leighton, Peggy Bacon, Isabel Bishop, Minna Citron, Grace Albee, and Bertha Lum. In one of the galleries, works by early Swiss, German, and Austrian modernists are continually in rotation. These include the prints of Hannah Höch and prints and sculptures by Käthe Kollwitz, whose work is always on display in some form. Among the contemporary works by artists who also make prints are Elizabeth Catlett's and Ida Applebroog's lithographs, Alison Saar's woodcuts, some works by Judy Chicago, and the mixed media monotype Breast Cancer Journal series by Hollis Sigler. The museum recently acquired a large installation piece, I Hear A Voice, by Lesley Dill from her recent one-person exhibition at NMWA, "A Ten-Year Survey." With advance notice, Collections Manager, Randi Greenberg (800-222-7270), can arrange group tours or a viewing of selections not currently on display. Research can be done via the museum's extensive web site, www.nmwa.org, where the collection is catalogued by "Centuries," "Artists," and "Recent Acquisitions." For further information contact Harriet McNamee, Curator of Education (202-783-7371). |
Site hosting and maintenance courtesy of
NorseCode