50 years or Women artists-previous exhibits

March 14 through May 30, 2004

“Women Portray the West: 1890-1940”

Catherine Carter Critcher (1868-1964)
“Indian Drummer ” undated, oil on canvas
Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

Images of America’s West as seen through the eyes of Georgia O’Keeffe and other women artists was the focus of the Spring exhibition at the Wildling Art Museum in Los Olivos. More than 30 works spanning the half-century from 1890 to 1940 were on display beginning March 14.

In addition to the O’Keeffe work, the exhibition included paintings, watercolors, etchings, photographs and sculpture by other well-known artists such as Grace Carpenter Hudson, Anna Althea Hills and Marion Kavanagh Wachtel.

“We are pleased to have these images,” said Marlene Miller, curator of the exhibition and a founding director of the Wildling. “Equally important, though, are the interesting pieces by women who are known only to true aficionados of Western art.” Though not dwelling on this aspect of the subject, there is an equally compelling subtext that underlies the exhibition: women’s equality in the art world. “Until only recently, it was assumed that only male artists were qualified to portray the grandeur and ruggedness of the West,” said Miller. “What’s now being recognized is that even before 1900 women artists were producing some extremely powerful and sensitive depictions of the West.

Frances H. Gearhart (1869-1958)
“On Monterey Bay”, ca 1921 colored woodcut
James Main Fine Art, Santa Barbara, CA

Some of the artists were encouraged to pursue their calling, some did so in spite of their surroundings, and some—like Elsie Palmer Payne, Julia Bracken Wendt and Wachtel—married successful artists with whom they could share their experiences.” “This show is different from our previous ones,” said Penny Knowles, the Museum’s executive director. “Our focus is art of the American wilderness, but this time we’ve chosen to explore the entire range of subject matter that women artists recorded. There certainly are some landscapes in the exhibition, but we’re also very mindful of the sensitivity that women artists had towards the native population that inhabited the West before the arrival of European whites.”

In addition to O’Keeffe’s Kachina, (1931), which had just returned from an exhibition in Switzerland, Grace Hudson’s 1904 painting of a young Pomo Indian and Catherine Critcher’s oil, Indian Drummer, underscored the introspective approach that some women artists took in depicting their characterization of the West and its inhabitants. In dramatic contrast to this approach was the bold canvas—largest in the exhibit—of four Sioux warriors by Mormon artist Minerva Kohlhepp Teichert, whose grandmother emigrated to Utah with Brigham Young.

To give viewers a more complete understanding of the show, the Museum also published a 20-page monograph to accompany the exhibition. Authored by Miller and fellow Museum director Louise Clarke, the brochure included brief biographies of the artists shown, as well as a discussion of the status of women artists since the earliest European settlements on the East Coast of America. “Women Portray the West (1890-1940)” remained on view through May 30. It was one of a number of events scheduled in conjunction with the 17th Annual “Ladies First” Spring Art Show on March 20 in Los Olivos.

Anne Millay Bremer (1868-1923)
“Carmel Coast, ca,” 1918, oil on canvas
private collection, Santa Barbara, CA

Gene(Alice Geneva)Kloss (1903-1966)
“Spring Lights - Valdez Valley”
undated, watercolor & gouache on paper
Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum
Canyon TX; purchase funded by Mr. and Mrs. R.C. Neely

Ellen Henne Goodale (1915-1991)
“Alaskan Moose”, ca 1943
oil on canvasboard
Jo and Len Braarud, La Conner, WA