Art about and that has been a part of women’s empowerment is the focus of the next exhibit at the New Britain Museum of American Art (NBMAA).
“Marking the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in America,” the Museum says of its upcoming exhibit, Some Day is Now: Women, Art & Social Change, “the exhibition links past with present, by showcasing historic ephemera from the women’s suffrage movement with nearly 100 works by iconic American artists of the 20th and 21st centuries whose work advocates for social empowerment and change.”
The exhibit is a part of the Museum’s 2020/20+ Women @ NBMAA series celebrating women artists, which, the Museum says, is, “a year-long+ series of seven groundbreaking exhibitions devoted exclusively to the presentation of works by women artists.”
The newest exhibit is to open October 1, 2020, and run through January 24, 2021.
The Museum says that will present the art of a large number of, “female-identifying artists whose work reveals and challenges injustice and inequalities of all kinds, whether political, social, racial, sexual, or otherwise.”
The Museum says that works to be a part of the exhibit are to include:
- “women’s suffrage posters and bulletins on loan from Harvard Libraries, as well as historic photographs of suffrage marches and activists from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Connecticut Historical Society”.
- The Declaration of Independence and Freedom series by Faith Ringgold (b. 1930), “including All Men Are Created Equal and And Women?“.
- “Assemblage sculptures by Betye Saar (b. 1926) including Liberate (25 mammies), 2015″.
- “works on paper by Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012) and Aminah Brenda Lyyn Robinson (1940-2015), address voting rights and civil rights alike.”
- Prints by Corita Kent (1918-1986), “reflecting concerns that dominated the 1960s and 70s, including equal rights, women’s liberation, and Vietnam era protests for peace.”
- Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (b. 1940) and Ana Mendieta (1948-1985), who, “explore analogies between the exploitation and subjugation of women and land, as well as the healing power of ritual and magic.”
- Barbara Kruger (b. 1945), Jenny Holzer (b. 1950), the Guerrilla Girls (formed 1985), and Carrie Mae Weems (b. 1953), who, “confront gender stereotypes and disparities—including unequal pay, objectification, and disproportionately lower representation in the arts, compared to male colleagues.”
- Cauleen Smith’s, “SOJOURNERS, 2018, named in homage to women’s right activist Sojourner Truth (1797-1883), as well as a pair of recent neon sculptures from 2019 Light up My Life (For Sandra Bland) and My Life, My Life, My Life, My Life in the Sunshine that address racial injustice and violence against black women and men in America.”
- Mickalene Thomas (b. 1953)’s 2017 painting Resist, 2017, that, “depicts in glitter and vivid color, images from the Civil Rights era, in which women and men fought—often peacefully—for equity and enfranchisement, even decades after the passage of the 19th Amendment.”
- “Of Egyptian heritage, Ghada Amer’s (b. 1967) embroidered canvases and text- based works on paper cite feminist statements by Simone de Beauvoir (‘One is not born but rather becomes a woman’), as well as by Timothy Leary (‘Women who seek to be equal to men lack ambition.’).”
- “Trans artist Martine Gutierrez’s (b. 1989) photographs document her exploration of identity, heritage, gender fluidity, and LGBTQ and Latinx beauty.”
- “Filipino-American Stephanie Syjuco (b. 1974) probes philosophic and historic definitions of what it means to be a “citizen” in terms of national belonging, civic engagement, and responsibility in photographs and banners that evoke political rallies, protests, or parades.”
- “Mexican-born Aliza Nisenbaum (b. 1977) captures the diversity of America in her powerful painting MOIA’s NYC Women’s Cabinet, 2016, a group portrait that depicts the fifteen women (including Nisenbaum herself) who participated in the inaugural Immigrant Women Leaders Fellowship program at the New York Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA).”
- “Jenny Holzer’s 2018 VOTE YOUR FUTURE photographic series,” which, “serves as a call to action to all those who visit the exhibition.”
The Museum says that the exhibit is to include, “several works,” by Yoko Ono (b. 1933), “including her IMAGINE PEACE flag installed outside the NBMAA,” and, “her interactive artwork WISH TREE (1996/2020),” “Ono’s open invitation to viewers to write their own wishes on small tags that the writer then hangs on a live tree–making a living monument to all our dreams, big and small.”
As part of the exhibit, the Museum plans a series of online panel discussions and an exhibition walk-through. The first of these is to be an October 1st panel discussion, “Women, Art & Social Change.” The panel discussion is from 12:30pm to 2:00pm and information about registering for the event is on the Museum’s website.
Tracing its history back to 1835, NBMAA has said that its,
collection has grown to more than 8,300 works of art dating from 1739 to the present. With particular strengths in colonial portraiture, the Hudson River School, American Impressionism, and the Ash Can School, not to mention the important mural series The Arts of Life in America by Thomas Hart Benton, the collection remains a primary source of inspiration for many of the museum’s exhibitions and programming. Exhibitions continue to strike a balance between the historic and the contemporary, reflecting an American narrative comprised of a multiplicity of cultures, races, ethnicities, and perspectives. As one of the first institutions dedicated solely to American art, the New Britain Museum of American Art continues to play a vital role in illuminating our nation’s diverse heritage and artistic advancements.
The Museum announced this summer that it had reopened, with a new schedule and guidelines for visiting because of COVID-19.
The New Britain Museum of American Art is a world class museum located at 56 Lexington Street, adjoining New Britain’s historic and beautiful Walnut Hill Park.
