Broadened Perspectives
The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art presents an exhibition of surrealist and abstract works by women, including those of Native American and African American heritage
Women, Surrealism, and Abstraction at Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art
The contributions of women artists to the 20th century art movements of surrealism and abstraction have most often been overlooked.the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art at Utah State University in Logan is addressing this marginalization with the exhibition Women, Surrealism, and Abstraction through July 31.The exhibition broadens its perspective with the inclusion of 21st century works and works by Native American and African American women. It also explores additional media, including ceramics, fiber arts, photography and printmaking. Extraordinarily, the exhibition is drawn entirely from the museum’s permanent collection.
Phillip Brown, assistant to the museum’s director, adds, “also featured alongside the art are 16 poems written by women in the Cachevalley literary community. Each poet was invited to select pieces from the exhibition and write poetry inspired by or in response to the artworks, bringing the women into a kind of creative dialogue that reaches across art forms and across time.” Barbara Morgan (1900-1992) was known for her iconographic photographs of Martha Graham and her dancers. Familiar with the photographic experiments of the European avantgarde which were denigrated in the U.S., she experimented herself. She began “to feel the pervasive, vibratory character of light energy as a partner of the physical and spiritual energy of the dance, and as the prime mover of the photographic process. Suddenly, I decided to pay my respects to light, and create a rhythmical light design….” Her Samadhi, 1940, is symbolic of the individual soul’s union with the universe.
Ruth Duckworth (1919-2009) was born in Germany, lived in England and taught at the University of Chicago. She
was among the first artists in England to make sculptural rather than utilitarian objects in clay. She said, “i think of life as a unity. This unity includes mountains, mice, rocks, trees, and women and men. It is all one lump of clay.” Her Untitled, 1992, is an example of her works in porcelain featuring a thin blade cutting through the form.
Maud Oakes (1903-1990) was a painter and printmaker, anthropologist, ethnologist and writer. She recorded Diné sand paintings in her book Where the Two Came to Their Father, A Navaho War Ceremonial.the silkscreen print in the exhibition is from that series. She wrote, “The War Ceremonial was revived by 20th century Navajo to send off young Navajo leaving the reservation to serve in the U.S. military during WWII.THE ceremonial was intended to protect the soul of the warrior who would be so far from his people. Several hundred Navajo served in the war, including approximately 400 Code Talkers.”
The works themselves and the stories of their makers offer “an important opportunity to really engage our empathy and reflection” the museum’s executive director and chief curator, Katie Lee-koven, reflects.■