After jointly presenting a show of 1913 Armory Show exhibition artists this past fall, Lincoln Glenn and Graham Shay 1857 return this spring with a collaborative exhibition to recognize the contributions of some of the thousands of women artists who were members of National Association of Women Artists (NAWA). Founded in 1889, the organization is the oldest women artists’ collective in the United States, providing a community for professional women artists and promoting the work of its members through annual exhibitions, traveling shows, awards, and educational and outreach programs. Throughout its illustrious history, NAWA’s membership has included the likes of Bessie Potter Vonnoh, Harriet Whitney Frishmuth, Jane Peterson, Ida O’Keeffe, Isabel Bishop, Doris Lee, Dorothy Dehner, Louise Nevelson, Agnes Pelton, Anna Walinska, and Cecilia Beaux in its ranks, all of whom are represented in the exhibition.
Just as Virginia Woolf believed that women authors needed a modest wage and a room of their own to write fiction, women artists have searched for a place to exhibit their work and a group of their peers to provide artistic and intellectual support. The National Association of Women Artists, originally called the Woman’s Art Club of New York, was founded by five women who felt isolated from a community of their peers and from the opportunity to exhibit their art. They provided women with an alternative to the male-dominated National Academy of Design and Society of American Artists in New York, which continued to bar women from participating in many life drawing and anatomy classes, gaining governing positions, and exhibiting their art at annual exhibitions.
The exhibition will run from March 28 through May 31, with the space open to visitors 10am–6pm, Monday–Friday.
For more information, visit lincolnglenn.com.
