SPRING / SUMMER 2016 VOLUME 37, NUMBER 1 $15.00 (Front cover) Dorothy Gillespie, Summerscape (1982), set design for Cleveland Ballet, nine SPRING / SUMMER 2016 VOLUME 37, NUMBER 1 sculptures, 4’–7’ diam., enamel on aluminum. They rose at the start the 3 PARALLEL PERSPECTIVES performance, and set a By Joan Marter and Margaret Barlow light, playful tone for the costume design and PORTRAITS, ISSUES AND INSIGHTS choreography. 4 OptiMisM and Rage : the WOMen ’s MOveMent in aRt in neW YORk , 1969-1975 By Carey Lovelace E DITORS JOan MaRteR and MaRgaRet BaRLOW 12 FeMinisM , e xhiBitiOns and MuseuMs in LOs angeLes , t hen and nOW By Ruth E. Iskin BOOK EDITOR : ute teLLini 21 dOROthY giLLespie : R eFLectiOns OF a JOYFuL adventuRe FOUNDING EDITOR : eLsa hOnig Fine By Steve Arbury EDITORIAL BOARD 29 FRankenthaLeR FORtunes : O n cLass , nORMa BROude eLLen g. L andau pRiviLege and the aRtist ’s ReceptiOn By Anna C. Chave theRese dOLan nancY MOWLL MatheWs BetsY FahLMan MaRtin ROsenBeRg 37 JOan thORne , a naLYtic ecstasY MaRY d. g aRRaRd ROBeRta taRBeLL By Vittorio Colaizzi saLOMOn gRiMBeRg Judith ZiLcZeR REVIEWS ann sutheRLand haRRis 46 Doris Salcedo edited by Julie Rodrigues Widholm and Madeleine grynstejn Reviewed by Aliza Edelman PRODUCTION , AND DESIGN SERVICES 48 Lalla Essaydi: Crossing Boundaries, Bridging Cultures Old City Publishing , i nC . edited by dina nasser-khadivi and ahmed-chaouki Rafif Editorial Offices: Advertising and Subscriptions: Reviewed by Carol Solomon Woman's art Journal ian Mellanby Rutgers university Old city publishing, inc. 50 Playing at Home: The House in Contemporary Art By gill perry dept. of art history, voorhees hall 628 north second st. and Art and the Home: Comfort, Alienation and the Everyday 71 hamilton street philadelphia, pa 19123, usa new Brunswick, nJ 08901, usa phone: +1.215.925.4390 By imogen Racz Reviewed by Anne Swartz [email protected] Fax: +1.215.925.4371 womansartjournal.org [email protected] 52 The Silence of the Women: Bamana Mud Cloths www.oldcitypublishing.com By sarah c. Brett-smith Reviewed by Kate Ezra © 2016 Rutgers university, department of art history and 54 Elisabeth Frink: Catalogue Raisonné of Sculpture 1947-93 Old city publishing, inc., edited by annette Ratuszniak Reviewed by Julie L’Enfant Woman’s art Journal (issn 0270-7993) is published semiannually, spring/summer and Fall/Winter by Old city publishing, inc., a 56 Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit member of the Old city publishing group. all rights reserved. essays by Mark Rosenthal et al. and Frida Kahlo’s Garden subscription rates $41.00 per year for individuals and $103.00 per year edited by adriana Zavala, Mia d’avanza and Joanna L. groarke for institutions. issues are shipped in May and november. Missed Reviewed by Ellen G. Landau issues must be reported no later than three months after shipping date or we cannot be responsible for replacements. all rights reserved. 58 Sophie Taeuber-Arp—Today Is Tomorrow edited by thomas schmutz indexed in Bibliography of the history of art (Bha), art Bibliogra- and Friedrich Meschede Reviewed by Anja Baumhoff phies Modern, arts and humanities citation index (isi) and Wilson Full text. the full text is also available through JstOR’s arts & sciences iii collection, www.jstor.org. 60 Émilie Charmy edited by Matthew affron Reviewed by Lauren Jimerson except as permitted under national laws or under the photocopy license described below, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, pho - 61 Women, Femininity, and Public Space in European Visual Culture, tocopying or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system of any nature, 1789-1914 edited by temma Balducci and heather Belnap Jensen without the advance written permission of the publisher. Reviewed by Heather McPherson Rights and Permissions /Reprints of Individual Articles 63 Women Artists: The Linda Nochlin Reader edited by Maura Reilly this publication and each of the articles contained herein are protected Reviewed by Patricia Briggs by copyright. permission to reproduce an d/or translate material con - tained in this journal must be obtained in writing from the publisher. 65 Artemisia Gentileschi: The Language of Painting For permission to photocopy for internal use within your organization, By Jesse M. Locker Reviewed by Marjorie Och or to make copies for external or academic use please contact the copyright clearance center at 222 Rosewood drive, danvers, Ma 67 Elisabetta Sirani ‘Virtuosa’: Women’s Cultural Production in Early 01923, usa; telephone: +1 978-750-8400 or online at http://www.copy right.com/. Modern Bologna By adelina Modesti Reviewed by Catherine R. Puglisi any unauthorized reproduction, transmission, or storage may result in civil or criminal liability. PARALL EL PE RSPEC TIV ES n this issue, we focus attention on the history of the Mountains and Sea in 1952, Frankenthaler “began to look women’s art movement with accounts of events during the somewhat marginal within this milieu,” even though, in iearly years of feminist art on the east and West coasts of the chave’s estimation, “she produced during the 1960s the best u.s. carey Lovelace documents a range of feminist groups work of her career…” active in new York in the early 1970s, with information on the abstract painter Joan thorne is discussed by vittorio activist protests by women. as a response to the neglect of colaizzi, who details the history of abstraction in the post- women in art institutions such as the Whitney Museum of minimalist period. By including comparative examples of both american art and the Museum of Modern art, feminist groups female and male artists exploring abstraction, he offers a strong organized shows and formed co-op galleries. still significant assessment of thorne’s signature style. “Rather than shaping, today, “a.i.R was the first true women’s co-op, opening in cutting, and connecting a charged pictorial space, thorne’s september 1972 in an old machine shop,” writes Lovelace. “the contorted linear trails pile upon one another, thus making goal was not so much to create a feminist alternative, but … to intentionality … the subject of their pictorial action.” according demonstrate that women did work worthy of inclusion in any to colaizzi, “thorne plays intention upon non-intention by mainstream gallery.” picturing a seemingly un-willed disarray.” Ruth iskin was on the scene in Los angeles, where a strong as usual, our Book Review editor, ute tellini, has assembled women’s movement also emerged. the museums and art an excellent team of reviewers for a list of books spanning a galleries were similarly dismissive of women artists and their broad range of times and places. Marjorie Och reviews a volume work. iskin chronicles some of the little-known feminist activism that examines especially the later work of artemisia gentileschi of the Los angeles council of Women artists that led to the (1593-1653), placing her accomplishments within the literary and monumental 1976 exhibition, Women artists: 1550–1950. in their cultural milieus of Rome and naples, where she lived and report documenting the Los angeles county Museum’s worked, and for the spanish court, where she found important “longstanding record of discrimination,” LacWa counted patrons. catherine puglisi reviews a book on gentileschi’s works on the walls and in exhibition catalogues. they found that Bolognese near-contemporary, the painter elisabetta sirani while women made up more than half the population, 1638-65), which includes a catalogue raisonné collecting the 150 representation of women artists in LacMa’s group shows in the or so paintings she completed in her short lifetime. previous decade amounted to four percent. iskin also offers some exhibition catalogues present new takes on well- details about Womanspace, an early project that attracted known artists such as Frida kahlo—her and diego Rivera’s thousands of members. Besides providing gallery space for consequential period spent in detroit, and the garden at her exhibitions, Womanspace sponsored a diverse array of programs. Blue house in coyoacán, Mexico, reviewed by ellen g. Landau. iskin also updates the history of exhibitions on women artists. a catalogue of works by sophie taueber-arp shows the many these two articles are welcome contributions to the literature on sides of this multi-disciplinary artist—besides the textiles for the evolution of the feminist movement on both coasts. which she is well-known, she had an architectural practice, dorothy gillespie (1920–2012) arrived in new York city in made innovations in modern dance, and more, as reviewed by the 1940s to become a working artist and became closely anja Baumhoff. Lauren Jimerson discusses catalogue essays on involved with feminists during the 1970s, particularly with the the Fauve-like nudes of the French painter emilie charmy. Women’s interart center. steve arbury’s retrospective view of colombian artist doris salcedo’s installations responding to gillespie’s artistic development focuses on her public art. From acts of political violence are featured in a catalogue of the an early age she had wanted to work on a large scale, and it was artist’s first u.s. retrospective exhibition, reviewed here by in these works that she found great satisfaction. her exuberant aliza edelman. style lent itself to a variety of venues. Our cover, for example, is Other not-to-be-missed books reviewed are the remarkable a photomontage of Summerscape , gillespie’s 1982 set design for volume of Linda nochlin’s collected essays on women artists; a the cleveland Ballet—evidence of the winning interaction of beautifully illustrated study of the Moroccan-born Lalla dancers with dynamic and colorful sculptures that comple- essaydi’s photographic works; two books on “artistic medita- mented their performance. gillespie’s public projects include tions” on the contemporary home; an examination of the permanent installations and some temporary projects of great significance of the distinctive geometric patterns on mud cloth interest.