Sun, 01/25/2015 – Sun, 04/12/2015
William B. Butz Gallery
This exhibition featured artists from throughout the United States and the African diaspora who had brokered new technologies and approaches to printmaking while addressing issues pertaining to history, identity, and politics. In works ranging from the representational to the abstract, this diverse group of women have enriched the print medium with their brilliantly drafted lithographs, colorful etchings and silk-screens, and conceptually rich photographs. Nearly twenty artists from the Civil Rights Era to present day were included in the show: Ghada Amer, Emma Amos, Mary Lee Bendolph, Louisiana P. Bendolph, Chakaia Booker, Elizabeth Catlett, Robin Holder, Margo Humphrey, Julie Mehretu, Wangechi Mutu, Toyin Odutola, Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Faith Ringgold, Alison Saar, Betye Saar, Mickalene Thomas, Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems, and Deborah Willis.
The exhibition was cocurated by Museum president and CEO David Mickenberg and Dr. Daniel Haxall, Associate Professor of Art History at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. A former fellow at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Institute for the Arts and Humanities, Dr. Haxall received his Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University and has published on diverse topics, including Abstract Expressionism, collage, installation art, corporate patronage, the African diaspora, and intersections of sports and art. He previously taught at the University at Buffalo and Penn State University, and has lectured at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Harvard University, New York University, National Gallery of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and College Art Association among others. He is curating a forthcoming exhibition on Robert Motherwell for the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Esteban Vicente in Segovia, Spain, and preparing a book on Abstract Expressionist collage.
Featured image: Faith Ringgold (b. 1934), You Put the Devil in Me, from the Mama Can Sing Jazz Suite, 2004, screen print on wove paper. Allentown Art Museum, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Kaplan, 2004