More than 25 works on view at the Women’s Museum for the first time.
The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) is pleased to present a major reinstallation of its collection galleries with an expansive array of paintings, photographs and sculptures, including recent acquisitions, rarely exhibited works and familiar favorites. The new installation features collection highlights that emphasize diversity and enhance connections between historical and contemporary art.
Organized by six themes—Family Matters, Roots to Routes, Rebels with a Cause, Built to Order, Space Explorers and the Great Outdoors—each gallery examines subjects that engage women artists worldwide. A selection of recently announced gifts from the trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art are also displayed at NMWA for the first time, including Marisol’s The Large Family Group, Niki de Saint-Phalle’s Pregnant Nana and Kiki Smith’s Breast Jar, among others.
“To ensure engaging visitor experiences in our galleries, we are pleased to rehang our collection as it grows and evolves in thematic focus,” said NMWA Director Susan Fisher Sterling. “In art museums, installations organized by historical chronology have often been an obstacle to the inclusion of women artists, since they only started appearing in sizable numbers in the 20th century. This is especially true for women artists of color.”
Featuring more than 150 works, NMWA’s new installation highlights renowned artists such as Chakaia Booker, Mary Cassatt, Judy Chicago, Sonya Clark, Lavinia Fontana, the Guerrilla Girls, Candida Höfer, Frida Kahlo, Barbara Kruger, Nikki S. Lee, Marisol, Joan Mitchell, Berthe Morisot, Shirin Neshat, Faith Ringgold, Rachel Ruysch, Cindy Sherman, Amy Sherald, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Mickalene Thomas, Alma Woodsey Thomas, Anne Truitt and Remedios Varo. In addition to the recently announced gifts from the trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, select works of art on view at NMWA for the first time include objects by Marina Abramović, Margaret Bourke-White, Florence Henri, Mwangi Hutter, Zanele Muholi, Pansy Napangati, Ruth Orkin, Rosângela Rennó, Laurie Simmons, Mildred Thompson and Grazia Toderi.
(via National Museum of Women in the Arts. Photo: Zanele Muholi, Katlego Mashiloane and Nosipho Lavuta, Ext. 2, Lakeside, Johannesburg, 2007; Chromogenic print, 30 x 30 in.; Museum purchase: The Paul and Emily Singer Family Foundation with additional support from Nancy Nelson Stevenson; © Zanele Muholi; Courtesy of the artist, Yancey Richardson, New York, and Stevenson Cape Town / Johannesburg.)
