\ 3 - LAM BDA RISING BOOK REPORT A G uidebook fo r a Place To G o in O ne9s M in d by Tee A. Corinne It seems to me to be a wonderful time in which to be a woman artist: feminism has made a change in the art world (I can rem­ ember what it was like before) and the power of women networking, sharing ideas and information and writing about each other’s work is strong in ways that were hard to imagine twenty-five years ago. Regionalism, pluralism and a respect for content are all ascending and these are good signs for women artists who are often perceived as a different region by established art interests. It is a credit to the persistance of our nineteenth century foremothers that women have equal access to art education even if we (Museum photo from the book) haven’t yet managed financial parity in the gallery/museum juggernaut. The new National Museum of Women in the Arts which opened in April in Washing­ ton, D.C., has caused a flurry of media inter est in women in the arts: debates, arguments, should there be such a place, shouldn’t there, etc. I think the attention is wonderful. People are dragging out the statistics and looking at them again, noticing that there are still huge gaps and inequalities in who gets collected, included in gallery and museum shows, pub­ licized, made the subject of books. It seems to me that the new museum is the result of many dreams focusing on the same need at the same time. It was created out of a leap of faith, exists as a place to go in the mind as well as in reality. I think it will function as a locus of activity and research, a stimulant, a pilgrimage site. It gives us art from a women’s eyes view. It doesn’t matter how similar or different these images are to works by men. What really matters is notic­ ing that women did them, learning the women artists’ names, finding more of their work. N A T IO N A L M U S E U M O F W OM EN I N TH E ARTS, edited by Margaret B. Rennolds (Harry N. Abrams, 253 pp. $35.001. moving women from the periphery to the center of our consideration. Coinciding with the opening of the museum, the publishing house of Harry N. Abrams has brought out an impressive book titled N A T IO N A L M U S E U M O F W OM EN I N T H E ARTS, 253 pages, large format, glossy paper, bright color, crisp reproduc­ tions. Two hundred and thirty works of art from the museum’s permanent collection are reproduced, sixty-nine in color, accompanied by text and a contemporary image of each artist. A ll the pictures are beautiful. Alessandra Comini’s introduction is thought-provoking and offers many answers to the question “ W hy a National Museum of Women in the A rts?” Comini in her summa­ tion notes that the permanent collection insures “ that the whole story of art be told.... It presents not a footnote to the history of art, but a supplement; not a ghetto, but an extension.” W hat’s best about this book is the reproductions of artwork and the likenesses of the artists. The text is strongest in pre­ senting the larger world in which the artists lived and worked. There are, however, con­ fusing inconcistencies when discussing art­ ists’ personal lives. Children are mentioned with no notation about whether or not the artist had married. Sometimes marriages are cited but not subsequent divorces or wido­ whoods. The beginning of Gabriele Numter’s affair with Kandinsky is highlighted, but not the end which had a devastating effect on her work. The details of artists’ lives make them more memorable, help lodge the artists in our minds. When individual particularities are glossed over, as they are in this text, the artists become homogenized, lose some of their uniqueness and their power. For anyone interested specifically in work by lesbian artists this collection has a few delights. But, missing are examples of the work of Harriet Hosmer, Romaine Brooks, Emma Stebbins, Alice Austen, Edmonia Lewis, Emma Jane Gaye, Edith Watson, Flor- ence Wyle, Frances Loring, Anee Whitney, and Gluck. One cannot tell from the text that any of the artists who are mentioned might be lesbian. The treatment of Rosa Bonheur is a case in point. The collection of the museum includes a drawing and a painting by Bon­ heur, both of sheep. The accompanying text describes Bonheur as leading an “ uncon­ ventional life-style... She smoked cigarettes in public, rode astride, and wore her hair - short. From her teens, she favored men's attire.” O f Bonheur's fifty-three year alliance with Nathalie Micas or of her passionate involvement with the younger American painter, Anna Klumpke, there is not one word. One of Klumpke's paintings of Bon­ heur is reproduced as a "contemporary” image of the artist. It was done with a loving eye. I keep asking, “ Is this really impor­ tant?” And answering, "Yes, it is.” As I ’ve searched, as an artist and a lover of women, for role models. I ’ve found the things unsaid to be continually frus­ trating and disorienting. I remember my elation on reading James Saslow’s article “ Closets in the Museum” in LA V E N D E R C U LTU R E (JA Y A N D YO U N G , JOVE/ HBJ) that George Dyer was Frances Bacon’s lover. Bacon’s portraits of George D yer’s death suddenly exploded with meaning for me. Saslow points out that information about relationships “ calls our attention to a potential layer of meaning in the work.” Although this layer is less obvious in Bon­ heur's portraits of sheep, I sometimes won­ der if she chose to work with animal imagery because it would tell less about her than human scenes might. Some of Berenice A b b o tt’s pho­ tographs in the museum collection are also of variant interest. In the main body of the book is one of her portraits of the bisexual poet Edna St. Vincenty Millay wearing a necktie and looking rather sad; though the print quality is gorgeous. Further in the book is an Abbott photo of J anet Flanner wearing an embroidered blouse. Flanner wrote for the New Yorker for fifty years using the pen name Genet. Some of her correspondence and a wonderful group of scrapbooks about her are housed in the “ Flanner/Solano Papers” in the Library of Congress. More letters appear in D A R L IN G H IS S IM A (M URRAY, R AN D O M HOUSE)--witty, romantic, intel­ ligent and charming. The museum book also contains A b b ott’s grand photo of Djuna Barnes in profile: troublesome Djuna who claimed she wasn’t really a lesbian, she just made a fool of herself over Thelma Wood. Thelma Wood was also an artist. Their relationship lasted ten years. Included also is Louis Abbema’s “ Por- trait of a Young Girl in Blue Ribbon,” a pastel of a pouty, serious looking child. Abb- ema, who was French and a close friend of Sarah Bernhardt, wore fancy male attire, smoked cigars, and was quite public in the It presents not a footnote to the history of art, but a supplement; not a ghetto, but an extension. - expression of her lesbianism. Finally there is Gwen John, who spent most of her adult life in Paris. John was known for her passionate attachments to both men and women and ultimately to the Catholic Church. She is represented by two pieces: a charcoal of a surly looking young woman and a water color of a woman, in profile, holding a missal near an empty chair. Who were these women, how did they relate to John’s life? More questions arise about what may have been left out. What was the nature of Ellen Day Hale’s relationship with Gabrielle de Veaux Clements with whom she studied and later lived? So much as been left unsaid. (Portrait (ran Ihr