Spanning the decades between the late 1890s and early 1960s, this exhibition catalogue examines the particularly complex challenges Southern women artists confronted in a traditionally conservative region during a period in which women’s social, cultural, and political roles were being redefined and reinterpreted. How did the variables of historical gender norms, educational barriers, race, regionalism, sisterhood, suffrage, and modernism mitigate and motivate women seeking expression on canvas or in clay? Whether in personal or professional arenas? Working from studio space in spare rooms at home or on the world stage, the artists considered made remarkable contributions by fostering future generations of artists through instruction, incorporating new aesthetics into the fine arts, and challenging the status quo.
Featured artists: Wenonah Bell, Nell Blaine, Sarah Blakeslee, Selma Burke, Elisabeth Chant, Adèle Clark, Kate Clark, Josephine Couper, Minnie Evans, Virginia Evans, Anne Goldthwaite, Angela Gregory, Ella Hergesheimer, Marie Hull, Clementine Hunter, Anna Huntington, Löis Jones, Nell Jones, Ida Kohlmeyer, Margaret Law, Blanche Lazzell, Adele Lemm, Edith London, Blondelle Malone, Maud Mason, Corrie McCallum, Willie Newman, Augusta Oelschig, Clara Parrish, Theresa Pollak, Mabel Pugh, Hattie Saussy, Dixie Selden, Alice Smith, Gladys Smith, Alma Thomas, Mary Thomas, Helen Turner, Elizabeth Verner, Catherine Wiley, and Enid Yandell.