Friday, June 9, 2017

Back at Last!



This week our loans to Innovation and Abstraction: Women Artists and Atelier 17
were returned to us and we’re celebrating!

Innovation and Abstraction began August 4 last summer, 2016, at the Pollock-Krasner House in East Hampton and traveled to the Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ, where it ran through Wednesday, May 31.

Sue Fuller, Collage, 1944





Dr. Christina Weyl, selected eight artists from the more than ninety women who worked at the New York Atelier 17 between 1940 and 1955. Of course we were also thrilled to see pieces by Alice Trumbull Mason, Dorothy Dehner, and Worden Day in the show as well. 

 
Sue Fuller, Cacophony, first state, 1944

Shown here are the three pieces related to Sue Fuller’s Cacophony, 1944. The first is Collage, probably made of a string onion-bag tweaked into two standing women and mounted on a support sheet. The title gives it independent standing. The second is a first state of Fuller’s print Cacophony, 1944. The intaglio was clearly made from the sting of Collage; many areas were blocked out to isolate the figures. Then, the final state. There could have been any number of intermediate states between first and final, but Fuller chose to preserve these two. The final has so many overlapping patterns of, probably, doilies and lace, and use of sugar lift, that it’s hard to keep track. It is a soft-ground extravaganza.


Sue Fuller, Cacophony, final state, 1944

While women were extremely hard to find at Stanley William Hayter’s earlier, Paris, Atelier 17, in NYC Fuller was a master printer, credited with technical innovations adapted by the studio.

Link to Weyl’s essay and checklist;

STG listing for Women of Atelier 17
Our list includes a few other artists including Worden Day, Fannie Hillsmith and Kett.

#innovationandabstraction #womenartists #atelier17 #pollock-krasnerhouse #minnacitron #suefuller #wordenday #dorothydehner #alicetrumbullmason #anneryan #susanteller #collage #zimmerli #innovation #stanleywilliamhayter #printmaking

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