CAA News Today

Each month, CAA’s Committee on Women in the Arts selects the best in feminist art and scholarship. The following exhibitions and events should not be missed. Check the archive of CWA Picks at the bottom of the page, as several museum and gallery shows listed in previous months may still be on view or touring.

December 2011

Henrietta de Beaulieu Dering Johnston, Henriette Charlotte Chastaigner (Mrs. Nathaniel Broughton), 1711, pastel on paper; 14 2/5 x 11 3/5 in. Gibbes Museum of Art, Gift of Victor A. Morawetz (artwork in the public domain)

Breaking Down Barriers: 300 Years of Women in Art
Gibbes Museum of Art
135 Meeting Street, Charlestown, SC 29401
October 28, 2011–January 8, 2012

This exhibition, drawn from the museum’s permanent collection, examines the challenges that women artists have faced over the past three hundred years. The oldest works are by Henrietta de Beaulieu Dering Johnston (ca. 1674–1729), who is considered the first female professional artist in America. Among the most recent contributions are those by artists who work in Charleston today.

Nan Goldin: Scopophilia
Matthew Marks Gallery
522 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011
October 29–December 23, 2011

Scopophilia (“the love of looking”) combines Nan Goldin’s autobiographical photographs with those taken in the Louvre Museum after hours. A video, complete with the artist’s commentary and soaring choral music, is shown in a darkened viewing room. Both the photographs and video deal with themes of love and desire.

Sarah Sze: Infinite Line
Asia Society
725 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10021
December 16, 2011–March 25, 2012

Sarah Sze: Infinite Line comprises two-dimensional works on paper and a new large-scale, site-specific installation. Sze uses everyday objects such as milk cartons, takeout cups, bars of soap, feathers, lamps, ladders, pebbles, potted plants, pens, plastic bottles, tools, and twigs, which are transformed in her installations by their associations.

Sanja Iverković: Sweet Violence
Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019
December 18, 2011–March 25, 2012

This first US museum exhibition of the Croatian feminist, activist, and video and performance artist Sanja Iverković covers four decades of her career. Roxana Marcoci, curator in the Department of Photography, has brought together a group of videos and media installations, including Sweet Violence (1974), Personal Cuts (1982), Practice Makes a Master (1982/2009), General Alert (Soap Opera) (1995), and Rohrbach Living Memorial (2005), along with one hundred photomontages.