Over the course of two years, curator/gallerist Jane Eckert has assembled works by two dozen women artists for the exhibition "By Her Hand." In addition to Helen Frankenthaler, well-known names include Louise Nevelson, Kara Walker, Nancy Graves, and Faith Ringgold. Several hail from the northeast and Hudson locales: Frankenthaler had a studio in Darien, CT; Graves was from Pittsfield. Of the ensuing generations, Diane King is based in Ancramdale, Camilla Mathlein in Hillsdale, and Tricia Tusa in Williamstown. Some of the artists from the West Coast will be in attendance at the Oct 8 opening reception at Eckert Fine Art in North Adams on Mass MoCA’s campus.

While it’s common knowledge that women struggle to earn the same as men, it’s notoriously so in the field of visual art, where many artists became involved in relationships. The 2018 book Ninth Street Women, by Mary Gabriel, recounts the uphill path to fame by five of the mid-20th century’s finest artists, several of whom were married to even more famous male artists. Frankenthaler, whose work will be featured in "By Her Hand" was part of that group.

“Since there are more female museum directors, curators, writers, and gallerists than when I started in the 1980s, it’s opened up the world for women artists to expand their horizons and not be pigeonholed,” Eckert says. “Women supporting women really made that happen.” This exhibition nods to this edging parity while advancing the important idea of women supporting one another.

Faith Ringgold, "Here Comes Moses." Ed. 51/200, 2014. Lithograph in colors, 22x 30”

“I included Chizuru Morii Kaplan’s art for "By Her Hand" after representing her work in my gallery for over seven years,” notes Eckert. “Chi, as we call her, was trained in Japan as an architect and did renderings for people such as I.M. Pei before studying watercolor at the Art Student’s League in NYC. I have this deep appreciation of her talent for drawing and perspective acquired as an architect and her ability to combine that with an ethereal, distinct style for painting.” Her watercolor of Venice is a shimmering example of that precision and ability to capture a unique atmosphere.

“Gin Stone came to my attention as the recipient of an award from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation,” Eckert says. “I had worked with Rauschenberg for many years and thought I should take a look at this artist. Gin appealed to me because of her use of reclaimed fishing gear intertwined in her sculpture. She raises awareness of the abuse the oceans face while making something fascinating to view.”

The show is a unique take on a concept that was explored in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s recent exhibition, Labyrinth of Forms: Women and Abstraction, 1930-1950. The exhibition parallels "By Her Hand;" while a number of the artists included were familiar, most were not household names. And yet the bulk of the Whitney exhibition comprised works pulled from the museum’s own collection. The proof was in the work — so many newly-seen gems, many on a smaller scale, by artists who had made it to the Whitney — and yet have remained hardly visible.

Individual events such as these will hopefully accrue into a critical mass such that women won’t need to be separated out for recognition based on gender. In the meantime, well-known artists, often of earlier generations, can help draw attention to contemporary women artists with a breadth of genres.

"By Her Hand"
Eckert Fine Art + Consulting
1315 Mass MoCA Way, North Adams, MA
Oct. 8 - Nov. 12
Reception Saturday, Oct 8, 2-5 p.m.

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