Iconic Works by Women and of Women
Selected works by women artists are interwoven throughout the key themes of the Richard and Ellen Sandor Family Collection, produced in a variety of media and processes, including featured works that are considered historically significant. Women as subjects are also emphasized throughout every period of history, revealing a trajectory of women in the arts that is unique to the Sandor Family Collection. Many of the women represented are trailblazing artists for creating innovative artworks utilizing experimental processes to express bold content that envisions female empowerment and authenticity.
Since the inception of the Sandor Family Collection, women artists were collected alongside men–especially innovators like Julia Margaret Cameron, Laura Gilpin, Berenice Abbott, Dorothea Lange, Dora Maar, Margaret Bourke White, and contemporary artists Imogen Cunningham, Diane Arbus, Cindy Sherman and Laurie Simmons; to African American artists Faith Ringgold, Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems, and Mickalene Thomas.
Also featured are works by Richard Prince imitating Cindy Sherman, Clarence White’s Ring Toss, Southworth & Hawes portrait of Jenny Lind, and Ammi Phillips early portrait of a white capped woman, that are complimented by Man Ray’s modern portrait of Virginia Woolf contrasted with his surreal sculpture. These pairings by male photographers represented in the collection are juxtaposed with works by Marcel Duchamp, Phillip Halsman, and Gustave LeGrey's provocative and playful portraits of women as muse with DaVinci’s Mona Lisa–one the most enigmatic portraits of a woman in the world.
Women in the Spotlight
Kara Walker : Negress Notes and Other Works
Herstory & New Media Futures: The Rise of Women in the Digital Arts
*featuring exemplar works from the Richard and Ellen Sandor Family Collection