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Photographs and Prints by Women from the DIA's Collection
The Detroit Institute of Arts brings well-deserved recognition to women's significant contributions in the graphic arts with Where the Girls Are: Prints by Women from the DIA's Collection, on view July 11-September 26, 1999 in the Schwartz Graphic Arts Galleries. Although eclectic, with a wide range of media and styles, many of these thought provoking prints are united in theme, imagination and skill; such as Mary Nimmo Moran, an artist from the 1880s, demonstrating a shared interest in nature with the contemporary work of Joan Mitchell.
The
prints also explore the technical developments of the art including the
unending experimentation with the woodcut evident in prints by Blanche Lazzell
and Helen Frankenthaler, and progress in screenprint found when comparing
Louise Welch's earlier efforts with the contemporary works of Janet Fish.
With notable exceptions, such as Kätthe Kollwitz and Sonia Delaunay,
the majority of the approximately 50 artists represented in the exhibition
are Americans who worked in the 20th century.
A separate related exhibition Where the Girls Are: Photographs by Women from the DIA's Collection, runs July 25-November 7, 1999 in the Albert and Peggy de Salle Gallery of Photography, rounding out an intriguing focus on women artists at the DIA. Since the invention of photography in the mid-19th century women have been active in the emergence of the medium as a visual art with little acclaim, often dismissed or obscured.
This exhibition celebrates the enduring presence of women
throughout the history of photography with a 
sampling of the museum's photography collection ranging
from the 19th century to present day. Over 90 photographs by more than 50
women are included, encompassing photojournalism, documentary photographs,
portraits, still life, self-portraiture, landscape and digital imagery.
Featured works include photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron, Imogen Cunningham,
a newly acquired self-portrait by Kiki Smith, and documentary photographs
by Dorothea
Lange and Margaret Bourke-White.
Images from top to bottom: Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879), Enid, F77-6; Ethel Spowers (1933-), Birds Following a Plow, 1997.38
Read more about the Detroit Institute of Arts in the Resource Library
For further biographical information on selected artists cited in this article please see America's Distinguished Artists, a national registry of historic artists.
rev. 10/18/10
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