Women's Work: Paintings 1970 - 1990

Jennifer Bartlett • Lynda Benglis • Moira Dryer • Helen Frankenthaler • Mary Heilmann • Yayoi Kusama • Joan Mitchell • Elizabeth Murray • Dorothea Rockburne • Jessica Stockholder

 

Greenberg Van Doren Gallery is pleased to present Women’s Work, a selective 20-year survey – from 1970 to 1990 - of works by ten women artists, on view from March 22 through April 15, 2006. The show, organized by artist and curator Augusto Arbizo, will present mostly large-scale ‘paintings’ by a group of artists working primarily in New York who bring a high degree of experimentation and ambition in their work. To varying extents, these artists have influenced and paved the way for many painters working today, including Laura Owens, Sue Williams, and Monique Prieto.

Women’s Work includes paintings - as well as sculptural work that directly address issues of ‘painting’ - by artists who have periodically ridden the mainstream but more often have charted their own way. Though their individual visibilities have changed over time, they have each remained consistent in their practice and vision, paving the way for a younger generation of artists. With the exception of Moira Dryer and Joan Mitchell, these artists continue to produce work in the studio today.

The exhibition demonstrates a strong interest in the investigation of the formal language of abstraction as well the conceptual presentation of image. Direct links can be made from Mitchell and Frankenthaler’s dramatically painted canvases to Moira Dryer’s stained panel. The subversion of structure and pattern connects the work of Bartlett and Heilmann. Murray and Rockburne investigate and push the boundaries of the square format, while the work of Kusama, Benglis and Stockholder push it to sculptural dimensions. These artists break free of the limitations of their respective generations – and male counterparts - leaving and making their individual and idiosyncratic marks.