Cut, Cast, Carved and Coupled:
Perspectives on Women in American Art
IAC’s 27th Annual American Art Conference
November 15 – 17, 2022
The Cosmopolitan Club
122 E 66th St.
New York, NY
In Cut, Cast, Carved and Coupled: Perspectives on Women in American Art, our 27th Annual American Art Conference, we continued our exploration of women in American Art—as artists, teachers, patrons, gallerists, scholars, curators, and subjects. Considering strategies women employed to be able to pursue their work and the vocabulary with which they challenged the dominant history of the 20th century, we discovered, or re-discovered, those who by virtue of sex are often historically overlooked and underrepresented, who worked in media and with techniques traditionally viewed as “feminine,” or who had achieved significant recognition during their day, recognition that was subsequently lost.
Through talks, panel discussions, private gallery visits, and other viewing opportunities, we looked beyond the canon and the standard catalogue search, beyond the grand landscape and academic traditionalism. By way of “cut,” we considered works on (or of) paper, textiles, and photography, and those “cut from the same cloth” by virtue of their makers’ shared pursuits or perspectives. In “cast,” we explored works created from molten metal, plastic, rubber, and fiberglass and, with cast as a noun, consider artists, sitters, and patrons who have roles in the creation or commissioning of given works. In “carved,” we explored works in stone, glass, ceramic, and wood, including frames and jewels. Last, in “coupled,” we looked at relationships, whether among the artists themselves or among artists, dealers, collectors, and museums.
We gratefully acknowledge funding from CollisArt LLC; Debra Force Fine Art; D. Wigmore Fine Art; Gill & Lagodich; Graham Shay; Hawthorne Fine Art, LLC; Hollis Taggart Galleries; Kenneth R. Woodcock; Marty O’Brien; The Steven Alan Bennett Foundation; Susan Lueck, and anonymous donors, as well as support received from Bonham’s and ACA Galleries (as of October 30, 2022).
Program agenda
Tuesday, November 15, 2022
Formal sessions take place at the Cosmopolitan Club, 122 E 66th St., New York, NY 10065 (between Lexington and Park Avenues)
| 8:45 – 9:30 a.m. | Registration and continental breakfast | |
| 9:30 – 9:45 a.m. | Introduction Lisa Koenigsberg (President / Founder, Initiatives in Art and Culture) |
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| 9:45 – 10:30 a.m. | Cast, Carved, and Coupled: On Edmonia Lewis Kirsten Pai Buick (University of New Mexico) |
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| 10:35 – 11:20 a.m. | Splinters of a Secret Sky Angela Fraleigh (Contemporary artist) |
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| 11:25 a.m. – 12:25 p.m. | Collectors on Collecting the Work of Women Artists Anna O. Marley (PAFA), Brittany Webb (PAFA), with collectors Ofelia Garcia, Ferris Olin & Kenneth Woodcock |
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| 12:25 – 1:30 p.m. | Luncheon |
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| 1:30 – 2:15 p.m. | On the Basis of Art: 150 Years of Women at Yale Elisabeth (Lisa) Hodermarsky (Yale University Art Gallery) |
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| 2:20 – 2:50 p.m. | Living With Art by Women Collectors Timothy Peterson (Speir TV, Printed Matter) & Richard Gerrig (Stony Brook University) |
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| 2:55 – 3:35 p.m. | Breaking Boundaries: The Establishment of the Bennett Prize Collectors Elaine Melotti Schmidt & Steven Alan Bennett |
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| 3:35 – 3:50 p.m. | Break | |
| 3:50 – 4:50 p.m. | Women and Movement: Women and the American Art World Debra J. Force (Debra Force Fine Art), Peg Alston (Peg Alston Fine Arts), Christine Berry (Berry Campbell Gallery), Linda S. Ferber (New-York Historical Society), Barbara Haskell (Whitney Museum of American Art) & Eileen Kinsella (ArtNet) |
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| 5:30 – 7:00 p.m. | Viewing of “Rice Pereira: The Nature of Space” and Reception
D. Wigmore Fine Art, Inc. Presentation by Emily Lenz (D. Wigmore Fine Art, Inc.) & Karen Bearor (Florida State University) The exhibition explores how I. Rice Pereira’s exploration of light and space in her 1940s – 1950s glass constructions was applied to her significantly sized 1960s Lapis oil paintings. Pereira and Loren McIver were the first women to receive solo exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1953. In the lead-up, both Life and Artnews featured Pereira making her glass constructions. Pereira refined her philosophy on the nature of space through the 1950s and found a structured composition in a limited vocabulary of symbols to explore this understanding in her 1960s oil on canvas Lapis paintings. These traditional materials gave her complete control to fuse the lessons of layering glass onto a single surface and produce works in large scale, which was impossible in the glass constructions. In the Lapis paintings Pereira synthesized her artmaking, poetry, and philosophy. |
Wednesday, November 16, 2022
Formal sessions take place at the Cosmopolitan Club, 122 E 66th St., New York, NY 10065 (between Lexington and Park Avenues)
| 9:00 – 9:30 a.m. | Registration and continental breakfast | |
| 9:30 – 9:45 a.m. | Introduction Lisa Koenigsberg |
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| 9:45 – 10:25 a.m. | “Something Beside Courage”: American Women Artists’ Strategies of Expatriation Amanda C. Burdan (Brandywine Museum of Art) |
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| 10:30 – 11:10 a.m. | Elizabeth Boott Duveneck, Elizabeth Nourse, and Bessie Potter Vonnoh: Careers vs. Couples and the Complexity of Women’s Choices Julie Aronson (Cincinnati Art Museum) |
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| 11:15 – 11:55 a.m. | Aspiring “So to Live”: Ideas and Ideals in Late 19th-Century Allegorical Paintings by American Women Artists — Edith Mitchill Prellwitz, Ella Condie Lamb, Louise King Cox, Mary Lizzie Macomber, and Ella F. Pell Lisa N. Peters (Independent scholar) |
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| 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. | Our Fires Are Still Burning Carla Hemlock (Kahnawake Mohawk textile and mixed media artist) |
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| 1:00 – 2:05 p.m. | Luncheon | |
| 2:05 – 2:45 p.m. | The Known and the Unexpected: Georgia O’Keeffe’s Frame Choices Suzanne Smeaton (Independent frame historian) |
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| 2:50 – 3:30 p.m. | Out of the Shadows / Out of the Storeroom: Mary Nimmo Moran and the Craze for “Little Media” Shannon Vittoria (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) |
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| 3:35 – 4:05 p.m. | Emblem for a Journey: Irene Rice Pereira’s Self-Portrait, from 1930s Machine Aesthetic to 1960s Mysticism Karen Bearor (Florida State University) |
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| 4:05 – 4:20 p.m. | Break | |
| 4:20 – 5:30 p.m. | Louise Nevelson: Work, Legacy, Cultural Icon Joyce Pomeroy Schwartz (Public art consultant, curator, and lecturer), Lynn Gilbert (Documentary photographer and author) & Maria Nevelson (Louise Nevelson Foundation) |
Thursday, November 17, 2022
| 9:00 a.m. | Meeting at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 5th Ave (between 81st and 82nd Streets) |
| 9:00 – 9:30 a.m. | Coffee |
| 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. | Tour of The American Wing Led by curators Sylvia Yount, Thayer Tolles, and Shannon Vittoria |
| 12:30 – 2:30 p.m. | Luncheon and program at ACA 529 W 20th St #5E New York, NY 10011 (between 10th and 11th Aves.) |
