Dyan Rey: My Artistic Journey with the History of Women Artists

April 27 – May 28, 2023

Opening Reception Thursday, April 27th, 6 pm. 

Dyan Rey Lecture: May 16th, 6 pm

Artist Statement:

Over the last number of years, I have produced a series of paintings depicting some of the women artists who were important inspirations for me on my “artistic journey.”

My interest in the history of women artists started with a Feminist Art class I took in college in the 1970’s. At the time, a prominent art historian, Linda Nochlin, had recently written an article asking the question: “why have there been no great women artists?” (It wasn’t until 1987 that mainstream art books would include any women artists.)

In this series, my main interest was to learn more about how the Modernist Abstract styles of the early 20th Century were made. I chose female painters, mainly American, but also Russian, who lived and studied in Paris before WWI, during the birth of the Modernist styles of Fauvism and Cubism.

I was also interested in giving recognition to the women in these art movements who are often less well-known than their male counterparts. Although the women had respectable careers during their lifetimes, they often have not achieved the fame of their male peers.

The individuals I chose were artists I had encountered during college studies or who I became familiar with later. Some of them will be familiar names while others are still not well known.

I conceived of making a portrait of each woman standing proudly in front of one of her paintings “at the exhibition”. I researched images of their paintings and picked ones that I particularly liked and wanted to make an interpretation of.

Installation Images