Culture Crawl
This section includes a peek at the latest in theater, reviews of women-only exhibits, reflections on something interesting in film,
a snapshot of a special cultural or community event, etc.
a snapshot of a special cultural or community event, etc.
A Glimpse of “Our Selves: Photographs by Women Artists from Helen Kornblum”
Exhibition at MoMA
May 2022
This exhibition is open to the public through October 2, 2022.
Exhibition at MoMA
May 2022
This exhibition is open to the public through October 2, 2022.
Untitled (2010) by Sharon Lockhart
Chromogenic Print ~ 37 × 49 inches
© 2021 Sharon Lockhart
Photo Courtesy: The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Chromogenic Print ~ 37 × 49 inches
© 2021 Sharon Lockhart
Photo Courtesy: The Museum of Modern Art, New York
By Sandra Bertrand
Carrie Mae Weems, one of the more celebrated women photographers in MoMA’s current exhibition, challenges the viewer with the following question: “In one way or another, my work endlessly explodes the limits of tradition. I’m determined to find new models to live by. Aren’t you?”
The truth is, women photographers have been exploding expectations of what photography is and what it can be for decades. Their work has simply been under the radar for far too long. This exhibition, through Helen Kornblum’s generous gift, lays waste to any assumption that women can’t carry the demands and diversity of the profession. From portraiture, photojournalism, social documentary, avant-garde experimentation, advertising and performance, the proof is here.
One of the standout examples of portraiture is Sharon Lockhart’s untitled chromogenic print from 2010 of a young woman absorbed in the puzzle before her (see headline image). The wall label describes the map of Maine behind her and the puzzle as a reproduction of a Winslow Homer painting. But it’s not the underpinnings of the world outside this domestic scene that grabs our attention. I was particularly aware of the draw to this painting on a roomful of viewers. The serenity and beauty of the composition are reminiscent of a Dutch Renaissance masterwork.
The truth is, women photographers have been exploding expectations of what photography is and what it can be for decades. Their work has simply been under the radar for far too long. This exhibition, through Helen Kornblum’s generous gift, lays waste to any assumption that women can’t carry the demands and diversity of the profession. From portraiture, photojournalism, social documentary, avant-garde experimentation, advertising and performance, the proof is here.
One of the standout examples of portraiture is Sharon Lockhart’s untitled chromogenic print from 2010 of a young woman absorbed in the puzzle before her (see headline image). The wall label describes the map of Maine behind her and the puzzle as a reproduction of a Winslow Homer painting. But it’s not the underpinnings of the world outside this domestic scene that grabs our attention. I was particularly aware of the draw to this painting on a roomful of viewers. The serenity and beauty of the composition are reminiscent of a Dutch Renaissance masterwork.
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Portraiture in a more contemporary, intimate style can be found in Mary Ellen Mark’s Tiny, Halloween, Seattle, 1983. There’s an in-your-face insolence in her subject that galvanizes the viewer. This is an adolescent who isn’t going to just “sit pretty” for the camera. Mark’s mastery in capturing ordinary Americans could stand beside Robert Frank’s iconic fifties portraiture any day. There are other examples that resonate, such as Catherine Opie’s Angela Scheirl (1993), the subject a member of Opie’s LGBTQ community – confident in her male attire and in her act of becoming her new moniker, Hans.
A photographic subject isn’t the only one who can transition to a new identity before our eyes. The photographer herself can choose to manipulate the way we identify those of other cultures. Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie, (this writer will not attempt a guide to pronunciation) is a Native-born Navajo artist who has chosen to reinterpret images of Native peoples. In Vanna Brown, Azteca style (1990), she has surrealistically recast the Wheel of Fortune game show hostess Vanna White as an indigenous woman shining forth from a TV screen. |
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Vanna Brown, Azteca Style (1990) by Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie
Photocollage ~ 23 9/16 X 30 inches
© 2021 Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie
Photo Courtesy: The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Photocollage ~ 23 9/16 X 30 inches
© 2021 Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie
Photo Courtesy: The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Doll in Doorway by Kati Horna (1938)
© Kati Horna |
Manipulation of one’s subject can happen in the darkroom but can be just as effective when the conception arrives full-blown from the outset. Such is the case with Kati Horna’s Doll in Doorway (1938), when the artificial subject is treated with the same care given to a human subject. The result is haunting.
"Deploying the technique of superimposition, [Horna] created uncanny studies of dismembered doll bodies, linking her to Surrealist artists like Hans Bellmer." (Caitlin Ryan, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Photography, 2021, moma.org) Susan Meiselas, an intrepid photographer of foreign shores, gives us a traditional mask used in the Popular Insurrection, Monimbo, Nicaragua (1978). This was taken shortly before the socialist revolt that ended the forty-year brutal rule of the Somozo family. Meiselas felt that “the vibrancy and optimism of the resistance” came through better in color. |
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In this writer’s opinion, the power of black and white, and the countless shades of gray that lay between the ends of the spectrum are the greatest challenges in photographic art. It can also provide the greatest awards to those who persist.
The great Dorothea Lange gave us unforgettable images of the American Depression and the faces of those who held fast. The vitrines placed throughout the exhibition space reveal the power in her published work, just as memorable under glass. A lesser-known photographer, Consuelo Kanaga, gives us a little Black girl in profile. Immersed in her thoughts, the whiteness of her uniform blouse and her wide-brimmed straw hat contrasting with her small dark limbs, she speaks volumes in her silent isolation. Another timeless image of Mazahua women from Mariana Yampolsky elevates her subjects to fine art. Cuban-born Marta Maria Pérez Bravo brings the same power to her work but for an opposite effect. A terrible tension holds tight in her subject’s eye. A rope is suspended over her gaze. The title of the work in translation from the Spanish reads “I didn’t see with my own eyes.” We don’t know what she didn’t see, we can only imagine. |
I didn’t see with my own eyes (No vi con mis propios ojos) 1991
© Marta Maria Pérez Bravo |
Three Red Petit-Fours (1990) by Laurie Simmons
© Laurie Simmons |
Imogen Cunningham was one artist who made her mark when few women were recognized for their aptitude behind a lens. Born in 1883, her Agave Design I (1920) portrait proves that a still life well-lit can be as stirring as any life study. Sonya Noskowiak’s Plant Detail (1931) totters on the brink of stunning abstraction. One arresting entry on display worth mentioning is Laurie Simmons’ Three Red Petit-Fours (1990). Tongue-in-cheek performance art? Perhaps a Busby-Berkely nod to the past when the female figure was parading for no other purpose than delectability to the male gaze? It stands as a reminder such images in the culture at large, if not in their heyday, have not disappeared altogether. Whether these photographers had as their priority the socio-cultural impact on their world when producing such visions is an argument worth having. What’s certain is that many turned their photographic visions into lasting art, giving our world the female gaze. |
Sandra Bertrand is an award-winning playwright and painter. She is Chief Art Critic for Highbrow Magazine and a contributing writer for GALO Magazine. Prior to working for Sanctuary as Culture & Travel Editor, Sandra was a Featured Artist in May 2019.
