American Women Modernists: The Legacy of Robert Henri, 1910-1945

American modernist art has been defined for decades by a narrow range of works by almost entirely male New York-based artists in the circles of Alfred Stieglitz and Walter Arensberg. Typically, Georgia O'Keeffe is the solitary acknowledged exception to these male-dominated modernist circles. But, as Marian Wardle and the contributors to this long-overdue collection reveal, the exceptions are far more numerous than have been credited. Contributing significantly to the structure of American modernism is a group of women who were once the art students of the popular and perhaps most influential American art teacher of the twentieth century, Robert Henri (1865-1929). Henri encouraged an art that was expressive of personal emotions and experience and that illegible] grounded in life. He also preached equality among different media and approaches to art. Giving illegible] to his teachings, his women students engaged in a wide variety of artistic production. painting, sculpture, printmaking, textiles, decorative illegible] and furniture broadens our understanding of American modernism and illuminates the role of illegible] artists in shaping it. Ironically, however, these women have remained largely unstudied, and illegible] unknown, even among art historians. The seven new essays included in this volume move beyond the famed Ashcan School - the illegible] group of Henri's male students who worked in a narrow range of urban realist subjects - to recover illegible] lesser known work of his women students. American studies, and cultural studies demonstrate how these women participated in illegible] modernizing of women's roles during this era; how gender controlled their art, productivity, illegible] and reception; how their many styles, media, and subjects enrich our understanding of modern illegible] art; and how the work of modern women artists relates to women's involvement in other areas illegible] modern American society and culture, including labor and social reform, patronage, literature, illegible] and music. Lavishly illustrated and complemented by short biographies of more than 400 of Henri's illegible] this delightful collection adds a long-ignored but deserving dimension to an expanded story of illegible] modernism and to women's contributions to the arts.