Review By Fran Watson

A 60-by-64-inch example of Miriam Schapiro’s “femmage” hearts

Miami University Art Museum is one of only three destinations for this 31-piece Miriam Schapiro exhibit, curated at the Polk Museum in Florida.

It's easy to imagine Miriam Schapiro's shock and lifelong dismay at the world's perception of women as artists. She had deeply admired art's great publicity hound, Picasso, more for his lifestyle than his art, and as a young woman hoped to adopt a similar glamorous environment for herself one day. His home in France, his media success, covered by magazines and newspapers wherever he went, and his egotistic assurance were the epitome of a fantasized artist's life.

However, even though her success was assured by her quality, Schapiro found a whole different set of rules made to be broken in her career as an artist. Art was perceived as a man's game, with men's rules, rules she would break by speaking her beliefs in her own voice with brushes, cloth and talent.

At Miami University, a mini-retrospective honors her vision starting with paintings from the '50s. Schapiro was then adopting classic epic art into the modern interpretation of abstract expressionism. Along with the passion of abstraction, let the evidence show that this woman is truly a painter. Swirls, slashes and superb color transform old saws like Tintoretto's "St. George and the Dragon" into DeKooning-esque gesture in her "Beast Land and Plenty," featuring freshness like a trademark.

In the '60s she moved right along to a simplified vision and a quiet motion similar to Francis Bacon's portraits. The subtlety surrounding eruptions of expression in "Treasury" refers to the subtlety of her life-long subject of motherhood. "You only get one mother," she is quoted as saying in the Abrams catalogue accompanying the show, and the theme is explored often as her art evolves and her career progresses.

When her "femmages" appeared in the '70s, messages were camouflaged in the voluptuous surfaces, thick with mixed media and quirky shapes that pop out when least expected. "A Cabinet for All Seasons," more of an installation in its four parts than wall piece, offers insight into just what makes Schapiro's work more than beautiful. In the first of these pieces, a lattice background that appears to be pure design reveals itself as a surface covered with completely individual shapes mimicking constant repetition. Edges are drawn with rapid gesture, cloth is painted over and around to incorporate the collage so skillfully that one is never sure where the cloth ends and the paint begins.

Just beyond this construction, the ultra-feminine apron-and-hankie collages make their unmistakable statement of referring to women as ornaments. Schapiro had asked audiences at her openings and lectures to contribute their own lacy accessories for this series, resulting in these sweetly sad commentaries. These are your mother's "company" accouterments. Her sheer, impractical dress apron, starched and ironed, her crochet-edged handkerchiefs, decorated by her as she listened by the radio in the soft evenings, all are adhered to pastel painted backgrounds in a saccharin portrait of women.

As the exhibit wanders back chronologically through Miami Art Museum's irregular shape, it follows the course of Schapiro's development as an artist as clearly as if a biography were unfolding. Japanese influence appears, adds its voice to her unending growth, and fades, becoming another tool in her work. Painting is never abandoned. It merges more and more with her complex surfaces, underscoring the multi-faceted feminine existence. Canvases assume pertinent shapes or take the format of triptychs. Until, finally arriving at the '80s and '90s, a complete mastery of all of these elements returns Schapiro to the traditional (more or less) canvas support. And tributes to Frida Kahlo, appearing as a heroine whose life moves beyond tradition into legend.

The Kahlo triptych, "Conservatory," facing the gallery entrance commands the main room. She assumes a calm, secure demeanor of confidence, and a face which combines her features with Schapiro's own features. While Kahlo's Jewish ancestors are little known and less acknowledged, they formed a bond with Schapiro encouraging her admiration for the poet/artist. Surrounding the seated figure, Aztec gods and symbols of Mexican women's daily chores take the background without distracting from the subject. An upper corner is collaged with black-and-white print fabric, depicting Renaissance symbols and decoration, possibly referring to the universality of Kahlo's life and indeed, the lives of all artists.

As an extra bonus, Miriam Schapiro will be speaking at the formal opening tonight at Miami University. At 87, she is still working on large canvases, and still solidifying women's unique contributions as both creators and procreators.

E-mail Fran Watson

Quick Draw (April 20, 2000)
Quick Draw (April 6, 2000)
Antique Heaven (March 30, 2000)
more...

personals | cover | humor | news | movies | music | arts & entertainment | mediakit | home

'A' Is for 'Aloha'
Local photographer packs Hawaiian punch with debut mystery

Curtain Call

Irresistible Urges
Ancient Greek comedy is an onstage quickie

A Survivor
Veteran community theater director stages the regional premiere of 'A New Brain'

Thin Blue Line
The host of 'Blue's Clues' just a hard-working actor

Arts Beat
How Do We Keep Kim Humphries in Cincinnati?

Adult Entertainment
Playhouse's 'Night Music' is Cincinnati's own Broadway production

Writer's Block
A Man's Life

	Join the CityBeat Mailing List
	» JOIN NOW