“Blurring Boundaries: The Women of American Abstract Artists, 1936 – Present,” at Albright College’s Freedman Gallery, Aug. 17 through Dec. 5, 2021, highlights the indelible ways in which the women of American Abstract Artists have, for more than 80 years, shifted and shaped the frontiers of American abstraction. Freedman Gallery admission is free and open to the public.
The exhibit is an awe-inspiring celebration of an intergenerational group of artists — one that is both comprehensive and long overdue. From the outset — due as much to their divergent status as abstract artists as to their gender — women of American Abstract Artists (AAA) were already working on the periphery of the art world. Yet their hierarchy of distilled form, immaculate line and pure color came close to being the mantra of 1930s modern art.
Through 54 works, “Blurring Boundaries” explores the artists’ astounding range of styles, including their individual approaches to the guiding principles of abstraction: color, space, light, material, and process. It traces the extraordinary contributions of the female artists within AAA, from the founders to today’s practicing members. Included are works by historic members Perle Fine, Esphyr Slobodkina, Irene Rice Pereira, Alice Trumbull Mason, and Gertrude Greene, as well as current members such as Ce Roser, Irene Rousseau, Judith Murray, Alice Adams, Merrill Wagner and Katinka Mann.
“We are pleased to be one of only a handful of venues, and the only one in Pennsylvania, to host this important exhibition,” said David Tanner, director for the Center for the Arts at Albright College. “We are particularly excited to see work included in the show by four artists whose works have formerly hung on our walls, including Perle Fine, Lee Krasner, Claire Seidl, and Merrill Wagner. In fact, the Freedman Gallery loaned Lee Krasner’s “Free Space,” a serigraph from 1975 to the traveling exhibition.”
Albright’s Freedman Gallery is open daily Tuesday through Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sunday, 1-4 p.m.; closed for holidays and official college breaks. Please follow all guidelines posted onsite and online related to safety precautions for the ongoing pandemic. The following events are also free and open to the public:
- Panel Discussion, Thursday, Sept. 16, 4 p.m., Klein Lecture Hall
- Reception, Thursday, Sept. 16, 5-7 p.m., Freedman Gallery
- Homecoming Reception & Virtual Tour, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2-3 p.m., Freedman Gallery & Facebook Live
Additional venues for this important traveling exhibition include the South Bend Museum of Art, South Bend, Ind., the Baker Museum, Naples, Fla., the Peeler Art Center, DePauw University, Greencastle, Ind., and Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, Conn.
“Blurring Boundaries: The Women of American Abstract Artists, 1936-Present” was organized by The Clara M. Eagle Gallery, Murray State University, Murray, Ky. and the Ewing Gallery, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn., and is toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington, D.C. The exhibition was curated by Rebecca DiGiovanna.
