Virtual Panel Discussion: Blurring Boundaries

Blurring Boundaries: The Women of American Abstract Artists, 1936 – Present

On View at LSU MOA: On view July 14, 2022–October 23, 2022

Learn about Blurring Boundaries during a virtual panel discussion featuring artist and “curatorial instigator” Creighton Michael, artist Susan Bonfils, artist Emily Berger, and LSU MOA Executive Director Daniel Stetson.

Free to attend. Pre-register online. Zoom invite will be emailed the day of the program.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION An awe-inspiring celebration of an intergenerational group of artists—one that is both comprehensive and long overdue—Blurring Boundaries: The Women of American Abstract Artists, 1936 – Present highlights the indelible ways in which the women of American Abstract Artists have, for more than eighty years, shifted and shaped the frontiers of American abstraction.

The hierarchy of distilled form, immaculate line, and pure color came close to being the mantra of 1930s modern art—particularly that of American Abstract Artists (AAA), the subject of a new exhibition entitled Blurring Boundaries: The Women of American Abstract Artists, 1936 – Present. From the outset—due as much to their divergent status as abstract artists as to their gender—women of American Abstract Artists were already working on the periphery of the art world. In contrast to the other abstract artist collectives of the period, where equal footing for women was unusual, AAA provided a place of refuge for female artists. Through fifty-four 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.

More than eighty years after its founding, AAA continues to nurture and support a vibrant community of artists with diverse identities and wide-ranging approaches to abstraction. In celebration of this tradition, Blurring Boundaries: The Women of American Abstract Artists 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. Click here to learn more about the exhibition.

IMAGES: (cover detail) Cecily Kahn, Laughter and Forgetting, 2017. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of the artist. (above 1) Emily Berger, Breathe In, 2017, oil on wood. Courtesy of the artist. (above 2) Anne Russinof, Inside Out, 2017. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of the artist (above3) Katinka Mann, Red Yellow Polaroid, 1982, Polaroid print. Courtesy of the artist

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, TN and is toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington, D.C. This exhibition is also sponsored by Taylor Porter Attorneys At Law.

Additional support is provided by generous donors to the Annual Exhibition Fund: Louisiana CAT; The Imo N. Brown Memorial Fund in memory of Heidel Brown and Mary Ann Brown; The Alma Lee, H.N. and Cary Saurage Fund; Charles "Chuck" Edward Schwing; Robert and Linda Bowsher; LSU College of Art + Design; Mr. and Mrs. Sanford A. Arst; and The Newton B. Thomas Family/Newtron Group Fund.