The art of 'New Women'

Robert Henri (pronounced HEN-rye, 1865-1929), considered by many to be the most influential American art teacher of the early 20th century, encouraged a whole generation of artists — many of them women — to free themselves from stylistic and social restrictions and create art from their personal experience.

A superb example of how his philosophy influenced artists is on display in "Thoroughly Modern: The 'New Women' Art Students of Robert Henri" in the Brigham Young University Museum of Art through Aug. 27.

The show includes paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, textiles and furniture created by 31 women artists who studied under Henri at the Art Students League in New York from the 1890s through the 1920s and authenticates their role in helping to define the dimensions of modern art in the early 1900s.

"This landmark exhibition provides a unique opportunity to see work by important American women artists of the early 20th century," said Janet Wolff, associate dean of the School of Arts at Columbia University. "In recent years museums and art historians have been re-evaluating and rediscovering the work of figurative and realist artists, who were often sidelined by the dominance of abstract and modernist art since the 1950s."

"Thoroughly Modern" is the culmination of four years of intense research initiated by Marian Wardle, curator of American art at BYU's MOA. "I knew it would take a lot of research to put this exhibition together," said Wardle, "but at the time, I didn't know how much."

With the help of 13 BYU students, Wardle uncovered life stories and artwork of 441 women who studied under Henri. "I expected to find most of them to be amateur dabblers," she said, but research indicated that more than 200 had successful professional art careers, exhibiting, teaching and administering arts organizations around the country.

The exhibition catalog (unfortunately not available until June) will contain short biographies of all 441 artists. "If you look through the biographical entries," said Wardle, "you'll see that these women artists had multiple exhibition opportunities."

Fortunately, all of the research is beginning to have an impact on art history canon; the exhibit will be reviewed by several national publications. "We have arts writer/art history teacher Beth Colleary from New York reviewing the show for the Women's Art Journal," Wardle said, and according to Colleary, "No group of women artists from this period has been exhibited collectively before."