Innovation and Abstraction: Women Artists and Atelier 17

Voorhees Gallery

Innovation and Abstraction: Women Artists and Atelier 17 examines the formal innovations and burgeoning feminist consciousness of eight artists—Louise Bourgeois, Minna Citron, Worden Day, Dorothy Dehner, Sue Fuller, Alice Trumbull Mason, Louise Nevelson, and Anne Ryan—all of whom worked at the legendary Atelier 17 printmaking studio. Founded in 1927 in Paris by the British artist Stanley William Hayter, Atelier 17 relocated to New York from 1940 to 1955 to escape the political conflicts in Europe. Hayter championed technical experimentation and collaboration among the two hundred artists who worked there, nearly half of whom were women.

Experimental, often unorthodox, prints by the featured artists are displayed alongside their paintings and sculptures to explore how Atelier 17 catalyzed their creativity and inspired these women to reshape American abstraction. The exhibition includes loans from private collections, as well as the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Organized by the Pollock-Krasner House and guest curated by Christina Weyl. The presentation at the Zimmerili is coordinated by Nicole Simpson, Assistant Curator of Prints and Drawings, and Christine Giviskos, Curator of European Art.

The exhibition’s presentation at the Zimmerli is made possible by the donors to the Zimmerli’s Major Exhibition Fund: James and Kathrin Bergin, Alvin and Joyce Glasgold, Charles and Caryl Sills, Voorhees Family Endowment, and the Jerome A. Yavitz Charitable Foundation, Inc –Stephen Cypen, President.

The majority of the works that appeared in this exhibition were loans to the Zimmerli and therefore do not appear on this website.