'The Female Gaze' at Pennsylvania Academy

Linda Lee Alter, a prolific Philadelphia collector and artist, decided in the mid-1980s to focus exclusively on collecting works by women artists. In 2010 she gave the Pennsylvania Academy nearly 500 of these objects, more than 200 of which are currently displayed in "The Female Gaze."

Even before you enter the inner galleries, it's hard not to be impressed by the quality and diversity of female artistic talent displayed in the front Maguire Gallery. Here paintings by Edna Andrade and Sarah McEneaney vie for your attention with stained glass works by Judith Schaechter, the restrained 1972 Louise Nevelson wood construction, South Floral, and the huge Viola Frey ceramic sculpture, Grandmother with Vase— painful to look at but macabre in its own time frame— not to mention ten paintings by the collector Linda Lee Alter herself.

The Academy's senior curator, Robert Cozzolino, has done an excellent job of organizing the Alter works into three subject-related (as opposed to art-related) themes: "Selfhood and Community," "Politics" and "Nature and Ecology."

Confrontational art

Many of the works fall under the rubric of confrontational art. Diane Edison's Nude Self Portrait (1995, pastel on black paper) is an in-your-face figure by an artist who dared to subvert the male sexual gaze and turn it into something she controls.

The ultimate female gaze is personified by Hung Liu's Visage II (2004), a portrait of a young woman in her ceremonial garb. The pink decorative background does little to soften the determination of the subject's expression. It made me curious about her current situation.

The "Politics" section highlights the expressive art of Sue Coe. Thank You America (1991) portrays the U.S. Senate's Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings, including such politicians as Arlen Specter, Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden. Strong works by Elizabeth Catlett dramatize particular situations in the general society.

Glories of springtime

In "Nature and Ecology" we find outstanding paintings by artists who haven't yet received their proper recognition, such as Emily Brown's On Fernald Point (2000) and At the River's Edge (1998). Janet Fish's delightful Sea Shells, Goldfish and Rain is an ode to all the glories of a springtime day.

The Academy's distinguished history has always included women as students, teachers and as artists on display. Alter's sumptuous gift— which also includes works by Louise Bourgeois, Kiki Smith Beatrice Wood, and Alice Neel— broadens the representation of women artists and increases their historic significance.

Where are the Abstract Expressionists?

Alter's efforts have surely helped raise the profile of many fine but previously overlooked artists. But "The Female Gaze" also raises some questions and concerns.

—Does an exhibition or a collection of works solely by women ghettoize the category by implying— much like those now outdated Black History month exhibitions— that the painters in question can't make it in the big leagues without some sort of affirmative action program?

— Where are the Abstract Expressionists in this collection? As a private collector, Alter is of course entitled to her taste in genre as well as gender. But a visitor to "The Female Gaze" might get the mistaken impression that females can't handle abstraction.

— Where are the paintings and sculpture of male nudes? Was this the collector's choice, or do women just not view the male body as an interesting subject? "The Female Gaze" gazes upon plenty of women's breasts and some vulvae but none of the male genitalia historically glorified by classical sculpture.♦


To read responses, click here.