WA L K I N G TO U R

WOMEN ARTISTS AT THE UTAH MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

InfoUtah Museum of Fine Arts University of UtahMarcia and John Price Museum Building 410 Campus Center Drive Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0350

address

museum hours Tuesday - Friday: 10 am - 5 pm Wednesday: 10 am - 8 pmSaturday & Sunday: 11 am - 5 pm Closed Mondays and Holidays

admission Adults $7 Seniors & Students $5 Youth (ages 6-18) $5 Children under 6, UMFAMembers, U of U students, staff & faculty FREEHigher education students in Utah FREEFirst Wednesday and third Saturday of each month FREE

PodcastsPodcasts about art by women artists on display at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts are available to download. Go to:

www.umfa.utah.edu/podcasts

Lesson PlansLesson plans for teachers on women artists in the UMFA collections are also available to download. Go to:

www.umfa.utah.edu/lessons

ThanksThis walking tour guide was created in conjunction with the Utah Symphony and Utah Opera for the Women’s Voices Festival. For more information about the Women’s Voices Festival visit www.usuo.org/festival.

Gallery MapUtah Museum of Fine Arts

Image CreditsDeborah Butterfield, American (1949- ), Rex, bronze. Purchased with funds from the Phyllis Cannon Wattis Fund for Contemporary Art, 2003.13.1

Viola Frey, American (1933 - 2004), Ethnic Man, earthenware, low fire glaze.Purchased with funds from the Phyllis Cannon Wattis Fund for Twentieth Century Art, 2000.11.1. A-O. Art © Artists’ Legacy Foundation/ Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

Maria Montoya Martinez (1887-1950), and Popovi Da (1921-1971,) San Ildefonso Pueblo, Plate with Design of the Avanyu, earthenware.Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Jefferson B. Fordham, 1980.131.2.

Datsolalee/Louisa Keyser (c.1850-1925), Washoe, Bread Basket, 1900-25, sunburned willow. On loan from the Warnock Collection, L2007.53.1.

Marie-Louise-Elisabeth Vigée le Brun (1755-1842), French, Princess Eudocia Ivanovna Galitzine as Flora, 1790, oil on canvas. Gift of Val A. Browning,1994.17.015.

Minerva Kohlhepp Teichert (1888-1976), American, Battle of the Bulls, oil painting. Gift of Jack and Mary Lois Wheatley, 2004.2.1.

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The Utah Museum of Fine Arts is pleased to offer this walking tour of key pieces in our permanent collection, presented as part of the Utah Symphony and Opera Women’s Voices Festival. The artists who created the six pieces you are about to explore came from various times, places, and cultures, but they all had one thing in common: their art spoke to their experiences as women and artists working in a field that has historically disregarded their gender. This tour celebrates their voices in fine art.

Find Rex by Deborah Butterfield just through the archway at the top of the grand staircase.

Sculptures in the round (or free-standing) are meant to be observed from all angles.

Take a minute to observe this piece from many points of view. Stand to Rex’s side or back. See what he looks like from a lower perspective. As you move around, ask yourself: How does your reaction to him change as you change your point of view?

What strikes you most about the piece? What do you think Rex is made of?

Butterfield created Rex from bronze casted replicas of driftwood. She works with a basic frame to create the inner gesture of her statues, assembling pieces of wood or other materials on the frame. After all the pieces are in place, she photographs them to document how they fit together. Then, each piece is cast individually in bronze and reassembled.

Although you can’t touch Rex himself, you may handle the small piece of brass on the pedestal in front of him.

Take another look at Rex. Do the materials he was created from change your perception of the piece? Why do you think Butterfield chose to work with these materials?

The next piece on the tour is Ethnic Man by Viola Frey, located on the balcony overlooking the Great Hall. If you walk west through the gallery you are currently in, you can’t miss him.

Take a moment to observe Ethnic Man. Stand in front of him, then to the side, and then walk around him. How does it feel to interact with Ethnic Man? What does it feel like to look up at his face?

Frey is famous for her large, cartoonish porcelain sculptures of people. Like Butterfield, the way she chose to use the material is out of the ordinary. Why do you think Frey chose to use this traditional material in such a non-traditional way?

How do you think the exaggerated scale of Ethnic Man influences your perception of the piece? How would your perception of him change if he were created on a smaller scale?

How do you think Frey’s experiences as a woman working during the late 1900’s might have influenced her work?

MartinezNow, find Serpent Plate by Maria Martinez in the Native American Art gallery.

We just saw a very non-traditional piece of ceramic work; this is an example of a traditional ceramic. How does Martinez’s approach to ceramics compare to Frey’s work?

Look at the piece without reading the labels and see if you can tell how it was made. Do you think it was hand built or thrown on a wheel? What do you think of the design on the plate?

Serpent Plate was created in the traditional Pueblo method of layering coils of clay and then smoothing them together. The design, comprised of shiny and matte areas of black slip, was made through a special technique developed by Martinez and her husband, Julian Martinez. It is this unique style that made Martinez famous during her lifetime. While the technique was their invention, the designs and patterns they painted on the pottery were reminiscent of pre-historic styles. After her husband died, Maria worked with her children to make pottery. This piece was created with her son, Popovi Da.

Although the technique used to create the matte and shiny areas was new, Martinez worked in the traditional methods and styles of the Pueblo people, which she learned from her aunt. Why do you think Martinez chose to work in such a traditional way? Do you think it is important to preserve traditional meth-ods of art and creation? Why or why not?

Staying in this same gallery, let’s take a look at the basket by Datsolalee on display.

This basket is made by a very famous Washoe Indian named

Louisa Keyser. Her tribe in Nevada gave her the name Datsolalee, which means “The Queen Of Washoe Indian Basketmakers.” Working within the tradition of basket making, Datsolalee refined and changed the stitching to redefine the art of Washoe basket making. She influenced many other basket makers that came after her, including some of the artists in this gallery.

What elements can you find that unite the baskets in the gallery? You might observe similar motifs, shape, designs, color, and so on. How do the baskets relate to the Serpent Plate we just saw?

Even though women have historically been excluded from prominence and representation in the art world, they have been creating artistic expressions by decorating and beautifying everyday objects in their lives and environments for thousands of years. These pieces are examples of such a practice. Baskets such as these were traditionally used in ceremonies or for gathering, storing, preparing, and serving food. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, baskets began to be made for sale to non-Indians, and their aesthetic value became more appreciated.

What are some elements of art that you can identify in the baskets (balance, form, line, etc.)? Are there ways that you use or create artistic expressions in your everyday life? Can you think of other art forms that were once considered to be crafts?

Datsolalee/Keyser

We’ll end the tour with a couple of the museum’s most cherished paintings. First, let’s take a look at Princess Eudocia Ivanovna Galitzine as Flora by Marie- Louise-Elisabeth Vigée le Brun, located in the southeast corner of the European galleries.

We have looked at some sculptural and three-dimensional works; Princess Eudocia is the first painting on the tour. How does that change your

experience in viewing the work? What elements of art do you see in this work that were also present in Rex and Ethnic Man? You might explore the ideas of balance, color, shape, movement, line, and so on.

Vigée le Brun was an exceptional painter and was well known during her lifetime for her virtuosity in the Neo-Classical style. She was the favorite painter of Marie Antoinette and painted many portraits of the queen and her family. This friendship with Marie Antoinette also benefited her career and she was elected to the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1783, an exceptional occurrence for women during the eighteenth century. Listen to the Audio Stop to learn more about Vigée-Lebrun’s upbringing and life after the French Revolution.

How do you think Vigée le Brun’s upbringing influenced her ability to live successfully as a woman painter in the 1800s? What classical elements do you recognize in this portrait? You may notice the background, posture and clothing of the Princess, and even the plant she is holding.

Butterfield

Frey

Vigée le Brun

For the final stop on our tour, find Battle of the Bulls by Minerva Kohlhepp Teichert in the north end of the American gallery.

How does this paining differ from the one we just observed? Take a few minutes to look at

all the action happening in the depicted event, what do you notice? In what ways does Teichert convey movement in her painting? How does this compare to the works you previously viewed?

Minerva Teichert grew up on a farm in Idaho. She spent a lot of time drawing and painting the animals and environment from her childhood. She studied art in Chicago and New York but returned to the Utah to raise her family on a ranch in Coalville. She never gave up her art, and continued to paint scenes of religion and the West.

How do you think Teichert’s experience as a woman painter differed from Vigée le Brun’s? What might have been the same? How is Teichert’s expression of horses similar to Butterfield’s? How is it different? What other pieces or artists on the tour might you compare or contrast her work and life with?

Teichert

Take a moment to consider all of the pieces we’ve seen. Did you notice any unifying themes among some or all of the pieces? What was different about them? What was each woman’s individual voice in her art? Was there a collective female voice? Do you think that the gender of the artist played a significant role in the methods, intentions, mediums, or subjects employed by these artists?