#maystevens

Big Daddy Paper Doll, May Stevens, 1971, Brooklyn Museum: Contemporary Art

© May Stevens, Courtesy of RYAN LEE, New York Size: Image: 21 x 35 in. (53.3 x 88.9 cm) Sheet: 29 x 43 in. (73.7 x 109.2 cm) Medium: Silkscreen on white wove paper

Big Daddy Paper Doll, May Stevens, 1970, Harvard Art Museums: Prints

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Margaret Fisher Fund Courtesy of the Artist and Mary Ryan Gallery, NY Size: 73.7 x 108.6 cm (29 x 42 3/4 in.) frame: 84.1 x 116.8 x 5.1 cm (33 1/8 x 46 x 2 in.) Medium: Screenprint on off-white wove paper

The Band Played On from Femfolio, May Stevens, 2009, MoMA: Drawings and Prints

Gift of Ann and Lee Fensterstock in honor of Momenta Art Size: composition: 11 15/16 x 12" (30.4 x 30.5 cm); sheet: 11 15/16 x 12" (30.4 x 30.5 cm) Medium: Digital print with lithograph and gold dusting from a portfolio of nineteen digital prints (twelve with lithograph, one with pochoir, one with hand coloring, and one with gold dusting) and one lithograph

Big Daddy (Beach Scene), May Stevens, 1970, MoMA: Drawings and Prints

Modern Women's Fund Committee Size: 22 × 30" (55.9 × 76.2 cm) Medium: Gouache, felt-tip pen, and pencil on paper

On this Martin Luther King, Jr., day, I’m thinking about artists who are black women that I love like Mickalene Thomas, Wanda Ewing, Carrie Mae Weems, Faith Ringgold, Adrian Piper, oh my gosh so many! There’s an amazing list of some here to check out: http://www.complex.com/style/2014/02/african-american-female-artists/chakaia-booker and here - https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-overlooked-black-women-altered-course-feminist-art

I’m also thinking in particular about May Stevens’ Freedom Riders, a 1963 painting from an exhibit of the same name for which Dr. King wrote the catalog essay for. 

May Stevens, Freedom Riders, 1963, gouache on paper, 121.9 x 152.4 cm, 48 x 60 in., Courtesy May Stevens and Ryan Lee Gallery, © May Stevens

Stevens was reflecting on the Freedom Riders, civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States in 1961 and following years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia (1946) and Boynton v. Virginia (1960), which ruled that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. The Southern states had ignored the rulings and the federal government did nothing to enforce them. The first Freedom Ride left Washington, D.C., on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17.   (text from http://usstampgallery.com/view.php?id=fe19a4877332aafd1436a44af92d299a64b85872&Freedom_Riders__May_Stevens). The painting also became a stamp in 2005.

Much of Stevens’ other works also reflect on issues of social justice, patriarchy and power such as Big Daddy Paper Doll, depicting police officers in American flag colors in a darkly poignant way.

May Stevens, “Big Daddy Paper Doll” (1968), acrylic on canvas, 60 x 108 inches

One of my favorites of Stevens’ work is SoHo Women artists, which I saw at the National Museum of Women in the Arts awhile back, a stunning testament to women artists also in reds, whites and blue hues.

May Stevens, Soho Women Artists, 1978; Museum Purchase: The Lois Pollard Price Acquisition Fund; © May Stevens; Courtesy Mary Ryan Gallery, New York

Connemara (Rock Pool) 1999-2001 Acrylic on canvas with metallic ink. Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha Nebraska: Gift in memory of Linda Albin by family and friends JAM 2003.3

Also, the above abstract work I used to spend time with at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, here it’s tiny but in the gallery it spans a giant wall, the dark greens mesmerizing, the abstraction different from the former work discussed.

Of course, May is the name of my daughter--so another reason the artist holds personal significance to me; maybe some day I will own one!

More on May Stevens:

https://awarewomenartists.com/en/artiste/may-stevens/

https://hyperallergic.com/143392/painting-the-power-of-patriarchy/