#whm2023

Reminder: EVERY month is women's history month if you're doing it right

Artist of the Day: Tamara de Lempicka (1989-1980) was born in Warsaw to Jewish parents and was raised as part of the social and cultural elite. Her life was disrupted by the Russian Revolution of 1917, and she was forced to flee to France with her family. Lempicka decided to take up painting partially to support her family. She became fairly successful as a portrait painter, but with the start of WWII she was again forced to flee, and moved to the United States. She is know today for her portraits and still life paintings, all executed in her distinctive art deco style.

Artist of the Day: Vivian Maier (1926-2009) was born in New York City of a French mother and Austrian father, and was raised in the US and France. As an adult she often worked as a nanny to support herself, while at the same time avidly taking street photography. Her work was totally unknown to the public until after her death, when 10,000’s of her photographs and negatives were discovered in storage lockers. Much of her work is set in Chicago and New York, and also includes a surprising number of selfies.

Artist of the Day: Contemporary Polish artist Justyna Kopania paints with a shimmering, luminous color. Her subjects vary, but includes ships and seascapes, cityscapes, moonlight and foliage. I am not sure that there is any artist genre that her work fits into, so you will just have to look at it for yourself.

Artist of the Day: Catherine Murphy is a contemporary American realist painter. She often paints more mundane subjects, but is a master at replicating the textures of the objects she paints. Her painting Comforter is on of my favorites. To me, at first glance, it looks like looks like a fairly interesting abstract painting, but if you see the title and then look at the painting again, you realize that it is not an abstract painting at all.

Artist of the Day: Sculptor Edmonia Lewis (1844-1907) was of mixed Native American and African-American heritage. Lewis was orphaned young, but her older brother struck it rich in the California gold rush, giving her the chance to attend college and then to study sculpture. After achieving success as a sculptor in Boston, she moved to Rome and primarily continued the rest of here career there. She spent here career sculpting mythological, religious and secular figures, including President Grant.