vanessa peterson

Anthropométrie sans titre   (Untitled Anthropometry) -   Yves  Klein  1960

French  1928-1962

Paul Klee

Rosalba Carriera

Africa (from Allegories of Four Continents)

Italy (c. 1712)

Pastel on blue paper

34 x 28 cm.

One of the most successful women artists of any era, the Venetian-born Rosalba Carriera spent most of her life fulfilling commissions for distinguished patrons at courts across 18th-century Europe.

Photographer Pat Ward Williams photographer speaking on her pursuit of a BFA degree in photography at the age of 29. She discusses how her entrance into academia came on the tail end of a 9 year marriage. She states, “…in fact my husband gave me my first camera. I got rid of the husband and kept the camera”.

Her work is highly political and explores race, gender, violence upon Black bodies, and familial histories. She works between photography, installation, and public projects. Ward Williams was also a participant in the Photo-Active Feminist series organized in the 1998 and 1999. I recently re-engaged with her work after reading the exhibition catalog for “Constructed Images, New Photography” (1989) organized by Kelly Jones and Deborah Willis.