Thursday, July 7, 2011

Framing Femininities

Women Artists in Interwar France : Framing Femininities is the title of Paula Birnbaum's resplendent new book from Ashgate. Most of the painters she celebrates will be unknown to non-specialist readers  but their self-evident power (combined with the dearth of existing scholarship on most of them) ought to spur a dozen spin-off volumes, and I hope it will. Here are a few of the many gorgeous illustrations Birnbaum has chosen.


Bessie Davidson
Interior
ca. 1937


Clémentine Hélène Dufau
Portrait of the Artist
1911


Marie Laurencin
Self Portrait
1904


Marie Laurencin
Self Portrait
1924


Maria Blanchard
Maternity
1925


Jean Puy
Artist and Model
1911


Angèle Delasalle
Sleeping Woman
1920


Maxa Nordau
Nude


Tamara de Lempicka
Group of Four Nudes
ca. 1925