JACKSON, Wyo. — History Jackson Hole and AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions present the exhibition “Women Artists of the American West: Colorado and Utah 1885-1935” at the Jackson Hole History Museum.
Featuring seven trailblazing women artists from the turn of the 20th century, with original artworks on loan from five museums in Colorado and Utah, the exhibition was specially curated for the History Museum by Camille Morineau, Founder of AWARE; Lucia Pesapane, Art Historian, assisted by Margaux Allen.
An opening reception will be held on Thursday, Feb. 5, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. with AWARE curator and AWARE founder Morineau and museum staff on hand to answer questions. The reception is free and open to the public!
The show demonstrates that there are and have been women working — often achieving national or international success — as artists in every region, in every time.
It also illustrates a wider phenomenon: the key role that women have played in furthering art and culture, even in places and time periods where we might think they were the least active.
In Wyoming and Montana these women often worked in isolation, guided by initiative and grit, and sustained by the friendships found in ranching communities. Others based in more populous states, like Colorado, built collaborative networks like the Denver Artists’ Club, which later grew into the Denver Art Museum.
Across their stories, we see a determination to create, connect, and boost women’s voices in the American West. By sharing these trailblazing artists’ stories, today’s women of the West can derive inspiration and the fortitude to live their own lives — in whatever forms their self-expression may take.
The careers of the seven artists featured in this second show illuminate a lesser-known chapter of Western Art and showcase their work together in the region where they worked. Their paintings and photographs add depth and complexity to the stories we tell about the Rocky Mountains, the Western landscape, and women’s place therein.
A comprehensive catalog, Women Artists of the American West: Fifty Years in the Rockies 1885-1935, including scholarly essays, in-depth biographies of each artist, and images of all the works, accompanies the exhibition and is available for purchase in the Jackson Hole Museum Store. The first 50 attendees at the opening reception will receive a free copy of the catalog. It will also be available for purchase in the museum’s store.
Artists from Colorado on display include Helen Henderson Chain, Elisabeth Spalding, Anne Gregory Van Briggle and Laura Gilpin. Displayed artists from Utah include Louise Richards Farnsworth, Mabel Pearl Frazer and Florence Ellen Ware.
Works featured in the exhibition are generously on loan and/or reproduced from the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Brigham Young University Museum of Art, the Collection of the Kirkland at the Denver Art Museum, History Colorado, and Utah Museum of Fine Art.
Many thanks to generous exhibition sponsors including AWARE-USA and the generous support of Marshall and Véronique Parke. Significant support is provided by Treadwell a leading fine art insurer, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Arison Arts Foundation, as well as the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole, Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board, and the Wyoming Arts Council.
