Can you name five women artists?

Blog post by Development and Marketing Manager Rachel Kassman. To read more posts from Rachel, click here.


Can you name five women artists?

This is the question the National Museum of Women in the Arts posed 5 years ago. Since then, every Women’s History Month the NMWA has asked the world of social media this same question, hoping that fellow Museums, archives, galleries, and cultural institutions will join in to raise awareness of women in the arts and draw attention to the history of unequal treatment of women artists in the art world.

This year I decided JMM needed to join in – below you will find work from five different women artists that we hold in our collections. I hope you enjoy checking out their works and that next year you’ll have a slightly easier time naming five women artists!


Gift of Maxine A. Cohen, JMM 1990.180.1.

You may have heard of this first artist in our collections: Rose O’Neill, the illustrator who created the “Kewpie”!

These vintage advertising cards were created for the Hendler Creamery company and are signed by the artist. Gift of Maxine A. Cohen, JMM 1990.180.2-4.

You can learn more about Rose O’Neill’s life and work here:

International Rose O’Neill Club Foundation

Bonniebrook Gallery, Museum, and Homestead

Rose O’Neill, c. 1907. Photo by Gertrude Kasebier, courtesy of the Library of Congress.

*Not exactly sure what a kewpie is? Check out The Kewpie Primer!


Terra cotta miniature bust of Marian Anderson sculpted by Perna Krick for use as a doll head; c. 1954. Gift of Reuben Kramer, JMM 1993.49.1. 

Our second featured artist may also jog your memory as a name you’ve heard before, the sculptor and painter Perna Krick.

Oil painting, “Reuben and Perna Kramer” by Perna Krick depicting the interior of 1201 Eutaw Place, Baltimore. Gift of Reuben Kramer, JMM 1993.147.1.
Perna Krick working on sculpture head of Mr. Kramer; caption on reverse: “Perna doing Reuben’s father 1953.” Gift of Reuben Kramer, JMM 1993.167.23a-b. 

Portrait of Naomi Hendler Legum, 1950-60, by Ann Schuler. JMM 1991.150.2.

If you’re from Baltimore you might be familiar with our third artist, portrait painter and teacher Ann (Didusch) Schuler. In addition to creating her own works, she was the cofounder of the Schuler School of Fine Arts.

Self-portrait of the artist. Courtesy of the Ann Didusch Schuler Facebook page.

“The Log Cabin School House, Lonaconing”, 1987. Gift of artist, JMM 1991.66.2.

Our fourth artist, painter Ruth Bear Levy, is another Maryland native who hails from Lonaconing and drew much of her inspiration from her childhood in the small Western Maryland town. She also published a book illustrated by twenty-one of her original paintings, A Wee Bit O’Scotland: Growing up in Lonaconing, Maryland at the Turn of the Century.

“Overlooking the Town, Lonaconing”, 1987. Gift of artist, JMM 1991.66.3. 
Ruth Bear Levy with paintbrush. JMM 2001.145.9. 

Our final artist may not be known to you at all – we know very little about her ourselves, outside of her familial relationships. Helen Gutman Westheimer, born in 1881 and married to Milton F. Westheimer in 1901, was also the daughter of department store founder Julius Gutman, and the mother of Julius Westheimer.

This oil painting, titled “Summer” is the only work we have by Helen Westheimer. It shows the view out of her window on Slade Avenue. Gift of Louise Gutman Goldberg, JMM 1985.70.1.

If you have any information on the artist herself, please share it with us!


 

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Collections jewish museum of maryland

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