ORIGINALS: American Women Artists

by Eleanor Munro ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1979

Eleanor Munro probed the background of 30-odd women artists of four generations and found just what she was apparently looking for--a common pattern of development, a common rootedness in early sensory experience, a common commitment to nature and the natural world, even in ""abstract"" work. But whether or not the interviews were angled to validate ""psychoaesthetics"" (and invalidate formalist criticism), whether or not Munro stretched the evidence to fit her ""humanist"" bias (""I suggest there is meaning in the formidable forms of contemporary art. . .""), the interviews are independently interesting and together something of a social document--and a surprise. Almost all the women had achieving fathers and artistic/literary/""freethinking"" mothers; they were gifted children whose talents were recognized and encouraged; and, early on, each knew she was an artist. ""One simply found oneself in a state of commitment,"" says Isabel Bishop. ""I was prepared to do anything to keep myself painting. Anything."" Survivors, Munro calls them; and originals. On both scores, she proposes them as mythic models, a poignant suggestion when one discovers how many once set their sights on Rosa Bonheur. But they're not only to be examples of women's divine discontent, ""the coming to grips with their own outlandish proclivities,"" they're to foster a new art of ""relatedness, connection, continuity""--that just might be a ""woman's art."" Munro reaches this conclusion, however, by some fancy footwork. While the earlier generations are relatively representative (Lee Krasner, Louise Bourgeois, Helen Frankenthaler, Elaine de Keening, Mary Frank), virtually everyone here born after 1930 works in an unorthodox way with unorthodox materials, most often a form of natural fiber. And the last group--comprising artists born all the way from 1916 to 1941--is confined to unclassifiable makers and doers (like Jennifer Bartlett, best known for Rhapsody, a progressive arrangement of 988 steel and enamel plaques) who are ipso facto examples of ""relatedness, connection, continuity."" As a sampling, then, this is not trustworthy; but it's not to be dismissed either. Sculptor Lee Bontecou, prompted by Munro, implicitly links hex torn-canvas and steel constructions to her Nova Scotia childhood summers: ""you played with the land, you played with the sea, there was nothing given to you or bought."" Munro searches--but she finds.

Pub Date: June 1, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1979

Categories: NONFICTION