Women Artists at the SAM

Last year the Seattle Art Museum had an exhibit of women artists. People like Frieda Kahlo and Tamara de Lempicka. Of course photos weren’t allowed in the travelling exhibit. Fortunately SAM also curated a collection of women artists’ work from their permanent collection–and I took photos of those.

I wait for the day when artists are artists, regardless of gender and we don’t need a special event just to give women the opportunity to have their art seen. However, male artists still seem to dominate galleries and I was grateful for the chance to see so many talented women’s creations who would otherwise be in the shadow of their male peers.

Suzy Frelinghuysen

Maude Irving Kerns

Another Maude Irving Kerns

Lee Krasner

Joan Mitchell

Helen Frankenthaler

Ghada Amer

Charmiond von Wiegand

Alice Trumbull Mason

Abie Loy Kamerre

To say that these artists are similar to Rothko, Klee, Kandinsky, Picasso, Gris, or others doesn’t serve these women. They are all amazing artists in their own right, regardless of their male counterparts.

Some, like Abie Loy Kamerra and Ghada Amer are working today. Others, like Suzy Frelinghuysen and Joan Mitchell, painted in the mid- to latter part of the 20th Century. They hail from France, America, Egypt, Australia and beyond. If some of these jump out at you, I encourage you to look up the artists online and learn more about them. There’s a treasure trove of great artists to discover!