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American woman, artist, with a March birthday

March is Women’s History Month in 2011. I am doing a series of brief posts about women artists who were born in March. Today’s March-born American artist is Diane Arbus. Previous artists in this series were Rosa Bonheur, from France, and Americans Melissa Miller and Jennifer Bartlett. One more artist remains; an Abstract Expressionist. But weren’t they all men, you say? de Kooning, Kline, Calder, Diebenkorn, etcetera? The mystery deepens.

Diane Arbus was born on March 14. Although she spent a good deal of her early career as a commercial photographer, Diane is most noted for her square-format photographs of “freaks”, as she called some of her subjects.  She is reported to have said “I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.” She was awarded successive Guggenheim Fellowships, taught photography, and was the first American photographer to have photographs displayed at the Venice Biennale (in 1972).

Two of her photos are below: Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, New York City, USA (1962) and Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967. Copies of the original prints sold for over $400,000 in 2004-5. The subjects are alive and well. There is a great article about them, other surprisingly well-known subjects, and Diane in a great 2005 Washington Post article by David Segal at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/11/AR2005051102052.html

 

Child with hand grenade
Child with hand grenade
Identical Twins
Identical Twins

 

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American women artists with March birthdays

March is Women’s History Month in 2011. I am doing a series of brief posts about women artists who were born in March. Today’s artists are Melissa Miller and Jennifer Bartlett.

Melissa W. Miller (born March 3) is Associate Professor of Drawing and Painting at the University of Texas at Austin. Like Rosa Bonheur before her, Melissa Miller paints animals. Despite obvious differences in style, both are successful in spite of going against prevailing norms.

Jennifer Bartlett was born on March 14th in California. She has exhibited her work around the world and is widely collected privately and by museums throughout the world. Her work ranges from representational to abstract art and is executed in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, print, and installation.

More info at http://www.artnet.com/artists/jennifer%2Dbartlett/

Bartlett, House # 16, Silkscreen on paper, 14×14 in.