Independent Spirits: Women Painters of the American West, 1890-1945 [Paperback]

Patricia Trenton (Author), Virginia Scharff (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 27, 1995

Independent Spirits brings to vivid life the West as seen through the eyes of women painters from 1890 to the end of World War II. Expert scholars and curators identify long-lost talent and reveal how these women were formidable cultural innovators as well as agitators for the rights of artists and women during a period of extraordinary development.
Abundantly illustrated, with over one-hundred color plates, this book is a rich compendium of Western art by women, including those of Native American, African, Mexican, and Asian descent. The essays examine the many economic, social, and political forces that shaped this art over years of pivotal change. The West's dynamic growth altered the role of women, often allowing new avenues of opportunity within the prevailing Anglo culture. At the same time, boundaries of femininity were pushed earlier and further than in other parts of the country.
Women artists in the West painted a wide range of subjects, and their work embraced a variety of styles: Realism, Impressionism, Symbolism, Surrealism. Some women championed modern art as gallery owners, collectors, and critics, while others were educators and curators. All played an important role in gaining the acceptance of women as men's peers in artistic communities, and their independent spirit resonates in studios and galleries throughout the country today.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This highly readable and engagingly illustrated exhibition catalog fulfills a dual purpose?to retrieve lost talent from among the largely unknown and strikingly diverse group of Western women painters and to probe their emergence as professionals in the previously male-dominated U.S. art world. Ten essays by female curators and academicians examine the social, economic, intellectual, and political forces affecting this period of profound change. One-third of the book focuses on California, with additional individual essays on the Northwest, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, the Rocky Mountains, and the Great Plains. The inclusion of Native, Mexican, African, and Asian American painters adds balance and breadth. As the first comprehensive scholarly survey to single out Western women artists, the work makes an important contribution to studies of the West, U.S. cultural history, and women's history.?Russell T. Clement, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Can you name three women painters of the American West working between 1890 and 1945? We could only come up with one, Georgia O'Keeffe, so we're thrilled with this gorgeous and surprising volume. Editor Trenton and her contributors, a group as meticulous in their research as they are passionate and articulate in their prose, have reclaimed the neglected work of a great number of women artists who lived in and drew inspiration from the spectacular and demanding beauty of California, the Northwest, the Great Plains, the Rockies, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. These women artists were, indeed, "independent spirits," bucking traditional gender roles to devote themselves to their highly original art. Their ranks included the impressionist Donna Schuster as well as more startling talents such as Z. Vanessa Helder, who painted dams and quarries; Louise Crow and Tonita Pena, who interpreted Pueblo life; Mabel Frazer, who captured the drama and hard labor of life in the Rockies; and mystics such as Agnes Pelton, who painted ravishing, spiritually motivated abstractions. An exceptional blend of biography and art history, this fine volume belongs in all American art collections. Donna Seaman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; First Edition edition (November 27, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520202031
• ISBN-13: 978-0520202030
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #341,431 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #96 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Women's Studies > History

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The artist as pioneer, June 4, 2000

By 

J. golden "Education is the key to everything" (san francisco, ca) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Independent Spirits: Women Painters of the American West, 1890-1945 (Hardcover)

This book about women painters of American West from 1890 to 1945 shows and talks about art and paintings. Reading its words and seeing its paintings was an experience over which I may not get. From the moment I opened the book I entered a new world of color landscape shapes figures flowers abstractions and movement. How did so many creative and talented people escape historical recognition and fame? Many of the artists in this book had to wage war with themselves, family, society and some won - mostly those with financial means, time to themselves, art education, human support and they succeeded as free spirits in the world of art. Independent Spirits is a study of pioneers who expressed themselves using artists' tools. For most fame eluded them while they made history by painting, teaching, building of museums and art schools, encouragement of public interest in visual arts and redefinition of feminine art.

Myra Miller of the Great Plains (1882 to 1961) painted game birds which she froze and painted in a cold room in the winter. She set up her own still lifes of birds and guns on panels and the paintings were 2' x4'. The subjects became the essential and yet ordinary stuff of life rendered so painstakingly as beautiful to behold, characteristic of her world and perhaps bounty for the family table.

Why the West? Why did O'Keefe feel compelled as an artist to leave the city and apartment dwelling for the open space of the west?

Independent Spirits tells of women set free to live creative lives determined to express record persevere and interpret what they saw - for themselves and for unknown and unseen viewers.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars These women can paint!, July 25, 2004

By 

J. M. Adamik "Southwest Explorer" (Dallas area -Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Independent Spirits: Women Painters of the American West, 1890-1945 (Paperback)

I have to admit, I always wondered why there aren't more women artists...well, there are many I never heard of, but should have. The artists presented here are truly deserving of notice and even fame in some cases. Very well-illustrated and well worth the price. Information not available in any other book that I know.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important addition to art libary, August 15, 2009

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A. Garavaglia "bloopergirl" (Detroit MI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Independent Spirits: Women Painters of the American West, 1890-1945 (Paperback)

One of the few books on this specific subject, it is both enlightening and informative. A good read for those looking to get out of the narrow history of 20th century American artists that predominately covers men. Both inspiring and sad to see these great talents, most of them overlooked because of gender. A lesson and insight for historians and artists male and female alike. Recommended.