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Williams College Museum of Art Presents
In the Company of Women: Selections from the Williams College Museum of Art
October 30, 2004–April 17, 2005

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Williamstown, MA—Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) presents In the Company of Women: Selections from the Williams College Museum of Art. The exhibition brings together works from the WCMA collection that show the ways artists from different cultures and historical periods have visualized monumental women, both as single figures and in groups. In ancient and non-Western art, female figures are infused with otherworldly powers that beguile, transport, and occasionally menace the human spectator. The tradition of the powerful woman, whether goddess of wisdom or fetish figure, has continued in Western art to this day; this exhibition allows the viewer to experience first hand the compelling visual discourse of this “company of women.”

In some cases, such as Isabel Bishop’s Working Girls, the context is the everyday world of work (as it was in the 1997 film, In the Company of Men). “But more often,” states curator Nancy Mowll Mathews, “symbolic or imaginative meaning provides the artistic impetus.”

The “company” will be made up of approximately thirty representations of women in all media, ranging from ancient to contemporary art. African and Meso-American pieces will be juxtaposed with European and American art of the recent past, and Asian art, such as the anonymous Chinese Ancestral Portrait from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), will offer a contrast to them all. Artists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including Maurice and Charles Prendergast (in Bathers Under the Trees), and Lionel Feininger (Badende am Strande) produced modern versions of the theme of bathers, and contemporary artists such as Niki de Saint Phalle and Kara Walker redefined ancient goddesses. Throughout the exhibition, the viewer can examine various artistic techniques used to monumentalize the figures and give their faces quasi-hypnotic powers. Even the smallest and most delicate works, such as Mary Cassatt’s print Reflection, have a startling visual impact that suggests a kinship to female icons of the past.

The exhibition is organized by Nancy Mowll Mathews, WCMA’s Eugénie Prendergast Senior Curator of 19th and 20th Century Art. A gallery talk by the curator will be held on November 17 at 12:15 pm.

Publicity Images Available
Publicity images for In the Company of Women and other current exhibitions are available for use. Images include Charles Prendergast’s Bathers Under the Trees, Mary Cassatt’s Reflection, and an anonymous Chinese Ancestral Portrait. They can be found at www.wcma.org/press.

The Williams College Museum of Art is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is free and the museum is wheelchair accessible.

Contact: Suzanne Augugliaro, Public Relations Coordinator
413.597.3178
www.wcma.org