Exhibitions

There Is a Woman in Every Color: Black Women in Art

This exhibition examines the representation of Black women over the past two centuries and makes visible Black women’s presence in American art history. This major traveling exhibition was organized by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and curated by art historian Elizabeth S. Humphrey. Selected artists include Edmonia Lewis, Elizabeth Catlett, Alma Thomas, Carrie Mae Weems, Mickalene Thomas, and LaToya Ruby Frazier. There Is a Woman in Every Color provides an opportunity to place art by Black women in conversation with one another, showcasing their exploration of personhood, issues of identity, and resistance to certain modes of representation or classification.

DelArt invited Ms. Humphrey, now a Ph.D. candidate in Art History at the University of Delaware, to expand the exhibition with examples from DelArt’s permanent collection. Her selections date from the 1940s through 2021, and include compelling works by Sonya Clark, Edward Loper Sr., Faith Ringgold, and Joyce J. Scott. Bringing together 60 works of art from the two institutions, the dynamic display in DelArt’s Fusco Gallery will feature paintings, photographs, sculptures, textiles, and a variety of printmaking techniques.

Mar 16, 2024  -  May 26, 2024

Price: Free with admission

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Gamin, ca. 1930, painted plaster by Augusta Savage, American, 1892–1962. Gift of halley k harrisburg, Bowdoin Class of 1990, and Michael Rosenfeld. Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

Gee’s Bend, Alabama, 1937, printed later, gelatin silver print by Arthur Rothstein, American, 1915–1985. Gift, Daveed D. Frazier, MD Collection, Bowdoin College Museum of Art.

Fannie Lou Hamer, Sharecropper From a Family of Twenty Children, Evicted From Her Home For Applying to Register to Vote, Severely Beaten in the Winona Police Station, SNCC Field Secretary From Ruleville, and Future Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Candidate for Congress, Marches in the Cold Hattiesburg Rain, 1963, printed later, gelatin silver print, by Danny Lyon, American, born 1942. Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Stephen Nicholas, Bowdoin College Museum of Art. © Danny Lyon/Magnum Photos.

Arrested For Demonstrating In Americus, Georgia, Teenage Girls Are Kept In A Stockade In The Countryside Near Leesburg. Some Had Been In The Stockade For A Few Days, Others Had Been There For Three Weeks. They Have No Beds And No Working Sanitary Facilities. I Make Pictures Through The Broken Glass of the Barred Windows, 1963, printed later, gelatin silver print, by Danny Lyon, American, born 1942. Gift of Drs. Steven and Linda Lee, Bowdoin College Museum of Art. © Danny Lyon/Magnum Photos.

Double Cherry Blossoms, 1973, acrylic on canvas, by Alma Thomas. Gift of halley k harrisburg, Class of 1990, and Michael Rosenfeld, Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Photo by Luc Demers.

There is a Woman in Every Color, 1975, color linoleum cut, screen-print, and woodcut by Elizabeth Catlett. Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund, Bowdoin College Museum of Art. © 2021 Catlett Mora Family Trust / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Photo by Luc Demers.

The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles, 1996, lithograph by Faith Ringgold. Gift of Julie L. McGee, Class of 1982, Bowdoin College Museum of Art. © 2021 Faith Ringgold / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York.

American Icons: Untitled (Salt and Pepper Shakers), 1988–89, silver gelatin print by Carrie Mae Weems, American, born 1953. Archival Collection of Marion Boulton Stroud and Acadia Summer Arts Program, Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Gift from the Marion Boulton “Kippy” Stroud Foundation, Bowdoin College Museum of Art. © Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

Grandma Ruby and J.C. in Her Kitchen 2006, 2006, gelatin silver print by LaToya Ruby Frazier (American, born 1982). Bowdoin College Museum of Art. © LaToya Ruby Frazier.

Tell Me What You’re Thinking, 2016, chromogenic print by Mickalene Thomas (American, born 1971). Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund, Bowdoin College Museum of Art. © 2021 Mickalene Thomas / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

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Organizers & Sponsors

There Is a Woman in Every Color: Black Women in Art is organized by Bowdoin College Museum of Art with generous support provided by Art Bridges. This exhibition is supported in Delaware by the Krahmer American Art Exhibition Fund, the TD Charitable Foundation, and PNC Arts Alive. This organization is supported, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. The Division promotes Delaware arts events on www.DelawareScene.com.