Last Call: Miriam Schapiro, A Visionary, at the National Academy through May 8th.

Miriam Shapiro and Sherry Brody, Dollhouse, 1972

Miriam Schapiro (1923 - 2015) was one of the founding member of the Feminist Art Program at California Institute of the Arts (CalState), in Los Angeles, in 1971, based on the Women's Art Program at Fresno State College, founded in the previous year.  Schapiro and Judy Chicago (b. 1939) led the team of artists who created Womanhouse (1972) with Faith Wilding, Mira Schor, among dozens of others. Miriam Schapiro was a major influence on the feminist art movement, earning this activist artist a permanent place in art history as a trailblazer and visionary (hence the title of the show).

Miriam Schapiro, Lady Gengi's Maze, 1979

The current retrospect at the National Academy Museum and School summarizes her characteristic contributions. Beginning with her early Abstract Expressionist work that transitioned into her hard-edge Shrine series, this modest selection of her works serves as a fitting memorial for this a highly gifted artist who also ushered in the Pattern and Decoration Movement.   

Miriam Schapiro, My History, 1987

Sadly, the National Academy has announced that it will close permanently on June 1st, explained by the director Maura Reilly on its Museum. Therefore, please make a special effort to visit this marvelous Miriam Schapiro show accompanied by three other fine exhibitions:

An American Collection, through May 8th

Method Order Metrics, through May 8th

Tony Rosenthal, Alamo, 1967 (model for the Astor Place "cube")

And Contemporary Highlights from the Collection, through May 8th

The National Academy was founded in 1825 by American Academy artists Asher B. Durand, Samuel F. B. Morse, Thomas Cole, Rembrandt Peale and Ithiel Town.  At first homeless, its original home was on Fourth Avenue and 23rd Street in late 1800s.  Then it sold the building to Met Life in 1899, was homeless again and then moved into the Archer Milton and Ann Hyatt Huntington mansion on Fifth Avenue between 89th and 90th Streets in 1942. Time to move on again . . . . .

Happy May Day -  and please follow us on Intagram  and Facebook :)

Beth New York

aka Beth S. Gersh-Nesic, Ph.D.

Director, New York Arts Exchange

www.nyarts-exchange.com