By Rosa Rolanda (1895-1970), Niña de la muñeca, 1943, oil on canvas, 65 x 50 cm, La Colección Andrés Blaisten. #WomensHistoryMonth #womanartist #womenartists #hispanicart #hispanicartist

From the website: “A photograph of Rosa Rolanda captures the artist at work on the oil painting Niña de la muñeca in her home in Tizapán. She sits at her easel surrounded by a large collection of prehispanic sculptures, which she and her husband avidly collected, along with folk art. Rolanda was originally from California, of Scottish and Mexican descent, but as the photo and Niña de la muñeca demonstrate, she ascribed fully to the ideals of lo mexicano in her adopted country. Niña de la muñeca depicts a little girl sitting in an equipal. She wears a light pink dress with a matching bow in her hair, and does not smile, but gazes out solemnly as she tightly clutches a doll dressed as a tehuana. At her feet is another toy—perhaps from Rolanda's own collection—a clay or plaster sculpture of man on horseback, playing a guitar. In this painting, Rolanda closely follows a theme and style developed by Diego Rivera in images such as Modesta (1937, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection) in which young, often indigenous children with wide, almond-shaped eyes and thickly rounded bodies –and often holding toys- are celebrated as the purest embodiment of the Mexican nation. While the sincerity of this sentiment should not be contested, such images were highly popular among collectors in the United States. Unlike Rivera, however, Rolanda does not appear to have considered herself a professional artist, once stating, "I paint for pleasure. I don't exhibit in galleries. People who see my paintings in my house and like them buy them directly from me". However, discerning collectors like Stanley Marcus and Fred Davis did acquire her work. Niña de la muñeca also pays tribute to Rolanda's good friend Frida Kahlo, as the girl's tehuana doll bears Kahlo's iconic, thickly joined eyebrows. The humorous "portrait" is especially clever in that Kahlo also had a large collection of dolls, and the painting interestingly prefigures the Kahlo "cult" that has led to the proliferation of her likeness on mugs, shirts, posters, and indeed dolls.

Vide Terri Geis, Arte moderno de México. Colección Andrés Blaisten, Mexico, Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México, 2005.”

By Marie Bashkirtseff (1858-1884), The Umbrella, 1883, oil on canvas, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. #WomensHistoryMonth #womanartist #womenartists

A quote from the artist: "Do you think I benefit from what I see when, in order to go to the Louvre, I must wait for my carriage, my lady companion, or my family? This is one of the reasons why there have been no great women artists. . . . But if we were raised in the same manner as men, this inequality which I deplore would disappear, and what remains would be inherent in nature itself. Oh well, no matter what I say, we must cry out and make ourselves ridiculous (I will leave this to others) to obtain this equality in a hundred years. As for me, I will stick it to society by showing them a woman who has become something, despite all the disadvantages it heaped on her."

From the Encyclopedia of Ukraine: "After growing up on her grandparents' estate in the Okhtyrka region of Kharkiv gubernia, Bashkirtseva moved from Ukraine in 1870 with her aristocratic mother to live in Nice, France... She first exhibited her work at the Salon in Paris in 1880, the year that her tuberculosis was confirmed. She continued to paint even though in failing health. Bashkirtseva left some 150 paintings, including compositions, portraits, études, and genre paintings... A selected rendition of her diary, which she kept in French starting in 1873, was published in Paris in 1887 under the title Journal de Marie Bashkirtseff. A vivid and open account of the life of a perceptive 'modern' woman, it catapulted Bashkirtseva to lasting fame. Her letters were first published in 1902.

Bashkirtseva's diary was deposited in the Bibliotèque Nationale in Paris in 1920 following her mother's death. It remained largely unnoticed until the mid-1960s, when contemporary studies of Bashkirtseva drew attention to the fact that much interesting material had been left out of the diary's earlier publication. Subsequent editions have been more complete.”

Your art history post for today: by Seraphima Blonskaya (1870-1947), Palm Sunday, 1900, Taganrog Museum of Art, Taganrog, Russia. Because palm trees do not grow in Russia, carrying blooming willow branches became the substitute for waving palm fronds. #WomensHistoryMonth #womanartist #womenartists

From TikTok poster novikaslab: “Seraphima Blonskaya (1870–1947) was one of the first professional female painters in Ukraine, a pioneer who combined classical academic training with deep emotional insight. Born in Katerinoslav (today Dnipro), she showed artistic talent from a young age and was accepted into the prestigious Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg — a rare achievement for a woman in the late 19th century. There she studied under the renowned realist masters of the time, learning rigorous academic drawing and painting techniques while developing her own voice defined by grace, empathy, and a luminous sense of atmosphere.”

Both Russia and Ukraine claim her as an artist, as she was born in in Verkhnodniprovsk, at that time part of the Russian Empire, but now in Ukraine. In 1875 her family moved to Taganrog, Russia. Most of her paintings belong to the collection of the Taganrog Museum of Art.

By Japanese artist Katsushika Ōi (ca, 1800–after 1857, daughter of the more famous Katsushika Hokusai), “Girl Composing a Poem under the Cherry Blossoms in the Night,” color on silk, hanging scroll, 88.8x34.5 cm, Menard Art Museum, Komaki City, Aichi, Japan. #WomensHistoryMonth #womenartists #womanartist #japaneseart #japaneseartist

The artist trained with her father and became part of the family business. She married artist Tsutsumi Tōmei, but divorced 3 years later. She was the better artist, and perhaps (most likely, I’d say) her superior skills caused friction in the marriage. She returned to her father’s workshop and never married again.

From Julie Nelson Davis, blog, “Hokusai and Ōi: Art runs in the family,” British Museum, London: “Hokusai said that 'when it comes to paintings of beautiful women, I can't compete with her – she's quite talented and expert in the technical aspects of painting.'…

She apparently gained a reputation for her skill as a painter during her own lifetime. The artist Keisai Eisen (1790–1848) wrote that she 'is skilled at drawing, and following after her father has become a professional artist while acquiring a reputation as a talented painter.'”

Your art post for today: by South African artist Lebohang Motaung (born 1992), Expressive Roots, 2020, watercolor over linocut, 98.5 x 68.5 cm, ©️Lebohang Motaung. #womanartist #womenartists #africanartist #southafricanartist

Artist’s Statement: “As a fine artist and a hairstylist plaiting hair has always been part of my life. Over the years it has my area of research and art practice.I am fascinated by arrangements, patterns, and different textures. My mission has always been more than making women beautiful, I am committed through my work to portray a sense of confidence and contentment and reflect issues of shame, stereotypes and insults relating to hair, African hair.

In my work, I use a wide range of mediums from linocut, etching, paper making and synthetic hair on paper. With my etchings and linocuts, I present the timeous and laborious process that I go through when plaiting hair. Hair can be a symbol of one’s identity it has the power to dictate how a person is seen.”

Your art history post for today: by Anna Katrina Zinkeisen (1901–1976), Night Duty, 1954 or before, oil on canvas, 76x63.5 cm, Bradford Museums and Galleries, Bradford, England. ©️Estate of Anna Katrina Zinkeisen. As a comment, I will share one of her more challenging works from World War II. #WomensHistoryMonth #womenartists #womanartist #painting #oilpainting

Yesterday, I shared a work by her sister Doris Zinkeisen. Both were artists. From Judi McGinley, Museum of the Order of St John: “They were talented, vivacious, stylish and sassy, and the toast of London’s society. They were the Zinkeisen sisters. Doris and Anna Zinkeisen were the bright young things of the art world during the 1920s and 30s, and rubbed shoulders with the likes of Noel Coward, John Gielgud, and Laurence Olivier…

In 1918, Doris and Anna volunteered as St John Ambulance Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses (VADs). Voluntary Aid Detachments were groups of volunteers who among other things provided field nursing services, mainly in hospitals in the United Kingdom, and in various parts of the British Empire. The VADs worked alongside technical and professional staff. The sisters would have been trained in first aid nursing, and would have cared for convalescing soldiers who had been injured at the front.

Doris and Anna volunteered their services again during the Second World War when they both worked as auxiliary nurses for the Order of St John at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington. They worked in the casualty department helping to nurse air raid victims who had been caught up in the Blitz. By day they nursed war casualties and by night the sisters worked as medical artists. Each night they would commandeer disused operating theatres where they would work on paintings of wounded air raid victims that they had nursed during the day. Anna also created pathological and anatomical drawings of war injuries, complex surgical procedures, and dismembered limbs for the Royal College of Surgeons.”

By society painter, war artist, set designer Doris Zinkeisen (1897-1991), portrait of actress Elsa Lanchester, oil on canvas, exhibited 1925, 36 in. x 28 in. (916 mm x 712 mm), National Portrait Gallery, London. #arthistory #WomensHistoryMonth #womanartist #womenartists

Here is an article that highlights her work as a war artist during World War II, including her work at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp: https://www.redcross.org.uk/stories/our-movement/our-history/doris-zinkeisen-second-world-war-artist

From ArtUK: “Doris Zinkeisen won a scholarship to the Royal Academy Schools in 1917, where she quickly earned critical acclaim. Shrugging off the outcry surrounding the inclusion of women students in the 1921 RA Summer Exhibition, she embarked on a prestigious career and received many notable commissions, such as stage design work for Charles B. Cochran in the 1930s and murals for the RMS 'Queen Mary'. She also exhibited in the US, Paris and London, including at the ROI – to which she was elected in 1928. In 1938, she published 'Designing for the Stage'. During WWII, Zinkeisen was employed by the British Red Cross to record their activities in Europe. Her harrowing painting ''Human Laundry', Belsen: April 1945' – a lasting testament to the horrors of war – stands in stark contrast to the vibrant compositions she produced both before and after the war.”

A contemporary artist for today’s art post: by Njideka Akunyili Crosby (born 1983), “Dwell: Me, We,” 2017, acrylic, transfers, colored pencil, charcoal, and collage on paper, 96 x 124 inches, ©️ Njideka Akunyili Crosby. She is represented by the David Zwirner art gallery. #womanartist #womenartists #africanart #AfricaArt

From her website, which I will share as a comment: “Drawing on art historical, political and personal references, Njideka Akunyili Crosby creates densely layered figurative compositions that, precise in style, nonetheless conjure the complexity of contemporary experience. Akunyili Crosby was born in Nigeria, where she lived until the age of sixteen. In 1999 she moved to the United States, where she has remained since that time. Her cultural identity combines strong attachments to the country of her birth and to her adopted home, a hybrid identity that is reflected in her work.

On initial impression her work appears to focus on interiors or apparently everyday scenes and social gatherings. Many of Akunyili Crosby's images feature figures - images of family and friends - in scenarios derived from familiar domestic experiences: eating, drinking, watching TV. Rarely do they meet the viewer's gaze but seem bound up in moments of intimacy or reflection that are left open to interpretation. Ambiguities of narrative and gesture are underscored by a second wave of imagery, only truly discernible close-up. Vibrantly patterned photo-collage areas are created from images derived from Nigerian pop culture and politics, including pictures of pop stars, models and celebrities, as well as lawyers in white wigs and military dictators. Some of these images are from the artist's archive of personal snapshots, magazines and advertisements, while others are sourced from the internet. These elements present a compelling visual metaphor for the layers of personal memory and cultural history that inform and heighten the experience of the present.”

Your art history post for today: by Olga Costa (1913-1993), The Fruit Seller (La vendedora de frutas), 1951, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City. #WomensHistoryMonth #womenartists #womanartist #mexicanartist #mexicanartists

From Inverarte Art Gallery: ‘Born as Olga Kostakowsky in Leipzig, Germany, on August 28, 1913, Olga Costa arrived in Mexico in 1925, when she was just twelve years old. Her family, of Jewish-Russian origin, was seeking a place to rebuild their lives, far from the growing winds of intolerance sweeping across Europe. Mexico, with its light, colors, and traditions, offered young Olga a fertile ground where she could plant her roots and nurture her art.

Her European childhood became a distant memory. It was in Mexico where she truly came of age, not only as a person but also as an artist, eventually changing her name to Olga Costa. The vibrancy of the markets, the popular life, the pre-Hispanic art, and traditional crafts all captured her imagination with a force that never left her…

Costa dedicated herself to building a body of work marked by profound originality. Her paintings are notable for their exaltation of color, formal synthesis, and a loving gaze toward Mexican popular life. Unlike many of her contemporaries, Costa was not drawn to grand political themes or heroic tales of the Revolution. Her universe was different: that of flowers, fruits, anonymous women, and domestic altars. Her first solo exhibition took place at the Galería de Arte Mexicano in 1945. Her most celebrated painting, La vendedora de frutas (1951), considered an icon of modern Mexican art, was commissioned by the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (INBAL) for the exhibition “Art mexicain du précolombien à nos jours” at the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris, and is now part of the collection of the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City.’