Women Collared for Work
Delaware Art Museum
February 6, 2010 – March 21, 2010
The Delaware Art Museum presents Women Collared for Work, featuring paintings, drawings, sculptures, and mixed media installations by eight female artists, on view February 6, 2010 – March 21, 2010. The artists explore both the well-known contributions and anonymous stories of women spanning more than 100 years of history—1889 to 1999. They interpret the collar as a symbol for the restraint, inspiration, and innovation of powerful female icons representing a range of occupations.

The theme of being “collared” was chosen as a metaphor for women’s issues because of the symbolic connotations of the word. A collar can be an article of clothing or a restraint around the neck, and it was the contrast between its uses as an adornment versus a shackle that inspired this selection of works.

Each of the artists created work inspired by a range of years as follows:
* 1889 – 1920 Bernice Davidson
* 1920 – 1950 Maria Keane
* 1930 – 1940 Deborah Stelling
* 1933 – 1945 Ann Stein
* 1942 – 1946 Margo Allman
* 1942 – 1959 Judith Schwab
* 1960 – 1970 Wilma Bulkin Siegel
* 1980 – 1999 Rosemary Lane

Some of the their particular sources of inspiration include: Native Americans who were forced to relocate; three female students of Howard Pyle known as the “Red Rose Girls”; Eleanor Roosevelt; Frances Perkins; Japanese internment camps; holocaust survivors; flower children; and artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Miriam Shapiro, and Louise Nevelson.

The Guest Curator for Women Collared for Work is Judith Schwab.

This exhibition is supported, in part, by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

This exhibition is made possible, in part, by grants from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.

Delaware Art Museum

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2. Women Only: Folk Art by Female Hands
3. Delaware by Hand: Masterworks
4. Exposed! – Revealing Sources in Contemporary Art
5. From Non-Conformism to Feminisms: Russian Women Artists from the Kolodzei Art Foundation