JULIE HELLER GALLERIES

JULIE HELLER GALLERY is pleased to present an exhibition of six founding members of the New York Society of Women Artists 1925.  The decade of the 20s was rife with rebellion against archaic attitudes of all kinds and the art world was no exception.  Tired of being considered as women of leisure whose free time allowed them to be "genteel" painters, twenty six women formed the NYSWA with the intention "to supply the need of an outlet for the more unacademic painters, to act as a unified body in the arranging of shows of their work and to present to the public their modern expressions".  Many of them had studied abroad in important art schools of the day such as the Academie Moderne or with such renowned artists as Albert Gleizes and brought with them a serious and professional approach to their work and their lives.  "Sunday Painters" no longer, these women found varying creative solutions to their particular societal restrictions and set out to do battle with the academic and traditional forces at work in the art world.  Their influence and artistic involvement extended to many of the important art colonies of the early twentieth century including Provincetown where several of the artists featured in Julie Heller Gallery's exhibition led the Modernist revolt at the Provincetown Art Association.  The seven artists in the show are Adelaide Lawson Gaylor, Blanche Lazzell, Lucy L'Engle, Ellen Ravenscroft, Flora Schoenfeld, Agnes Weinrich, and Marguerite Zorach.