February 2010
Gallery Talk by Myrna Zanetell
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Marcus exhibit shines light
on early EP women artists
The celebration of El Paso artists continues as Hal Marcus presents his show “50 (un)Known El Paso Women Artists,” a many-faceted exhibition complementing “Into the Desert Light: Early El Paso Artists 1853–1960” at the El Paso Museum of Art.
This exhibition will spotlight early El Paso women artists who produced equally magnificent works during the same time period. However, due to cultural and social constraints, many remained in the shadow of their more famous counterparts. For example, the paintings of Fern Thurston often received less exposure than those by her son Eugene.
Other examples include Enid Alden, a graphic artist and painter very active in the El Paso arts community. She served on the committee that organized the first Sun Carnival Art Exhibition and was also a founding member of the El Paso Art Association, yet few people have heard of her. Kate Ball, the daughter of Otto Krause, who designed Hotel Dieu, taught art at the El Paso Technical Institute and her work was exhibited at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Marcus emphasizes that women such as these were really the cultural backbone of El Paso. They supported the annual Woman’s Club exhibitions and the El Paso Art Guild, and many taught art in their studios and homes.
When planning this exhibition, Marcus extended the time frame to include artists whose work was being exhibited by 1970. Adding a decade to the criteria for the exhibition at the Museum of Art opened the door to artists such as Tommy Alford and Earline Barnes, whose delightful work is still fresh in the memories of many local collectors. It also allows us to become conversant with current painters, including Holly Cox and Gloria Canterbury Rakocy, who continue to add to an already impressive oeuvre of works.
Marcus jests, “I wanted to make the point that you don’t have to be that old to be celebrated as an ‘early El Paso painter.’ These are women whose works are critical to maintaining our rich artistic legacy.”
Since women were not encouraged to become professional artists, (indeed, many of them signed their paintings with initials to avoid being recognized as female), it is rather amazing that the exhibition will include work by more than 50 artists. Some 75 percent of the paintings in this exhibition belong to Marcus, with the balance coming from other local collectors, such as Darrell Haitt, Holly Cox, Mario Parra and Kevin West.
Berman at Adair Margo
The Adair Margo Gallery will launch an exhibition titled “Classic Photography by Bruce Berman,” with an opening reception beginning at 11 a.m. Friday, Jan. 29. At 12:30 p.m., Berman will move downstairs to The Percolator, 212 N. Stanton, where he will discuss his work in a talk on “Three Decades of Photography on the Border.”
Berman, a Chicago native whose photos have appeared in numerous national publications, including The New York Times and Time magazine, came to El Paso in 1975 as a professor of photography at UTEP. For the past three decades, Berman has documented the U.S.-Mexico border, concentrating on the narrow strip that ties together El Paso and Ciudad Juárez. The recent photos, “City State of No Man’s Land,” will be included in a book he is working on.
The Adair Margo exhibition will complement another exhibit, “Border Stories: Photography and Commentary by Bruce Berman,” which opened Jan. 14 at the Centennial Museum on the UTEP campus and will run through March 13.
5,000 Years of Jewelry
The El Paso Museum of Art is one of the few museums worldwide that will exhibit “Bedazzled,” an exhibition of stunning jewelry from 3000 B.C.E. through the early 20th century. On view March 28–July 25, the exhibition will feature some of the Walters Art Museum’s greatest masterpieces as well as many hidden treasures on view for the first time. This selection of more than 150 pieces will not only present the evolution of techniques and materials, but also demonstrate the importance of jewelry as an expression of creativity and often wealth and position.
In addition, a special exhibition section will be devoted to rings, the only type of jewelry worn continuously through the ages.
Myrna Zanetell is a freelance writer specializing in the visual arts.
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