From the Archives

Women Choose Women Again

Women Choose Women Again
January 17 – April 13, 2014
Co-curated by Mary Birmingham and Katherine Murdock

In this year of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the passage the 19th Amendment that gave American women the vote, it’s a great time to look back at our 2014 exhibition, Women Choose Women Again, which commemorated an important feminist art exhibition. Women Choose Women—the first New York City museum survey organized by women and devoted exclusively to the work of women artists—opened on January 12, 1973 at the New York Cultural Center. Activists demanding better representation for women artists in New York City’s museums and galleries conceived this groundbreaking show, which featured work by 109 women. Well attended and widely reviewed, the show helped create a momentum that began breaking down barriers for women artists.

Four decades later we commemorated this historic exhibition by inviting 13 artists from the 1973 exhibition to show their work again. In a nod to the spirit of the original show, we also asked each of them to choose another female artist for inclusion in the show. Women Choose Women Again celebrated the collaborative energy that helped fuel 1970s feminism and remains one of its enduring legacies. With work by 26 artists on view in all of the Art Center galleries, the show celebrated the achievements of women artists while reaffirming the importance of activism, collaboration, and networking—all ideas that are still very relevant today. —Mary Birmingham

Mary Frank, Horizon Bird, 2011–2013

Audrey Flack, Self-portrait as Lipstick Medusa, 2014

Julie Heffernan, Self Portrait Dressing Wounds (detail), 2012