ELLES: SAM

Seattle’s beloved Seattle Art Museum (SAM) is currently running an exhibit celebrating female artists:

Elles: Women Artists from the Centre Pompidou, Paris October 11, 2012–January 13, 2013 

This eagerly anticipated “women take over” exhibit was one I had to go and see for myself. It did not disappointed. I found it powerful and moving to see great female artists’ work all in one venue. One visit will not be enough to satiate all that was stirred up in this art lover’s appetite.

Elles: Pompidou is a landmark exhibition of more than 130 works of art made by 75 women artists from 1907 to 2007. Organized by the Centre Pompidou in Paris, home to the Musée National d’Art Moderne—one of the largest collections of modern and contemporary art in Europe—this exhibition is an unforgettable visual experience that will challenge visitors’ assumptions about art of the past century. This ambitious survey of daring painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, video, and installation by innovative women artists offers a fresh perspective on a history of modern and contemporary art. With vision, humor, sensuality and ambiguity, these women represent the major movements in modern art—from abstraction to contemporary concerns, including identity politics.

Artists include Sonia Delaunay, Frida Kahlo, Dora Maar, Diane Arbus, Marina Abramović, Louise Bourgeois, Atsuko Tanaka, Cindy Sherman, Sophie Calle, Hannah Wilke, Nan Goldin and Tania Bruguera, among others. An exhilarating exhibition that has already become a milestone in the history of exhibitions, Elles: Pompidou will excite the casual viewer as much as the hardboiled expert.

–Marisa C. Sánchez, Associate Curator, Modern & Contemporary Art

SAM is taking our celebration of women artists even further by featuring works by women at the Seattle Asian Art Museum, the Olympic Sculpture Park, and SAM Gallery as well.