Florine Stettheimer: Painting Poetry at Jewish Museum, May 5 – September 24, 2017

“Florine Stettheimer: Painting Poetry is the first major U.S. exhibition in over 20 years focused on artist Florine Stettheimer (1871-1944). The exhibition showcases over 50 paintings and drawings in addition to costume and theater designs, photographs, and ephemera, offering a timely reconsideration of this influential American artist with a sharp satirical wit, placing her centrally in the modern dialogue of high and mass culture.

The exhibition presents Stettheimer’s work in the context of the social and intellectual environment of early twentieth-century New York, exploring the artist’s fascinating position as an American modernist whose work exuberantly reflects on the mass culture of her times. Over four decades of cultural development, from the Gilded Age to the Jazz Age, the exhibition examines Stettheimer’s unique artistic style, her position as a link between groups within the New York art world, and her continued influence on artistic practice today.” — Jewish Museum

“Stettheimer has sometimes been typecast as a lightweight feminine artist with a whimsical bent,” notes Stephen Brown, Neubauer Family Foundation Associate Curator, The Jewish Museum. “This view is belied by her powerful thinking of portraiture and her astute adaptation of European vanguard ideas, most notably Symbolism, to uniquely American imagery.”

Florine Stettheimer. Portrait of Myself, 1923. Oil on canvas laid on board, 40⅜ x 26⅜ in. (102.6 x 67 cm). Art Properties, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University in the City of New York, New York, Gift of the Estate of Ettie Stettheimer, 1967. 1967.17.005

Florine Stettheimer. Family Portrait II, 1933. Oil on canvas 46¼ x 64⅝ in. (117.4 x 164 cm). Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Miss Ettie Stettheimer, 1956. 8.1956

Florine Stettheimer. Heat, 1919. Oil on canvas, 50 x 36½ in. (127 x 92.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Estate of Ettie Stettheimer, 1957

Florine Stettheimer. Procession: OrpheusOrphée of the Quat-z-arts, 1912 Oil, fabric, and beads on canvas, 17⅛ x 35⅛ in. (43.5 x 89.2 cm). Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Miss Ettie Stettheimer. 83.1947.6

Florine Stettheimer. Georgette dancing, costume design for Orphée of the Quat-z-Arts, c. 1912. Gouache and lace on paper on wood, 18 x 12⅞ in. (45.7 x 32.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Miss Ettie Stettheimer

Florine Stettheimer. Nijinsky, costume design for Orphée of the Quat-z-Arts, c. 1912. Gouache and pencil on paper, 15⅛ x 9⅛ in. (38.4 x 23.2 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Miss Ettie Stettheimer

Florine Stettheimer. Self-Portrait with Palette (Painter and Faun), undated. Oil on canvas, 60 x 71⅞ in. (152.2 x 182.4 cm). Art Properties, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University in the City of New York, New York, Gift of the Estate of Ettie Stettheimer, 1967

Florine Stettheimer. Portrait of My Sister, Ettie Stettheimer, 1923. Oil on canvas, mounted on hardboard, 40⅜ x 26¼ in. (102.2 x 66.8 cm). Art Properties, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University in the City of New York, Gift of the Estate of Ettie Stettheimer, 1967

Florine Stettheimer. A Model (Nude Self-Portrait), 1915. Oil on canvas, 48¼ x 68¼ in. (122.6 x 173.4 cm). Art Properties, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University in the City of New York, Gift of the Estate of Ettie Stettheimer, 1967

Florine Stettheimer. Picnic at Bedford Hills, 1918. Oil on canvas, 40 5/16 x 50¼ in. (102.4 x 127.6 cm). Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Gift of Ettie Stettheimer, 1950.21

Florine Stettheimer. Asbury Park South, 1920. Oil on canvas, 56 x 66⅛ in. (142.4 x 168 cm). Collection of halley k harrisburg and Michael Rosenfeld, New York

Florine Stettheimer. Beauty Contest: To the Memory of P.T. Barnum, 1924. Oil on canvas, 50 x 60½ in. (127 x 152.4 cm). Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut, Gift of Ettie Stettheimer, 1947. 1947.242

Florine Stettheimer. Spring Sale at Bendel’s, 1921. Oil on canvas, 50 x 40 in. (127 x 101.6 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of Miss Ettie Stettheimer

Florine Stettheimer. Portrait of Marcel Duchamp, 1923-1926. Oil on canvas, 25¼ x 25¼ in. (64.1 x 64.1 cm) Michele and Donald DíAmour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts, Gift of the Estate of Ettie and Florine Stettheimer 55.22. Image provided by Michele and Donald DíAmour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts. Photograph by David Stansbury

Florine Stettheimer. Birthday Bouquet (Flowers with Snake), 1932. Oil on canvas, 30 x 26⅛ in. (76.2 x 66.4 cm). The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, Gift of Mrs. R. Kirk Askew Jr. in memory of R. Kirk Askew Jr. F79-65

Four Saints in Three Acts, performance photograph by White Studio, New York, 1934. Florine and Ettie Stettheimer Papers, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven

Florine Stettheimer, photograph by Peter A. Juley & Son, c. 1917-20

Florine Stettheimer: Painting Poetry is organized by the Jewish Museum, New York, and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, were it will be on view October 21, 2017 to January 28, 2018. The exhibition is curated by Stephen Brown, Neubauer Family Foundation Associate Curator, The Jewish Museum, and Georgiana Uhlyarik, Associate Curator, Canadian Art, the Art Gallery of Ontario. At the Jewish Museum the exhibition is designed by Galia Solomonoff and Alejandro Stein of SAS/Solomonoff Architecture Studio.

Images courtesy Jewish Museum.