Contemporary Women Sculptors

In an industry traditionally dominated by male artists, it is refreshing and, in some instances, rare to discover art made by women. Today we are taking a look at sculptural work by contemporary female artists, as sculpture is a medium that is often associated with masculinity. In the past few years, various exhibitions have surfaced that feature solely female sculptors. Exhibitions like these challenge more traditional shows, which often inadvertently exclude female artists, and showcase a wide array of sculptures and sculptors.

*Betty Gold’s sculptures at the 2015 exhibition Paths and Edges, located in the Guggenheim Gallery at Chapman University.*

Magdalena Sawon, owner and curator of Postmasters in New York, curated the 2014 exhibition This is What Sculpture Looks Like. Sawon says of the show, which featured sixteen contemporary female sculptors:

“We really wanted to talk about the medium, and viewers are free to make the connection that the market that privileges painting over sculpture also privileges male artists over female artists…We tried to go against the gender cliche where Richard Serra makes massive sculptures and women make these cute little things.”

Sawon makes an important observation about the contemporary art market. Not only do artistic tastes of today favor painting over sculptural work, but women artists are often overlooked.

Polly Bielecka, director of Pangolin London, says of the gallery’s 2011 exhibition, Women Make Sculpture:

*Roslyn Mazilli, OBID (Oh Boy I’m Dancing), on the lawn between Oliphant and Roosevelt Halls*

“It became very apparent that there is an amazing wealth of creativity there from women artists, and it is not being celebrated. This show is about saying, ‘Wake up everyone, why have you forgotten them?'”

Chapman’s Art Collections has been making a conscious effort of our own to include and showcase female artists, in exhibitions, on display, and in our recent acquisitions. We have several outdoor sculptures created by women.

A popular and highly visible piece on campus is Roslyn Mazilli‘s OBID (Oh Boy I’m Dancing), located between on the lawn between Oliphant and Roosevelt Halls. Her aluminum and steel pieces are dynamic and colorful, and this sculpture is no different. Some of our most recent sculpture acquisitions include a collection of pieces by artist Betty Gold. These steel sculptural pieces follow her usual designs of bold, clean lines and geometric definition. Located on and around the Hutton Sports Center, these sculptures are some of the most notable on campus.

*Betty Gold, Colgado, in front of the Hutton Sports Center*

It is important to recognize the contributions of female artists to a genre like sculpture, which is typically seen as a masculine form of art. Yet, there are women artists, including Roslyn Mazilli and Betty Gold, who choose to work with heavy, more “macho” materials like steel and aluminum. This is indicative of change in the art world, and how in the past few decades of contemporary sculpture there as been a shift not only towards more female artists but also a shift of attention towards these artists and their contributions. As contemporary female sculptor Polly Morgan says, “It’s about looking at the women making sculpture, because we haven’t seen enough of them.”

Betty Gold: Edge, Color, Movement

March 13 – September 11, 2011

Image credits (left to right): Majestad II, 2004-2005, Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University, New York, Tres Colores, 2007, Mallorca, Spain, Majestad III, 2009, The Pineschool, Hobe, Florida. — Image credits *(left to right):* *Majestad II*, 2004-2005, Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University, New York, *Tres Colores*, 2007, Mallorca, Spain, *Majestad III*, 2009, The Pineschool, Hobe, Florida.

Betty Gold’s sculptures grace public and private spaces all over the world. Her creative works include a diverse range of media. Edge, Color, Movement features a selection of her geometric serigraphs. These works are from three portfolios produced in California in the early 1970s “Arrows,” “Holistic Images” and “Surprise Packages.” Also featured is the recently acquired welded steel mono-chromed sculpture Majestad II (2004-2005), a gift of Mr. and Mrs. David Chatkin of Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania. This vivid blue work provides a stunning outdoor focal point for the south-west corner of the museum entrance.

Gold’s artwork is defined by brilliant color and strong directional shapes. The serigraphs featured in this exhibition accentuate the bold, graphic style that Gold is known for and they reflect her interest in form, motion and space. She is a passionate believer in the geometric concept and says, “It never becomes tiresome, as I continue to find new ways in which to express its truth and universality. Every new project is like the first—challenging, fulfilling and exciting.”

Her large outdoor steel sculptures are angular and sharp without sacrificing a sense of movement and liveliness. With surfaces finished in rich mono-chromed color or left raw to rust to a velvety patina, the bold simplicity of her geometric work is beautifully suited for display in open public spaces. Gold’s sculptures are featured at sculpture parks, university campuses and city centers such as Baylor University, TX; City de Bratislava, Slovakia; City of Palo Alto, CA; Duke University Medical Center, NC; Fitzgerald’s Park, Ireland; Hartwood Acre Park, PA; Northern Illinois University, IL; Purdue University, IN; The Ronald Reagan California State Building, CA; Virginia Commonwealth University, VA and the Walker Hill Art Center, Seoul, South Korea.

Dividing her time between Venice, California and Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Gold has traveled extensively, studying and lecturing around the world. Her work has been collected and widely exhibited at museums and galleries across the United States, Europe, South America and Asia.

Gold was born in 1935 in Austin, Texas, and attended the University of Texas at Austin. After graduating with a major in elementary education and a minor in art history, she apprenticed with sculptor Octavio Medillan in Dallas, Texas. Medillan (1907-1999) was a renowned sculptor, educator and founder of the Medellin School of Sculpture in Mendocino, California where he taught students in a variety of sculptural media.

Gold was honored with a major retrospective exhibition in 2005 at the Casal Solleric Museum in Palma, Spain. “Betty Gold—35 Years of Sculpture" filled ten rooms of the historic castle. Other artists presented at the Casal Solleric Museum include Columbian artist Fernando Botero (b. 1932) and Mexican painter Frida Kahlo de Rivera (1907 -1954).

Recent international exhibitions were mounted at the United States Embassy Invitational in Merida, Mexico, the Biennale in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and three exhibitions in California at the University of California Art Museum, Santa Barbara, The Buschlenmowatt Gallery, Palm Desert, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

Major museums housing her work include the Albuquerque Museum of Art, NM; Art Museum of South Texas, TX; Birmingham Museum of Art, AL; Civica Galleria d’ Arte moderna, Gallarate, Italy; Georgia Museum of Art, AL; Hawaii State Foundation of the Arts, HI; Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina, Madrid, Spain; New Orleans Museum of Art, LA; New York University, NY; The Oakland Museum, CA and the Palm Springs Desert Museum, CA.

Michael J. Beam, Curator of Collections and Exhibitions

Betty Gold: Gebert Gallery

Vellas XII, 2007Painted steel76 5/8 × 21 5/8 × 12 7/8 in194.6 × 54.9 × 32.7 cm — *Vellas XII*, 2007
Painted steel
76 5/8 × 21 5/8 × 12 7/8 in
194.6 × 54.9 × 32.7 cm

Stately, but subtle with its yellow- and white-painted steel, Velas XII — inspired by the winsome sailboats breeze by Venice Beach — commands an appreciable space in the survey of artist Betty Gold’s sculptures and acrylic paintings at Gebert Gallery.

Her newest series, Velas reflects the sails’ grace and elegance in the simple, geometric fashion that has distinguished gold for 40 years.

At 76x24x12 inches, Velas XII invites more than imposes; the four beaming steel triangles that compose the sail offer a 360-degree experience. The sculpture gains its sense of movement from the inwardly angled pieces, each painted yellow on one side, white on the other.

Installed close to the gallery entrance, the piece signals a dynamic show ahead. They survey exhibition features sculptures from several series — most notably, Majestad, which honors the king and queen of Spain, and Tirón, inspired by the angular folds of a bullfighter’s cape. Gold started the Tirón sculptures in 1999 with a monumental installation for the city of Palma de Mallorca in Baleares, Spain. The U.S. Embassy in the Slovakian capital of Bratislava also commissioned a large piece from the series. Works from the Soller and M.A. (Mallorca) series also appear in the exhibition.

Gold revels in her transcendent, albeit ferociously physical process — from making paper models to splaying two-dimensional sheets of steel and reassembling them in three-dimensional forms. They appear simple, but on close examination reveal a complexity that bespeaks the artist’s intense organization and exacting process.

A willowy former beauty pageant winner with jet-black hair and a native Texas twang, Gold hardly seems the type to cut, weld, and grind Cor-Ten steel. Yet she emerged a bona fide pioneer in a male-dominated field and produced a gutsy body of work that spans four decades. This exhibition celebrates her work with a fine installation augmented with two new acrylic paintings on canvases and 10 more on handmade paper.

Whether two or three-dimensional, each piece contributes to an evenly curated show. Her work is often associated with the obscure MADI movement. The acronym MADI is something of a mystery. First articulated in 1946 by Uruguayan artist Carmelo Arden Quin, MADI could stand for four major art principles: movement, abstraction, dimension, and invention. Some say it stands for MAterialismo DIalectismo. Still others say the word, like Dada, was invented. Nevertheless, it landed Gold in movement retrospective at the Reina Sofia in Madrid, Spain in 1997.

The simplicity and sophistication of the geometry represents the dynamic and compelling nature of Gold’s work — bright, thoughtful, and jutting with endless possibilities.

- Steven Biller