Inspired by Katherine Ace’s 9 Portraits, which serve as the exhibition’s foundational starting point, Nine Women Artists will feature the work of the artists depicted in Ace’s portrait paintings. All mature artists in their careers and with a significant presence in the Northwest, their work reveals diverse artistic styles, from representation to abstraction.
The painting has rich detail. Most notably on the left hangs Henri Fantin-Latour’s A Studio at Les Batignolles, 1870 (Musée d’Orsay). In this painting, a formal gathering of male artists is depicted. In response to this painting, Katherine asked her subjects to dress in their studio/work clothes as a counterpoint, all of them marked by their characteristic poses. Other Portland women artists are recognized here through their paintings—a small Sally Haley still life hangs in the background, and an Amanda Snyder painting hangs behind Phyllis Yes. And to the far right, we have a glimpse of Lucinda Parker’s very large work. Postcards and newspapers scattered on the floor are the exhibition announcements and reviews highlighting the artists’ works.
An epic portrait featuring nine women artists of the Northwest, Ace responded to the lack of self-portraits by women artists in history. From left, the artists are: Laura Ross-Paul, Katherine’s self-portrait seated with phone, Mary Josephson, Judy Cooke, Phyllis Yes, Sharon Bronzan, Shu-Ju Wang, Lucinda Parker, and Sherrie Wolf. All are women artists who have made long careers in Portland. As Ace notes about these women, “They have tenacity, have lived through sexist decades, told they couldn’t really be artists—only fit for sleeping with the professor, expected to subvert themselves to male artist machismo.”