MIRIAM SCHAPIRO, painter “femmagist”, sculptor, printmaker, was bron in Toronto, Canada in 1923. She received her BA in 1945, MA in 1946 and MFA in 1949 at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. She is the recipient of sic honorary doctorates, and has been the subject of numerous doctoral and masters degree dissertations. She is known as a leader in two art movements: the Feminist Art Movement and Pattern and Decoration. She has received many honors and awards including The National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the Ford Foundation Grant, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the Skowhegan Medal for Collage and the Rockegeller Foundation Grant for Artists Residency at the Bellagio Study and Conference Center in Italy. Ms. Schapiro has been honored by the National Association of Schools of Art, and The National Women’s Caucus for Art. She was awarded a Lifetime Schievement Awared from the College Art Association and the Harrison-Hooks Artist Lifetime Achievement Awared from the Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland Florida. The Miriam Schapiro Archieves for Women Artists at Rutgers University was establsihed in January 2006. In march 2006, Ms Schapiro will accept the Elan Awared from the Women’s Studio Center, New York.
A Selected Bibliography of writings about her work include: Miriam Schapiro: Shaping the Fragments of Art an Life, 1999, a monograph published by Harry N. Abrams, Written by Dr. Thalia Gouma-Peterson in conjunction with Ms. Schapiro’s second painting retrospective organized by the Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL which traveled through 2001; Miriam Schapiro: Works on Paper – A Thirty-Year Retrospective, an exhibition catalog published but eh Tucson Museum of Art, AZ with and essay by Paul Brach and forward by Gloria Steinem; Miriam Schapiro: Reconstruction Women’s Traditions, Savannah College of Art and Design, 1999; Paul Richard, “Miriam Schapiro: Feminism’s ‘Mimi Appleseed’”, The Washington Post, Sunday, May 11, 1997; Thalia Gouma Peterson, “Miriam Schapiro, An Art of Becoming”, American Art, Spring 1997, Vol. 11, No. 1, published by the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution , Washington, DC; Norma Broude and Mary Garrad, Ed., The Power of Feminist Art: The American Movement of the 1970’s, History and Impact, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1994; Miriam Schapiro: Collaboration Series 1994, Mother Russia, Steinbaum Krauss Gallery, NYC, 1994; Donald Kuspit, “Images of an Innocence That Never Was”, The Edge of Childhood, The Hecksher Museum, 1992; Arthur C. Danto, “The Breakthrough Decade: Women In The Arts”, The Nation, December 1989; Arlene Raven, “Frida and Mimi”, The Village Voice, Jan. 12, 1992; I’m Dancin’ As Fast As I can: New Paintings by Miriam Schapiro, Bernice Steinbam Gallery, 1986; Suan Gill, “From ‘Femmage’ to Figuration”, ART News, April 1986; Norma Broude, “Miriam Schapiro and Femmage: Reflections on the Conflict between Decoration and Abstraction in Twentieth Century Art”, Feminism and Art History – Questioning the Litany, Harper and Row, NY 1983; Thalia Gouma – Peterson, ed., Miriam Schapiro: the Shrine, The Computer and The Dollhouse, Mandeville Art Gallery, University of California, Sand Diego, 1975; Linda Nochlin, “Miriam Schapiro: Recent Work”, Arts, November 1973.
Her Work appears in numerous museum collections in the Unite States, Europe, Australia and Israel including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC; The Museum of Modern Art, NYC; The Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC; The Brooklyn Museum, NYC; The Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC; The National Museum of American Art, The Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; The Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; The Orlando Museum, Orlando, FL; The Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, CA; Leusianna Museum, Denmark; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia; The Israel Museum, Tel Aviv.
Ms. Schapiro has been honored with painting retrospectives, a thirty-year works on paper retrospective, numerous one person exhibitions and has been included in hundreds of group exhibitions throughout the world.
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS INCLUDE:
“American Women: Postmodernism”, Rutgers University
“Los Angeles – Paris”, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France;
“Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution”, international traveling exhibition, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
“Women Only: In Their Studios”, traveling exhibition
American University Museum: Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC
Miriam Schapiro resides and works in East Hampton, NY and is represented by the Flomenhaft Gallery, NYC
- Photo by Mary Beth Edelson
- Courtesy of Miriam Schapiro
- Courtesy of Miriam Schapiro
