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brate the materials of women's lives
and work.
A key work of this period included in
the exhibit is Lady Genzis Maze, in
which three square-shaped quilt-like
forms, like flying magic carpets, emerge
from a highly ordered structure and
geometric form in exuberant abandon.
In other femmages, the apron, the
heart, the house, the cabinet, the
handkerchief, the fan — all symbols of
domesticity — become celebrated
icons in Schapiro's art.
In her femmages, Schapiro was
doing something that had never been
done before, and she was very scared
because she was breaking with the tra-
ditions of the past, says exhibit curator
Thalia Gouma-Peterson.
"Decoration and collaboration are
central to Schapiro's art on a concep-
tual, aesthetic and political level," she
writes in the hard-cover catalogue,

Miriam Schapiro: Shaping the
Fragments ofArt and Life (Henry N.
Abrams; $45), that accompanies the
exhibit.
"The concept of decoration refers to
objects that are not necessarily high
art. Schapiro and other artists ... began
to see decoration not as adornment but
a valid conception of art like Cubism
or Minimalism."
Gouma-Peterson says the work is
aesthetically beautiful and, at the same
time, makes a political statement about
women's work.
While she celebrates women's lives
and work in bright colors and female
iconography, many of Schapiro's can-
vases allude to the price women artists
of her generation have had to pay to
become artists.
In a later femmage, The Poet (1983),
the creative woman is pictured as
headless, standing in her house among
floating teapots, flowers and other
domestic objects, unable to enter the
larger intellectual world outside.
Schapiro kept voluminous note-
books and journals, providing a wealth
of clues to her visual art. "The creative
life is so mysterious and to keep a
journal illuminates thoughts," she
says. In her scholarly, insightful cata-
logue, Gouma-Peterson interweaves
Schapiro's writings to further illumi-
nate the art.

The Mother Of Us All

In addition to the professional struggle,
there was Schapiro's personal battle
with juggling all the different roles a
woman must play, including that of
wife, mother (a son, Peter, was born in
1955) and daughter. These forces

older artist, the younger does not have
pulled her away from what she has
to sacrifice her feminine persona in
characterized as "the utter selfishness of
order to be accepted.
being an artist."
In 1994, Schapiro created Mother
Many of her works deal with the
Russia, a visual history of women artists
complexities of the mother-daughter
of the Russian Revolution. Part of her
relationship. While Schapiro character-
pioneering "Collaboration Series," in
izes that relationship as a close, loving
which
Schapiro establishes links to a
one, there was also the conflict in
female
artistic ancestry, it is a work she
choosing art when her mother wanted
is particularly proud of.
her to do something more practical,
The concentric fan-shaped canvas
like teaching.
includes pictures of Russian female
Schapiro was born in 1923 in
artists, whom Schapiro identifies as her
Toronto, the only child of Theodore
Russian ancestors. Schapiro adds her
Schapiro, an artist and intellectual, and
own image to the highly didactic work,
Fannie Cohen, a homemaker. While
which
includes the colors and symbols
her father urged her to be an artist, it
of
the
1917
Russian Revolution.
was her mother who, through her
"The whole concept of the painting
domestic life, influenced her artistic
is about honoring these women because
expression.
they went before me and allowed me to
Theodore Schapiro taught his daugh-
become an artist," says Schapiro.
ter that women could do the same
The artist's most recent work deals
things men could do and propelled her
with
her Jewish ancestry. My History
into the world of art. Miriam had been
pays
homage to aspects of Jewish histo-
sketching since age 6. When she turned
ry
and
life. In the piece, Schapiro
14, her father enrolled her in a life-
returns to the house and grid image,
drawing class. This was New York in
important icons in her earlier work.
1937, and with nude models in the
Schapiro's family was not religious and
class, minors were banned.
she describes herself as a "cultural" Jew.
When the teacher asked his daugh-
Schapiro's work is held in major
ter's age, the elder Schapiro asked how
American
museums, including the
old she needed to be. "Nineteen," said
Whitney
Museum
of Art and the
the teacher, to which her father, push-
Museum of Modern Art in New York,
ing young Miriam forward, respond-
and the National Gallery of Art and the
ed, "She's 19."
Hirschorn Museum in Washington, D.C.
In her figurative 1997 painting,
"Miriam Schapiro is the mother of us
called Father and Daughter, Schapiro
all," says Bernice Steinbaum, who has
acknowledges her deceased father's role
been Schapiro's dealer for more than 15
as mentor.
years.
"She chooses to incorporate in
"I'm also running ahead of him and
her
paintings
things from women's cul-
leading him in a way," explains Schapiro.
ture ... and taught us that the word
The profusion of flowers and color that
`decorative' is not a dirty word."
cradles the two figures also pays homage
As for whether Schapiro's art will
to Schapiro's mother, who died in 1997.
stand the test of time, Steinbaum says it
The woman Schapiro most admired
already has. "It was not until the late
was Frida Kahlo, whose self-portrait the
'80s that any woman was included in
artist uses in a number of important
World History of Art. When
Janssen's
works, including the 1988 painting,
that
happened,
she was one of the first.
which
is
featured
in
the
Conservatory,
Today she is included in all the art his-
exhibit. In the colorful, Eden-like
tory texts." ❑
painting, combining the maternal and
the creative, Kahlo is portrayed as both
woman artist and goddess of fertility
"Miriam Schapiro: A
and childbirth.
Retrospective of Paintings 1954-
That Kahlo was part Jewish was also -
1997" runs at the Lowe Art
important to Schapiro in her search for
Museum,
1301 Stanford Dr., on
artistic ancestry.
the University of Miami campus
In the 1988-91 painting, Time,
in Coral Gables, Fla., from Feb.
Schapiro addresses issues of her own
22-April 8. Museum hours are 10
aging and mortality. In the work, an
a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays,
image of Frida Kahlo is dressed in a
Wednesdays, Fridays and
man's suit, emphasizing a theme central
Saturdays; 12.-7 p.m. Thursdays;
to Schapiro's art — the extreme price a
12-5 p.m. Sundays. $5/adults;
woman artist pays in order to be cre-
$3/seniors and adult groups of 10
ative in a world that has denied her
or more; $2/students. For infor-
existence as a creative human being.
mation, call (305) 284-3535.
To the right of the canvas is an image
of a younger, sensual artist. Unlike the

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