European Elections, 22 May

This is a post aimed at any UK readers of this blog, apologies to the rest of the world for being boring!
Are you registered to vote in the European elections? You can register up to 6th May so it's not too late. And polling day is Thursday 22 May. If you can't be bothered, just remember that Ukip can be bothered and they are very good at getting all their supporters to the polls. That's how they gained thirteen European MEP's last time. Yes I did say thirteen! The UK only has 73 Euro MP's and Ukip are expected to do even better this time. The EU can affect policies on human rights, animal rights, consumer rights, the environment, international trade, economic development, workers' rights etc. Why should we care? Well, do you really want the ukips to represent your views on those matters? I know I don't.

Aline Meyer Liebman; The 31 Women Number Twenty Seven was born in 1879.

Aline Meyer Liebman 1879-1966. American painter, photographer, collector and patron.

Aline Meyer Liebman
(photograph from the cover of
her daughter's book)

At 64, Aline Meyer Liebman was the oldest of the artists who exhibited at the Exhibition by 31 Women. As an artist, she is unknown. Like Peggy Guggenheim, Aline’s main importance was as a dedicated collector and patron of artists and galleries. A number of other wealthy American women were keen supporters of modern art during its eatly years, including Katherine Dreier, Florine Stettheimer and Louise Arensberg. Aline Meyer was the earliest, beginning her collecting before 1900 and continuing to support modern art, particularly photography, for more than sixty years.

Aline recorded in her diary on 11 December1942, that Max Ernst and Peggy Guggenheim visited her studio to choose a painting for the forthcoming Exhibition by 31 Women. This was unusual, Ernst is usually said to have visited the women artists alone and although Peggy and Aline probably knew each other, there is no indication that they were more than acquaintances. Also unusual was this particular artist's reluctance to lend the pictures they wanted.

Barbara Poe-Levee (Reis), the 31 Women number Twenty Six. Her Birthday is 4th March.

Barbara Reis 4 March 1922 - 13 Sept 2013  -                    

    Later known as Barbara Poe-Levee – American painter and collector.

 


Barbara Poe Levee at 88

Barbara Reis was born in New York City in 1922 and was almost destined to be an artist. Her parents were amongst the NY cognoscenti who, in the early 1940’s, welcomed exiled European artists fleeing the War in their homelands. Her mother Rebecca was a painter, her father Bernard’s profession was as an accountant but both were keen collectors of modern art, an enthusiasm that Barbara followed them into. The family had travelled in Europe during the 1930’s and Barbara was educated at a Rudolph Steiner School in New York, the Tyler School of Fine Arts, Philadelphia and the Ecole Internationale, Geneva, Switzerland.

The Reises befriended Peggy Guggenheim in around 1940 and while their parents attended each other’s parties and soirees, Barbara became friends with fellow painter Pegeen Vail, Peggy Guggenheim’s daughter by her first marriage to writer and artist Lawrence Vail. Barbara’s first contact, as an impressionable teenager, with the European artists, especially the Surrealists, made a lasting impact on her as an artist.  Her other friends in the 1940’s included artists Luchita Hurtado, Anne Alpert, Matta, Wolfgang Paalen and Robert Motherwell.

Shelfies - How many books do you own?

 

 

This 'shelfie' shows just a few of the books I've acquired since I started the 31 Women Project.
 
I know which books I have, roughly, but I probably ought to catalogue them all properly.

National Libraries Day. But do you support your local library? Do I?

Today is national libraries day. Every day seems to be national something-or-other day, I usually ignore them, but this one struck chord, and not a comfortable one. I last visited my local library almost a year ago, which is too long. And that was just to borrow a travel guide to take on holiday to Crete because I didn't want to entrust my laptop to the kindly carefulness of baggage handlers.

I like to tell myself I live in the wrong place. If the local library was within walking distance of my home, I'd go every week. That's what I tell myself because I used to live within easy walking distance of out local library in Stony Stratford, but that was almost two decades ago. When we first moved there, the library was tiny, housed in a little Victorian gothic building which had originally been the fire station. The rise of the new town of Milton Keynes led to Stony Stratford being given a larger modern library and I visited twice weekly and introduced my three children to the joys of libraries, all before they were two years old.

But the children grew up, we moved and my tastes changed. Today I read less fiction and I mostly need academic libraries for my research, and I buy books from bookshops, rather than borrowing them. I admit to also buying books online, but from Abebooks rather than Amazon. And my favourite bookshop is the Oxfam bookshop in the town centre. I probably own as many books as some small libraries.

Happy Birthday to Sophie Taeuber-Arp!

Although today she is not amongst the most famous of the 31 Women, Sophie Taeuber-Arp is arguably one of the most significant. In honour of Sophie's birthday I have updated my blog post from last year.

http://sugswritersblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/sophie-taeuber-arp-project-31-women.html

Birthdays of the 31 Women

This list is of the artists whose biographies I've so far posted. All entries remain on the blog and I may update them from time to time if something needs correcting, or if some kind reader contacts me with further information. The object of the project is particularly to get the lesser known artists into the public eye, so information about these is especially welcome.

The remaining six of the 31 artists are listed at the  bottom, they will appear on their birthdays later this year.

1 - Gypsy Rose Lee   8 Jan 1911(or 19 Feb1912?) - 26 April 1970
2 - Sophie Taeuber-Arp  19 Jan 1889  - 13 Jan 1943     

3 - Buffie Johnson    20 Feb 1912  - 11 August 2006    

4 - Julia Thecla        28 Feb 1896 - 29 June 1973       

5 - Elizabeth Eyre de Lanux   20 March 1894 - 8 Sept 1996 

6 -   Valentine Hugo  26 March 1897 - 1968

7 - Leonora Carrington  6 April 1917 -   25 May 2011   

8 - Sonja Sekula   8 April 1918  - 25 April 1963       

9 -  Hazel McKinley   13 April 1903  - 15 June 1995    

10 - Suzy Freylinghuysen   7 May 1911  -  19 March 1988 

11 - Djuna Barnes    12 June 1892 -   18 June 1982  

12 - Meraud Guevara   24 June 1904  - 1993   

13 - Kay Sage   25 June 1898  - 8 January 1963  

14 - Frida Kahlo   6 July 1907  - 13 July 1954        

15 - Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven   12 July 1874  - 14 Dec 1927     

16 -  Hedda Sterne    4 Aug 1910 - 8 April 2011        

17 - Irene Rice–Pereira  15 Aug 1902  -  11 January 1971        

18 - Pegeen Vail        18 Aug 1924  -    1 March 1967  
19 - Dorothea Tanning  25 Aug 1910 -  31 January 2012      

20 - Xenia Cage   28 Aug 1913  -   26 Sept 1995     
21 - Meret Oppenheim   6 Oct 1913 - 15 November 1985          

22 - Milena Barili   5 Nov. 1909  - 6 March 1945      
23 - Anne Harvey   Nov 1916  -   1967        
24 - Jacqueline Lamba  17 Nov 1910  -  20 July 1993    
25 - Gretchen Schoeninger Corazzo  born 18 Dec 1913 and celebrated her centenary in 2013 

The remaining artists:
Aline Meyer Liebman - painter, photographer, patron
Barbara (Reis) Poe-Levee - painter, collector
Esphyr Slobodkina - painter, sculptor
Leonor Fini - painter, designer
Louise Nevelson - sculptor
Maria Elena Vieira da Silva - painter