Miriam Schapiro Collage

This work is an exuberant example of one of Miriam Schapiro’s “femmages,” collages that feature materials and themes typically deemed “feminine,” “domestic” or “ornamental” – lace, florals, fans, etc. – as a challenge to the mainstream art world’s trivialization of the decorative. “I began to see myself as another kind of artist, as a woman artist, very much connected to those women who had made quilts, who had made samplers, who had done all of that women’s work throughout civilization, who are not honored, but whom I honor, and I honor them by continuing their tradition. The difference is that I don’t work with sewing; I’m a painter and I work on canvas, and I work in their tradition.” – Miriam Schapiro, 1974 (source: Smithsonian American Art Museum)