Drawn Together: Trailblazing American Women Artists in Belle Époque Paris

Drawn Together explores the lives and legacy of American women artists in Belle Époque Paris and their transatlantic networks.
About this Event

Proof of registration, via a QR code on your phone or on paper, will be required to enter Reid Hall. Entry will be refused to those who are not registered. Please note that access will not be permitted 15 minutes after the start of the event.

This event will be held in English.

Organized by the and Tara Keny-Boccacci, with participating curators from the , the and at , the Delaware White-line Woodcut Guild, the Evaul Studios, , The , and the .

With the generous support of Sara McNealey and .

To be notified of upcoming Paris Global Center events, we invite you to.

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This symposium will be livestreamed. Register here to access the Zoom for Day 1 (Monday, October 12). Register here to access the Zoom for Day 2 (Tuesday, October 13).

Drawn Together explores a circle of influential American women artists who worked on paper in Paris at the turn of the twentieth century. At the center of this transatlantic network were Maud Hunt Squire, Ethel Mars, and Edna Boies Hopkins.

As members of the American Woman's Art Association in the Latin Quarter, these artists exhibited on both sides of the Atlantic and attracted significant critical attention. Their artistic achievements, professional networks, and mentorship influenced other artists in Paris, including Margaret Patterson, Ada Gilmore, Blanche Lazzell, Mildred McMillen, and Juliette Nichols. Alice Schille was another influential member of the Association working on paper who exhibited alongside these women in both Paris and Provincetown.

With the outbreak of the First World War, the artistic, personal, and intellectual relationships they had cultivated in Paris found new expression in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Between 1915 and 1920, members of this circle played a pivotal role in the formation of the Provincetown Printers, one of the most celebrated printmaking collectives in early twentieth-century America.

By bringing their intertwined lives and creative legacies into focus, this symposium offers a rare opportunity to explore a vibrant chapter of transatlantic cultural history.

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Program
Monday, October 12
09h00 Welcome Coffee
09h30 – 12h30 New York to Paris: Mapping Friendships, Studies, and Artistic Exchange

Setting the Scene: Opening Remarks by Brunhilde Biebuyck and Tara Keny-Boccacci

Institutions and Artistic Networks

• From the Art Students League in New York to the American Girls Art Club in Paris:  Opening Wide the Doors for American Women Artists 

J. Bernard Schultz

• The Girls' Art Club and the American Woman's Art Association
  Brunhilde Biebuyck

• Making an Artist: Education, Opportunity, and Women Artists in Paris (Video Presentation)
  William H. Robinson

Individual Artistic Journeys

• “Full of Panache:” Ethel Mars and Maud Hunt Squire
  Tara Keny-Boccacci

• Edna Boies Hopkins: Avant-Garde Printmaker, Modern Woman
  James M. Keny

• Blanche Lazzell in Paris: “At Last I Am In My Element”
  Mary Louise Soldo Schultz

• Ada Gilmore and Mildred “Dolly” McMillen: Companions and Collaborators
  William Evaul

Followed by discussion and questions.

Tuesday, October 13
9h30 Film Screening: Schille, introduced by Tara Keny-Boccacci

Directed by Irene Kim Chin and Kurt Vincent, this Emmy nominated, thirty-minute documentary distributed by PBS explores the life and work of twentieth-century American watercolorist Alice Schille, a member of the Girls’ Art Club. The film examines her career, her rediscovery, and the process of curating a retrospective of her work (30 mins).

10h00–12h15 From Studios and Exhibitions to Museum Collections

• Collecting American Women Printmakers in Early Twentieth-Century Paris: Jacques Doucet, Clément-Janin, and the Acquisition Strategies of the Bibliothèque d'art et d'archéologie

Eléa Sicre

• Collections in Context: Provincetown Prints at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Meghan Melvin

• The Curator as Advocate: Sustaining Blanche Lazzell's Legacy

Robert Bridges

• The Musée d'Orsay's Recent Maud Squire Acquisitions and Transatlantic Exhibitions (Video Presentation)

Caroline Corbeau-Parsons

• Contemporary Expressions of the Provincetown Print

Fred Dylla

The symposium will conclude with an evening event on Tuesday, October 13.

Speakers

• Brunhilde Biebuyck
  Director, Reid Hall and Columbia Global Paris Center
• Robert Bridges
  Curator, Art Museum of West Virginia University
• Caroline Corbeau-Parsons (video)
  Curator of Graphic Arts, Musée d'Orsay
• Marie Doezema
  Associate Director of Special Projects, Columbia Global Paris Center
• Fred Dylla
  Physicist, artist, art and science historian, founder of the Delaware White-line Woodcut Guild, Lewes, Delaware
• William Evaul
  Artist, writer, educator, Evaul Studios, Provincetown, Massachusetts 
• James M. Keny
  Art historian and gallerist, Keny Galleries, Columbus, Ohio
• Tara Keny-Boccacci
  Art historian and independent curator, former Modern Women’s Fund Curatorial Assistant, Museum of Modern Art, New York
• Meghan Melvin
  Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• William H. Robinson (video)
  Author, Royal Academy of Arts, former Paul J. and Edith Ingalls Vignos Jr. Senior Curator of Modern European Art, Cleveland Museum of Art
• J. Bernard Schultz
  Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Art History, College of Creative Arts, West Virginia University
• René Shoemaker
  Artist and Faculty Emerita, University of Georgia; René Shoemaker Art studios in Athens, GA & Aubusson, France
• Eléa Sicre
  Art historian and Prints Collections Officer, Institut national d'histoire de l'art
• Mary Louise Soldo Schultz
  Retired faculty member and administrator in the Honors College at West Virginia University
• Diane J. Squire
  DJSquire Designs, great-niece of Maud Squire

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This event will take place in Reid Hall’s Grande Salle Ginsberg-LeClerc, built in 1912 and extensively renovated in 2023 thanks to the generous support of Judith Ginsberg and Paul LeClerc.

Reid Hall, the Columbia Global Paris Center, and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination are not responsible for the views and opinions expressed by their speakers and guests.