The work of Florine Stettheimer—the American Jazz-age painter, poet, and saloniste who espoused open-mindedness and feminism, filled her modernist canvases with multi-ethnic and gay subjects at leisure in their own contexts, and was a subversive pioneer of the female gaze—feels sharp and culturally relevant even 73 years after her death.
Until January 28, 50 of Stettheimer’s theatrical multimedia works, ranging from paintings to poems, ballet and opera costume designs, to scenography will be on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario for the first-ever Canadian solo exhibit of her work: Florine Stettheimer: Painting Poetry. Co-curated by the AGO’s Fredrik S. Eaton curator of Canadian art, Georgiana Uhlyarik, and associate curator Stephen Brown Neubauer of the Jewish Museum in New York, the exhibit is a fine introduction to Stettheimer’s wit, vibrant palette, and dedication to documenting American culture (all elements of her work that led Andy Warhol to praise her as his “favourite artist”). For those not familiar with Stettheimer as a figure of art history, there’s never been a better time to discover her legacy.
The exhibition Florine Stettheimer: Painting Poetry is on from October 21, 2017 – January 28, 2018 at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
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