San José Museum of Art

See what you think.

Parallels and Intersections: Art/Women/California, 1950-2000

  • Patssi Valdez, "Rooms with Walking Umbrellas," 1992, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 84 inches, courtesy Daniel Saxon Gallery, Los Angeles 

  • Patssi Valdez, Rooms with Walking Umbrellas, 1992, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 84 inches, courtesy Daniel Saxon Gallery, Los Angeles 

  • Diana Thater, 
    "Pape's Pumpkin," 1994, 
    2 video monitors, 2 laserdisc players, videostill #1B: green frame 

  • Completed Pine mural; a reproduction of a previously created piece by Margaret Kilgallen, painted by her husband Barry McGee. 

  • Barry McGee, the husband of the late Margaret Kilgallen, paints a reproduction of Pine, one of her previously created pieces. 

  • Trinh T. Minh Ha, 
    "A Tale of Love," 1995, 
    35mm color video, 108 minutes

  • Lynn Hershman, 
    "Digital Flight of the Bird (Conceiving Ada)," 
    1994-1997, film still, 
    courtesy of the artist 

  • Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie, 
    "Nobody's Pet Indian," 
    1990-1993, mixed media, 
    dimensions variable, 
    Collection of the artist 

  • Six hanging wire metal sculptures of a greenish hue. They drape down, in various oblong tear-shaped bulges. Some are within larger ones.

    Ruth Asawa, 
    "A Group of Architectural Works," 
    1955-1965, 
    copper and brass wire, 
    dimensions variable, 
    collection of the artist 

  • A black and white photograph of three women sit around a square table with a light hanging above them. They appear to be having a deep discussion and their style looks like 1970s or early 80s.

    Carrie Mae Weems, 
    "Untitled from Kitchen Table Series," 1990, 
    silver print, 3 panels each, 
    28-1/4" x 28-1/4" 

    –

    Parallels and Intersections, which occupied the majority of the Museum when it was fully installed, was divided into two parts and opened and closed in two phases.

    Part I: June 1–October 13, 2002

    Media-based Works and Performance

    Part II: June 22–November 3, 2002

    Painting, Sculpture and Mixed Media

    This exhibition documented a compelling range of work produced by more than 90 women artists working in California during the last half of the 20th century. It was the first survey exhibition to highlight the historical implications of the period and included a range of artists diverse in age, background, and formal training.

    The works presented in Part I reflected the impact of a direct engagement with technology by some of California's most inventive and adventurous women artists, including Margaret Crane, Sharon Grace, Theresa Hak Kyung-Cha, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Sharon Lockhart, Sherrie Rabinowitz, Jennifer Steinkamp, Christine Tamblyn, and Victoria Vesna. The exhibition included video documentation of performances, as well as historic, single-channel video works from the 1970s and 80s.

    Part II of the exhibition focused on painting, sculpture, and mixed media. It included seminal works by artists such as Ruth Asawa, whose intricate woven wire shapes, created in the 1950s, reconcile aspects of nature and geometry. Also on view were works from the late 1950s and early 1960s by such early trailblazers as Vija Celmins, Karen Carson, Jay DeFeo, Mary Lovelace O’Neil, and Deborah Remington, all of whom broke the prevailing mold of male-dominated and accepted formalist theories.

    Wells Fargo was lead sponsor of Parallels and Intersections. AT&T and the Myra Reinhard Family Foundation were major sponsors. Adaptec, Aspect Communications, the Farrington Historical Foundation, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation, and Mercy and Roger Smullen were sponsors. The exhibition was supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal agency. The exhibition was also supported by the Northern California Council of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

    Sponsors

    • Mercy and Roger Smullen
    • Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation
    • Farrington Historical Foundation
    • Aspect Communications
    • Wells Fargo
    • AT&T
    • Myra Reinhard Family Foundation
    • Adaptec
    • Northern California Council of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.