(re)FOCUS Then and Now, exhibition catalogue

(re)FOCUS: Philadelphia Focuses on Women in the Visual Arts, 1974–2024 provides a one-volume overview, reprising fifty years of the Feminist Art Movement in America with information about one of the first large-scale surveys of the work of 82 paradigm-breaking women artists working in 1974. They were selected by pioneer women curators, among them, Anne D’Harnoncourt who then became the director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Marcia Tucker, who founded the New Museum in New York City. The exhibition marked the inception of the Feminist Art Movement in America.

Among the 82 artists were Faith Ringgold, Alice Neel, Yayoi Kusama, Miriam Schapiro and others whose work shaped the art practice of the 21st century. Biographies of the artists tell about their lives and struggles with the predominantly white male art world that existed 50 years ago along with illustrations of their work in the reprised exhibition and their work fifty years ago.

Four essays by art historians and curators, Judith E. Stein, Ruth Fine, Robert Cozzolino, and Imani Roach illuminate the historical and contemporary contexts.

In addition, the catalog documents the exhibitions and programs of the 60 organizations in Philadelphia and the surrounding region that also featured women artists from January – May, 2024. They show how the art world of today has changed to include at its center rather than its periphery, women-identified, gender non-conforming artists, and artists from diverse ethnic and global backgrounds.

• 200 pages, fully illustrated color
• ISBN: 978-1-58442-060-6