Blanche Lazzell and the Art of Women Making Art
Blanche Lazzell’s color woodblock print of the Waitman T. Willey House in Morgantown (1934) is among the works of the pioneering West Virginia-born artist on view at Avampato Discovery Museum.
By Amy Williams and Charly Jupiter Hamilton
For enthusiasts of women’s art, there are two current exhibits to see: “Blanche Lazzell: The Work of An American Modernist” and its companion show, “Jan Matulka: The Global Modernist’ at the Avampato Discovery Museum and the National Pen Women Exhibit at the University of Charleston (See review below). West Virginia can be proud to boast of being the birthplace of Lazzell, as well as a solid group of contemporary women artists.
It was not lost on myself and fellow art blogger and artist Charly Jupiter Hamilton that Lazzell created art at a time when women were still not fully appreciated in the art world. Exhibit information even mentions that because of Lazzell’s interest in the decorative arts, her influence as a modernist was minimized during her lifetime.
Who could believe that a girl from Maidsville, West Virginia, born in the late 1800s, would go on to travel to Paris and even paint nudes? Lazzell painted, made woodblocks and made rugs as well as other “decorative” art pieces.
Charly especially appreciates the influence of German expressionism on Lazzell’s work. She went to Munich and came back to Providence, Rhode Island and did wood cuts. “Fish House is one of my favorite pieces,” he says, “I like that about her, that she made woodcuts.”
When we visited the opening reception, there was some controversy over Lazzell’s colors. But Charly defended Lazzell saying, “Other people didn’t like her colors, but I kind of liked the colors. Acrylics hadn’t really been invented, so the oil paint colors reminded me of that time. Muted colors were bright then. It reminds me of colors that are hip now.”
A quote from Antonio Porchia in the front of “Vivid Companions,” (a book of poems by West Virginia poet Irene McKinney) goes: “Before I travelled my road, I was my road.” Charly says, “That’s what I was thinking as I looked at Blanche Lazzell’s paintings and prints… now I can go on down my road happier to have met her on the Avampato Museum’s walls.”
To continue the adventure of exploring West Virginia female artists, just cross over the river to the University of Charleston where the National Pen Women Exhibit is displaying work by more than 20 contemporary women artists. The Pen organization was founded in the spirit of Lazzell’s challenges - getting women artists shown and noticed at a time when women faced more challenges in being shown and published.
