Artis—Naples announced three exhibitions that will continue the celebration of the 20th anniversary season of The Baker Museum. Blurring Boundaries: The Women of American Abstract Artists, 1936-Present and a companion show, Making a Mark: American Women Artists open on March 28, while Marcus Jansen: Two Decades of Relevance opens on April 24. All three exhibits will be on view at the museum through July 25.
Kathleen van Bergen, CEO and president, said “We are thrilled to have already welcomed over 8,000 visitors to The Baker Museum this season, and we look forward to safely welcoming more guests this spring to experience the new exhibitions, as well as the beauty of our museum and Norris Garden.”
Courtney McNeil, museum director and chief curator at The Baker Museum, added “These visually rich exhibitions offer visitors the opportunity to experience vibrant works of art created from the 1920s to the present day that highlight the expressive potential of abstraction and figuration. From women artists of the early 20th century to the present, and to contemporary artist Marcus Jansen, the artists featured at The Baker Museum this spring utilize color, gesture and form to convey meaning to the viewer.”
Rhia Hurt (American, born 1977). Pretty in Peach, 2018. Acrylic and watercolor on paper.
15 x 12 inches. Courtesy of the artist
Blurring Boundaries: The Women of American, Abstract Artists, 1936-Present
More than eighty years after it was created in order to advocate for abstract art and the inclusion of all abstract artists in museums and galleries, American Abstract Artists (AAA) continues to nurture and support a vibrant community of artists with diverse identities and wide-ranging approaches to abstraction. In celebration of this tradition, Blurring Boundaries: The Women of American Abstract Artists, 1936 – Present traces the extraordinary contributions of the female artists within AAA, from the founders to today’s practicing
members. The exhibition is an awe-inspiring celebration of this intergenerational group of artists, highlighting the indelible ways in which the women of AAA have shifted and shaped the frontiers of American abstraction.
Included are works by historic members Perle Fine, Esphyr Slobodkina, Irene Rice Pereira, Alice Trumbull Mason and Gertrude Greene, as well as current members including Ce Roser, Irene Rousseau, Judith Murray, Alice Adams, Merrill Wagner and Katinka Mann.
17 x 13 1/2 inches. Artis—Naples, The Baker Museum. 2000.15.215.
Museum purchase from the collection of Ahmet Ertegün.
© Courtesy of the Slobodkina Foundation.
Making a Mark: American Women Artists
This companion exhibition to Blurring Boundaries highlights the significant legacy and continuous contributions of women artists in the development of modern and contemporary art in America. The majority of the works on view are drawn from the museum’s permanent collection, which comprises more than 4,000 works, and they are augmented by works on loan from Naples collectors. Some artists are represented in both Blurring Boundaries and Making a Mark.
Featured artists include Alice Adams, Naomi Boretz, Rosalind Bengelsdorf Browne, Elsie Driggs, Ruth Eckstein, Barbara Ess, Gabriele Evertz, Perle Fine, Helen Frankenthaler, Viola Frey, Helen Gilbert, Nancy Graves, Gertrude Greene, Nancy Grossman, Grace Hartigan, Martha Keller, Jane Marie Logemann, Katinka Mann, Nancy Manter, Dorie Marder, Alice Trumbull Mason, Joan Mitchell, Mary Obering, Georgia O’Keeffe, Betty Bierne Parsons, Christine Taylor Patten, Irene Rice-Pereira, Joanna Webster Price, Raquel Rabinovich, Beatrice Riese, Ce Roser, Irene Victoria Rousseau, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Miriam Schapiro, Esphyr Slobodkina, Thea Tewi, Helen Torr and Charmion Von Wiegand.
Marcus Jansen: Two Decades of Relevance
For Marcus Jansen, an internationally exhibited artist based in Fort Myers and New York, painting is an act of intense engagement with the world. His art offers critical commentary on global sociological, political and economic issues and visceral responses to the world events that have shaped his life. Visitors are invited to discover Jansen’s creative output, which has garnered numerous national and international accolades, in his first solo museum exhibition in Southwest Florida.
Jansen’s works, which are charged with a sense of empathy and a commitment to justice, are simultaneously emotional, introspective, and intellectual.
Two Decades of Relevance showcases 18 powerful paintings by Jansen, including Foreclosures (2008), Spotlight (2020) and The Colonialist (2021). His expressive paintings, with their timeless, relevant themes and their colorful abstract and figural constructions, fully engage the viewer in critical topics about our world. These works demonstrate the artist’s sustained preoccupations with power structures and their manifestations across different spheres, struggles of the disenfranchised and displaced, urban and rural landscapes, surveillance and technology.
In addition to his studio practice, Jansen is founder of the Marcus Jansen Foundation Fund in Fort Myers, which aims to serve veterans with PTSD and economically disadvantaged children through enhanced cultural awareness of art and music. For museum hours and info, visit www.artisnaples.org or call 239-597-1111.
