Amazons in the Drawing Room: The Art of Romaine Brooks

National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA)
June 29 to September 24, 2000.

University of California Berkeley Art
Museum/Pacific Film Archives from October 11, 2000 to January 21, 2001.

http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/1aa/1aa636.htm
National Museum of Women in the Arts
Amazons in the Drawing Room: The Art of Romaine Brooks

"Amazons in the Drawing Room: The Art of Romaine Brooks, the first major retrospective in over 30 years to showcase the work of this American expatriate artist, will be presented by the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) from June 29 to September 24, 2000. In this comprehensive study, Brooks's art will be seen in the context of her sexuality and identity. Fifty-four works from the Smithsonian American Art Museum will be combined with 50 paintings, drawings, photographs, and sketch books, many previously unavailable for viewing, from public and private collections in France.

Brooks (1874-1970) lived and worked in Paris for most of her life. She focused on the single human figure, and was called the "Thief of Souls" by poet and friend Count Robert de Montesquiou because of her psychologically penetrating portrait style. The exhibition comprises four main sections: portraits; self-portraits; images of Ida Rubinstein, Brooks's intimate partner for three years; and drawings.

"Amazons in the Drawing Room" looks at how Brooks's concern with issues of identity influenced her art. Three main elements shaped her work: her place in elite European social circles; her involvement in the
homosexual literary and artistic culture of Paris; and her feelings about her childhood. Her art is seen as a
significant record of early-20th-century European literary and artistic culture, and provides an important link between portraiture, the American expatriate experience, and aspects of homosexuality. "--Introduction to the exhibition. National Museum of Women in the Arts website.

read the entire introduction to the exhibition:
http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/1aa/1aa636.htm
National Museum of Women in the Arts
Amazons in the Drawing Room: The Art of Romaine Brooks