The UBS Art Gallery

	Virginia Snedeker, 1909–2000

In 1889, co-founders Grace Fitz-Randolph, Edith Mitchell Prellwitz, Adele Frances Bedell, Anita C. Ashley and Elizabeth S. Cheever created a professional group open only to serious women painters whose membership was subject to an admissions jury. Originally called the Woman’s Art Club, its mission was to help women artists gain recognition and equality with men in professional training, exhibition opportunities and the marketplace. The founding statement insisted that art by women was equal in creative achievement to the work of men and that this would be understood only when women proved themselves in the public sphere.

Perhaps the best known of the founding members, Edith Prellwitz was trained in the academic and symbolist styles of the late 19th century as seen in the mysterious scene depicted in Triptych (1898). She turned to plein-air painting in her later years, focusing on city motifs and landscapes. The painter Cecilia Beaux lent prestige to the group, even though she never joined as a dues-paying member. Often described as a “female John Singer Sargent” for her elegant portraits and interior scenes, Beaux first exhibited with the group in 1914 and taught a portrait class for the club in the 1920s. In her Portrait of Alice Davidson (1909), the young Alice is shown stepping into Central Park with her small dog. Her posture and wardrobe suggest a moment balanced between childhood and maturity.

A prominent N.A.W.A. member and leading figure in the Provincetown art colony, Blanche Lazzell began to exhibit with the group in 1939. Her woodblock for West Virginia Hills (1919) was printed as a unique impression, using just one block instead of multiple blocks for each color. Lazzell became a leading practitioner of this innovative technique, creating more than 138 woodcuts between 1916 and 1950. Sylvia Wald, a pioneer of experimental printmaking, also produced paintings with vigorous, aggressive zigzag brush strokes influenced by the gestural manner of Abstract Expressionism. Her Untitled (1959) oil on canvas features a full spectrum of color and an energetic approach to art making.

Louise Nevelson, 1899–1988

Margaret Brassler Kane, 1909–2006

Cecilia Beaux, 1855–1942

During the Great Depression, women artists had the opportunity to win commissions and promote the arts through Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal programs. Active members of N.A.W.A. working under the New Deal included Minna Citron, Riva Helfond, Doris Lee, and Virginia Snedeker. Snedeker’s Self-portrait (1933) is a characteristic embrace of social realism and the depiction of everyday life. Portraying herself in masculine clothes and staring directly at the viewer, Snedeker shows her strength as both an artist and a woman.

By 1942, sculptors Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Harriet Frishmuth, Margaret Brassler Kane, Malvina Hoffman, and Augusta Savage were exhibiting members of N.A.W.A. Kane’s cast-bronze Harlem Dancers (1936) features an African-American couple moving to the rhythm of the Harlem club scene. This piece was produced without live models or preparatory drawings. Louise Nevelson joined N.A.W.A. in 1952, soon after she began experimenting with the technique of assemblage to create sculptures reminiscent of ancient ruins and monuments. Nevelson’s Night Flower One (1958) is made from wood and painted black. This became a signature method, and she described her love of black as an acceptance of all colors, not the negation of color.

N.A.W.A. currently has more than 800 members representing 42 states, including Grimanesa Amorós, Robin Antar, Pam Cooper, Naomi Grossman, Erin Johnson, Martha Walker, and Ela Shah – all of whom are in the exhibition. Amorós’ video La Procesion (2007) subtly examines the ritual of death, using water as a dominant motif serving as both a life-giving and -taking force. Ela Shah’s World Within (2008), an installation of five hanging sculptures made of wood and found materials, juxtaposes images of American popular culture with those of traditional Indian life.

A Parallel Presence: National Association of Women Artists, 1889-2009 premiered at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, from January 17 – April 12, 2009. The exhibition is co-curated by Jeffrey Wechsler, Senior Curator, and Donna Gustafson, Assistant Curator for American Art at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum.

Blanche Lazzell, 1878–1956

Sylvia Wald, Born 1914

Sumiye Okoshi, 1921–2008

The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, located on the New Brunswick campus of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, is one of the major university art museums in the United States. The Zimmerli’s overall collections comprise painting, sculpture, and graphic art ranging over many historical styles and geographic regions, and the museum is especially known for several in-depth collections, including the Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection of Nonconformist Art from the Soviet Union (the largest and most important collection of its kind), late 19th and early 20th century French graphic arts such as prints, posters, illustrated books and drawings (incorporating significant holdings of Japonisme), and modern and contemporary American prints. It also has examples of Western art from the Renaissance to the present, with notable holdings in American paintings, and a collection of Original Illustrations for Children's Literature. In addition to permanent installations, temporary exhibitions are regularly scheduled. For more information, please call (732) 932-7237 or visit www.zimmerlimuseum.rutgers.edu.

UBS has a longstanding and ongoing commitment to the support of the arts and culture. UBS sponsors four exhibitions each year in The UBS Art Gallery, located in the lobby of its building at 1285 Avenue of the Americas, New York City. Through its exhibition program, the Gallery offers non-profit arts and cultural organizations a midtown Manhattan exhibition space and the opportunity to introduce their programs to a new audience. The UBS Art Gallery enables many institutions to organize and mount exhibitions that might not otherwise be seen. These exhibitions encourage interest in the arts among the hundreds of employees, clients and members of the general public who pass through the UBS building each day.

UBS also has its own art collection. Recognized internationally as one of the most important corporate collections of contemporary art, The UBS Art Collection comprises more than 1000 paintings, photographs, drawings and sculptures and video by many of the world’s leading artists from 1950 to the present. UBS is proud of this heritage of collecting and embraces the Collection as a treasure to be shared with our employees, clients, shareholders and other individuals passionate about art through international loans and tours of selected works. To further share our Collection with the public, UBS provides permanent online access to works in the Collection, information on the artists and online exhibitions via an interactive web museum at www.ubs.com/artcollection.

Headquartered in Zurich and Basel, Switzerland, UBS is one of the world's leading financial firms. It serves a discerning, international client base with its wealth management, investment banking and asset management businesses. In Switzerland, UBS is the market leader in retail and commercial banking.

UBS is present in all major financial centers worldwide. It has offices in over 50 countries, with about 38% of its employees working in the Americas, 34% in Switzerland, 15% in the rest of Europe and 13% in Asia Pacific. UBS employs more than 75,000 people around the world. Its shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE).

Jack Tworkov Against Extremes: Five Decades of Painting
Organized by the Estate of Jack Tworkov
August 13 – November 13, 2009

New York City’s Waterfront
Organized by the Museum of the City of New York
November 26, 2009 – January 29, 2010

The UBS Art Gallery is located in the UBS Building at 1285 Avenue of the Americas (between 51st and 52nd Streets) in New York City. The Gallery is on the ground floor of the building and exhibition hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. Admission is free.

**For recorded exhibition information: (212) 713-2885**