DePauw University, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, New York University
Known for
Painting, collage, performances
Notable work
Some Living American Women Artists / Last Supper,
Story Gathering Boxes,
The Negotiation
Movement
Feminist art movement
Spouses
Jerome Strauss, husband (1959–ca. 1964)
Alfred H. Edelson, husband (ca. 1965–ca.1971)
Robert Stackhouse, partner (1972–ca. 1997)
External image
Photograph of Mary Beth Edelson
Mary Beth Edelson (born Mary Elizabeth Johnson) (6 February 1933 – 20 April 2021)[1][2] was an American artist and pioneer of the feminist art movement, deemed one of the notable "first-generation feminist artists". Edelson was a printmaker, book artist, collage artist, painter, photographer, performance artist, and author. Her works have been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.
She began her studies at the Art Institute of Chicago and continued as she pursued her Bachelor's and Master of Fine Arts degrees. She taught art at the college level, including School of Art and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and at the Corcoran Gallery of Art's Dupont Center for Advanced Studies.
Inspired by Henri Matisse, Paul Cézanne and Édouard Manet, she made paintings of mothers and children in the 1960s. During that decade, she owned a gallery in Indianapolis. Her art changed markedly in the 1970s when she shifted to performance and other forms of art, as well as how women are depicted in art. Her studies of philosophy and psychology greatly influenced her art, both in terms of content and medium. Important works of the early 1970s are representations of goddesses, which Edelson used as a contrast against established, patriarchal viewpoints of women. In Some Living American Women Artists / Last Supper, the faces of the disciples are replaced with noted women artists, and Story Gathering Boxes explored stories of the feminine experience. Other notable works include The Negotiation and Kali Bobbitt.
She worked to increase the rate at which works of art by women are among museum collections. She helped found and was an active member of the Heresies Collective, which published the Heresies journal, to show and promote art made by women. She also joined the feminist cooperative gallery, A.I.R. Gallery (Artists In Residence), which held exhibits of Edelson's work, including The Memorial to the 9,000,000 Women Burned as Witches in the Christian Era. In that exhibit, the intention was to empower women attendees. She was also active in the civil rights movement.
^The Guardian, obituary, published 23 May 2021
^Edelson, Nicholas (April 20, 2021). "Mary Beth Edelson: Beloved Mother, Artist, Feminist, Warrior". Facebook. Retrieved May 7, 2021.
MaryBethEdelson (born Mary Elizabeth Johnson) (6 February 1933 – 20 April 2021) was an American artist and pioneer of the feminist art movement, deemed...
work has been compared to that of Harriet Feigenbaum. The artist MaryBethEdelson lived with Stackhouse for 27 years. Confluence by Stackhouse and Carol...
Retrieved December 6, 2020. "MaryBethEdelson". The Frost Art Museum Drawing Project. Retrieved January 11, 2014. "MaryBeth Adelson". Clara - Database...
Rapaport 2007, p. 13 "MaryBethEdelson". The Frost Art Museum Drawing Project. Retrieved January 11, 2014. "MaryBethEdelson". Clara – Database of Women...
included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by MaryBethEdelson. She is featured in the 2021 documentary Black Art: In the Absence...
2014. "MaryBethEdelson". The Frost Art Museum Drawing Project. Archived from the original on June 15, 2016. Retrieved January 11, 2014. "MaryBeth Adelson"...
ArtDaily. Retrieved 2016-05-27. "MaryBethEdelson". The Frost Art Museum Drawing Project. Retrieved 11 January 2014. "MaryBeth Adelson". Clara – Database...
Deshaies Blane De St. Croix Sari Dienes John Dilg Torkwase Dyson MaryBethEdelson Jonathan Elliott Kenneth Fearing Gladys Fornell Jonathan Franzen Daniel...
included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by MaryBethEdelson. Schneemann began her art career as a painter in the late 1950s. Her...
Women's Revolution 27. Anne Hutchinson 28. Sacajawea 29. Caroline Herschel 30. Mary Wollstonecraft 31. Sojourner Truth 32. Susan B. Anthony 33. Elizabeth Blackwell...
Schapiro, Suzanne Lacy, Judith Bernstein, Sheila de Bretteville, MaryBethEdelson, Carolee Schneeman, Rachel Rosenthal, and many other women. They were...
the "first-generation feminist artists," a group that also includes MaryBethEdelson, Carolee Schneeman, and Rachel Rosenthal. They were part of the feminist...
included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by MaryBethEdelson. Wilke first gained renown with her "vulval" terra-cotta sculptures...
included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by MaryBethEdelson. In 2017, a fifty-year retrospective of Kusama's work opened at the...
Barbara Bloom and the estates of Thornton Dial, John Boskovich and MaryBethEdelson. Before opening the gallery, the gallery's founder worked in New York...
When printed, this technique results in a halo around the Virgin Mary and Holy Spirit. Mary Magdelene (1994), a sculpture made of silicon bronze and forged...
in Washington DC. The conference was organized by Cynthia Bickley, MaryBethEdelson, Barbara Frank, Enid Sanford, Susan Sollins, Josephine Withers, and...
Retrieved 11 February 2024. "MaryBethEdelson". The Frost Art Museum Drawing Project. Retrieved 11 January 2014. "MaryBeth Adelson". Clara – Database...
after the case, because it attacks its prey with scissor-like jaws. MaryBethEdelson’s life-size monument to Lorena Bobbitt is entitled Kali Bobbitt (1994)...
Chadian military officer and politician, president (since 1990), shot. MaryBethEdelson, 88, American artist. Nasser Ramdane Ferradj, 49, French political...
included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by MaryBethEdelson. By the mid-1970s, Neel had gained celebrity and stature as an important...
Global Information
Photograph of Mary Beth Edelson