About the Exhibition
Interwoven: A Tribute to Enid Yandell
In 2019-20, cultural and civic organizations throughout Louisville will be honoring the contributions of female artists to the community through participation in Enid Yandell: A Life of Art and Activism, a series of exhibitions and programs celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Enid Yandell, the first female sculptor from Kentucky to achieve international success and one of the first women inducted into the National Sculpture Society.
In 1998, ten artists based in Louisville founded ENID: Generations of Women Sculptors, a collective of female sculptors named for Enid Yandell, with the goal to encourage, educate, and mentor women artists, students, and each other. Recognizing Enid Yandell’s artistic achievements and her legacy of social activism, Interwoven highlights works by ENID member artists Leticia Bajuyo, Linda Erzinger, Valerie Sullivan Fuchs, Bette Levy, and Joyce Ogden that reflect or respond to social issues through material and visual creativity. Leticia Bajuyo and Bette Levy address the tension between idealized domesticity and the realities of contemporary life. Bajuyo explores the relationship between consumption, desire, and nature, creating photographic and mixed media works that examine the dangers of environmental exploitation for human comfort, while Levy’s combinations of crocheted doilies with rusted tools analyze the social structures of labor, the impact of traditional gender roles, and evolving modes of production. Linda Erzinger, Valerie Sullivan Fuchs, and Joyce Ogden explore our connection to and impact on the Earth through practices that incorporate collection, experimentation, and documentation—processes akin to the scientific method. The role of specific geographies on the perception of both self and surroundings is critical to the works of Valerie Sullivan Fuchs and Joyce Ogden, artists who utilize nature as both subject and medium. Rather than culling nature for materials, Linda Erzinger mines the world of mass consumerism, sorting and repurposing materials destined for landfills in a self-described anthropological practice. These artists continue the legacy of Enid Yandell and acknowledge the role of art in challenging convention and affecting social change.
– Karen Gillenwater, Museum Manager, 21c Louisville
ABOUT ENID YANDELL
Enid Bland Yandell was born on October 6, 1869, in Louisville, Kentucky. Showing skills as an artist at an early age, Enid took classes at Louisville’s Hampton College before moving in 1887 to Cincinnati for serious study in sculpture and carving at the Art Academy. Following graduation in 1889, she moved to Chicago to take up a position with the Columbian Exposition. Then Enid’s training shifted geographically, as she sought education, training, and experience in Paris as well as New York and Martha’s Vineyard, where she established the Branstock School of Art in 1908. During World War I, Enid undertook significant humanitarian work in France and the U.S. She also supported other causes, including education and woman suffrage.
Enid’s forty-year career demonstrates a robust sculptural practice that crossed many media and was unrestricted in size. In recognition of this, she was among the first women selected for membership in the National Sculpture Society, the first organization of professional sculptors formed in the U.S. Enid died in 1934 in Boston and is buried next to her sister, Maude, in Louisville’s Cave Hill Cemetery.
Decker, Juilee. Enid Yandell, Kentucky’s Pioneer Artist. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2019.
ENID: Generations of Women Sculptors Member Artists
Leticia Bajuyo, Gayle Cerlan, Caren Cunningham, Jeanne Dueber, Linda Erzinger, Ewing Fahey, Sarah Frederick, Valerie Sullivan Fuchs, Mary Dennis Kannapell, Paula Keppie, Frances Kratzok, Bette Levy, Shawn Marshall, Suzanne Mitchell, Joyce Ogden, Jacque Parsley, Emily Schuhmann, Gloria Wachtel, Melinda Walters, Mary Yates.
Learn more about ENID: Generations of Women Sculptors at enidlouisville.org.
