Foot dragging

Gluck, Medallion (You/We), 1936, oil on canvas. Ömer Koç Collection.
© 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, London
‘A Room of Her Own,” the exhibition of the art of twenty-five women artists working in Great Britain between the last half of the Victorian Era and the end of WWII at The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts,is best understood as a case study in what it took for women artists to gain a foothold in the male-dominated art world. The 87 wildly variegated works of art range from paintings, drawings and prints, to ceramics, stained glass and the decorative arts, with artistic styles ranging from the Pre-Raphaelites to Cubist-style modernists.
Curator Alexis Goodwin’s starting point is Virginia Wolfe’s famous 1929 essay, “A Room of One’s Own,” which argues that for women to write fiction, they first need to have their own physical space in which to write. The proposition seems close to self-evident, but when women were mostly confined to the roles of wife and mother, it was revolutionary. Goodwin applies Wolfe’s idea about women writers to women visual artists, arguing that as was the case with writers, they needed their own physical spaces before they could make art. Although some artists in the exhibition did this by carving out corners within their homes, the more driven and financially independent set up art studios outside their homes. Interestingly, only 7 of the 25 women had children.
Much of the art on display consists of weavings, fabrics, or decorative designs — forms that, until the 1970s, were dismissed in the art world as “domestic arts.” By giving them the same amount of attention as the “high art” of painting (which women were traditionally excluded from), the exhibition demonstrates that women knew how to fit art-making into their domestic lives.
Some artists, such as Mary Lowndes (1857-1929), made successful businesses for themselves. In 1897, after attending the Slade School of Art in London, she became an assistant to a stained-glass designer. She then co-founded Lowndes and Drury, a stained-glass studio and workshop, made her own windows for various churches, and became influential in the Arts and Crafts movement in Britain.
In 1907, Lowndes became a founding member of the Artist’s Suffrage League. Along with such artists as the embroiderer and fabric designer May Morris (daughter of Willliam Morris, who was associated with the Arts and Crafts movement) and Marianne Stokes (a German-born artist whose painting Polishing Pans, c. 1887 is a tour-de-force), made banners and posters for women’s suffrage protests.
The boldest and most independent woman in the show is the lesbian artist Gluck, who shortened her name from Hannah Gluckstein. Coming from a wealthy family that financially supported her art career, she was able to build her own large studio. She cut her hair as short as a man’s, wore men’s clothing, and led an intense romantic life of many loves and losses. “Medallion (You/We)” (1936) offers a self-portrait in profile that crisply overlaps a similar profile portrait of Nesta Obermer, a married socialite who was Gluck’s romantic partner at the time.
Vanessa Bell, sister of Virginia Wolfe and a founding member of the Bloomsbury Group, also shrugged off societal norms. Married to a straight man with whom she had two sons, she openly had another child with a homosexual friend.Her “Self-Portrait” (c. 1915), along with the watercolor and gouache “Design for Omega Workshop Fabric” (1913), are the most modern works in the exhibition.
My own favorite work is Winifred Knights’s “The Deluge” (1920), painted while she was still a student at the Slade School of Art. It portrays the biblical flood, but makes the arc almost an afterthought, and instead focuses on the doomed human beings frantically trying to run away from death. It’s an action-packed painting by a gifted artist who, by the time she died in 1947, had been almost completely forgotten.
Dame Laura Knight, A Balloon Site, Coventry, 1943, oil on canvas. IWM (Imperial War Museums), Art. IWM ART LD 2750 © Imperial War Museums / © Estate of Dame Laura Knight. All rights reserved 2024 / Bridgeman ImagesProvided
Painters Anna Airy and Dame Laura Knight each had long, strong careers. Airy’s two pictures from 1918, rendered in multiple shades of brown, silvery whites, and bits of red, include busy male and female workers inside the vast interiors of war-time factories. The astonishingly prolific Dame Laura Knight persisted in trying to get the all-male Royal Academy of Arts to recognize her achievements, and in 1936, she was finally elected the first woman full member since its founding in 1768. “Take Off” (1943), with four men in a cockpit packed together like sardines, and “A Balloon Site, Coventry” (1943), with a line of women and men pulling hard on the ropes controlling a humungous air balloon floating above their heads, use inventive compositions to convey the nerve-wracking physicality of the moment.
Breaking into the male-dominated art world was — and still is — a job in itself. To the women who managed it, we owe at least this belated recognition.
“A Room of Her Own: Women Artist-Activists in Britain, 1875-1945” is on view through Sep. 14.
Laurie Fendrich is a painter and writer living in Lakeville, CT. She is a 2016 Guggenheim Fellow and is represented by Louis Stern Fine Arts in Los Angeles.
“I believe in Liberty for all men: the space to stretch their arms and their souls, the right to breathe and the right to vote, the freedom to choose their friends, enjoy the sunshine, and ride on the railroads, uncursed by color; thinking, dreaming, working as they will in a kingdom of beauty and love.” —W.E.B. Du Bois
On Saturday, July 19, a life-sized bronze sculpture of W.E.B. Du Bois will be unveiled at 2 p.m. in front of the Mason Public Library on Main Street in Du Bois’ hometown of Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
All are welcome to attend this free public event, the highlight of a weekend-long celebration. Speakers include former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Pulitzer-prize winning biographer of Du Bois David Levering Lewis, ,\and Imari K. Paris Jeffries from Embrace Boston whose mission is, “To dismantle structural racism through our work at the intersection of arts, culture, community, research and policy.”
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, arguably the father of the civil rights movement in America, was one of the founders of the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, in 1909. The first Black American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University, he was a ground-breaking sociologist, and author of sixteen books, including his 1903 series of essays, “The Souls of Black Folk.” He graduated from Searles High School in Great Barrington in 1884. The community of the local Congregational Church, next to the Mason Public Library, supported the boy’s early education.
The arc of his life was extraordinary, from young Willie Du Bois working at the Great Barrington A&P, matriculating at Fisk University and Harvard, receiving the Lenin Peace Prize, having a national holiday celebrated on his birthday in China, to his death in his adopted country of Ghana, the day of the 1963 March on Washington. News of his death elicited a moment of silence from the 260,000 gathered near the Lincoln Memorial.
DuBois attended The Amenia Conference of 1916 and 1933, early meetings of the NAACP at Troutbeck. DuBois wrote: “The Amenia Conference was a symbol. Because of our meeting, the Negro race was more united and more ready to meet the problems of the world than it could have been without these beautiful days of understanding. How appropriate so tremendous a thing should take place in so much quiet and beauty there at Troutbeck, a place of poets and fishermen, of dreamers and farmers. Those who write the history of how the American Negro became a man must not forget this landmark event.”
Artist Richard Blake, recipient of the National Sculpture Society’s Medal of Honor, created the bronze sculpture that will sit centrally on a curving Sheffield marble bench in the redesigned library plaza. Blake reflected, “My public sculptures commemorate social activism and those who have fought for social justice. I want to shed light on overlooked American heroes.”
“This moment represents years of dedication from many people,” said Ari Zorn, co-chair of the W.E.B. Du Bois Sculpture Project. “We are bringing Dr. Du Bois home in a way that invites everyone to sit with him, reflect with him, and carry forward his legacy. This sculpture isn’t just a monument — it’s a space for justice, remembrance, and stewardship.”
July weekend events include two programs hosted by Chesterwood, the historic home of sculptor Daniel Chester French, plus the fourth annual Du Bois Forum Roundtable at Jacob’s Pillow. The Unveiling Ceremony includes music featuring Wanda Houston, Gina Coleman, and the Randall Martin Band, with a performance of the Black National anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a song used as a rallying cry during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
Martin Luther King, Jr., an admirer of Du Bois, honored him in a speech at Carnegie Hall, “Du Bois the man needs to be remembered today when despair is all too prevalent. His love and faith in Negroes permeate every sentence of his writings and every act of his life.”
More information is available online at webduboissculpture.org
I’m confused! I look a little like Vincent Price, but I sound nothing like him! And why is that tree trying to eat my wife?
Gerardo De Leon and Eddie Romero, two major names in the Filipino film world, made four “Blood Island” films between them. The first was released in 1959 and is a modest but stylish black and white horror movie. The remaining three were made a decade-plus later, and are properly schlocky.
The whole shebang is now available in a slipcased set from Severin Films.
Terror is a Man (1959): Odd economy reworking of “The Island of Dr. Moreau.” Odd because it has a lot of weird plot that gets in the way of the story, and economy because there is only one man-animal hybrid, and because they shot it in black and white. Good production values throughout, which is also confusing when you’re expecting dreck. Decent monster and no nekkidity, because it was 1959.
The universe comes back into balance with the next film in the series, “Brides of Blood Island” (1968). Shot in color, very little plot to get in the way of the story, man-eating plants, day-for-night continuity problems, cut-rate Desi Arnaz, bargain basement Vincent Price, one bald henchman, mild bimbotation, a bit of gratuitous nekkidity, a sex-crazed beast, mutant transformation, a regrettable and lengthy dance of triumph scene, and nuclear radiation (which explains the art in the castle). I suspect Sam Raimi had this flick in the back of his mind for the first couple of “Evil Dead” movies.
The chlorophyll monster in Mad Doctor of Blood Island doesn’t stand up to close inspection, so the filmmakers wisely don’t let the audience get a good look.Provided
The Mad Doctor of Blood Island (1968): Well, here we are back at Blood Island. This time we’re looking for the cause of a strange disease that turns the natives green. Turns out it’s simple -- crazy Dr. Lorca shot a cancer patient up with a rare chlorophyll strain he found on the island. It’s just science. Gratuitous nekkidity, green blood, dismemberment, a sort of luau/orgy hybrid, and every time the monster is about to do something the camera zooms in and out rapidly, perhaps to prevent the audience from getting a good look at the lame monster costume. Spoiler: The beast hides out in a lifeboat as the gang sails away from Blood Island, the better to set up…
…Beast of Blood (1971), in which the monster kicks things off immediately by blowing up the boat, perhaps in protest of the producers’ decision to drop the word “island” from the title. Dr. Lorca’s got a whole army of green mutants now, and the islanders aren’t up to much in the resistance department, so it’s up to Bill Foster (John Ashley) and Myra the reporter (Celeste Yarnall) to get things sorted out. Which they do, eventually, but not before there’s some highly dubious surgery, a henchman who can only grunt, the usual nekkidity, an artificial head that talks. and plenty of extra fake-looking blood. Bonus points for the hero’s Modified Elvis haircut, a bold choice in 1971. This movie is an excellent example of the plot getting in the way of the story, but when a man sets out to watch all four Blood Island movies, he’s got to tough it all the way through.
Willy Yahn at bat. He logged five RBIs and three runs for the Trojans June 29.
LITCHFIELD — The Tri-State Baseball League entered its 91st season this past May.
The historic league features players aged 16 and up from Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts.
The games are played with wooden bats and provide spectators a free opportunity to watch competitive baseball in local parks on both weekdays and weekends.
Games last either seven or nine innings, depending on factors such as day of the week, and have a combination of strong high schoolers, college players and even players who were drafted to the majors. The games make for a fun yet competitive environment and are open to spectators to come and watch.
In Northwest Connecticut, athletes play for the Tri-Town Trojans: a club trying for its fifth consecutive league championship.
The team is coached by Housatonic Valley Regional High School varsity baseball head coach Bobby Chatfield. Willy Yahn, an HVRHS alum previously drafted by the Baltimore Orioles, plays infield for the reigning champs.
The Trojans hosted the Bethlehem Plowboys on Sunday, June 29, at Community Field in Litchfield.
The Trojans and Plowboys have a storied past and have faced off in the league final series each of the past three years. The rivalry was palpable in their most recent meeting.
Tri-Town prevailed in the hard-fought game with a final score of 9-7. The Plowboys started to mount a comeback near the end, scoring four runs in the final inning. But it was too little, too late.
Bethlehem disputed some calls with the umpires and became visibly frustrated. The Trojans maintained the poise of four-time champions, seemingly enjoying the match on a beautiful Sunday morning as they earned the win.
After the result, Tri-Town advanced to a record of 6-1 and Bethlehem moved to 8-3.
On the New York side of the border, the Amenia Monarchs play at Doc Bartlett Field in Beekman Park.
In a game against the Winsted Whalers Sunday, June 29, Amenia won a 9-0 shutout and gained some much needed momentum after a close 2-0 loss earlier in the week against the Valley Kraken.
For schedules and info, visit tristatebaseballct.com