PAFA Showcases Women Artists

Courtesy of PAFA

Local artist Linda Lee Alter started collecting work by women artists in the 1980s. Today, she is sharing the collection with the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA).

Artists featured in the collection include Louise Bourgeois, Viola Frey, Ana Mendieta, Christina Ramberg and Beatrice Wood.

One of the artists included – Gertrude Abercrombie – is not exactly a household name, but she’s noted for tackling the issue of hate crimes in her paintings as early as the 1940s.

Another artist amassed in the 400-work collection is Joan Brown, popular among gay men who were among her earliest collectors in San Francisco in the 1960s and 70s, according to The Art of Joan Brown by Karen Tsujimoto. And artist Kiki Smith may also be familiar to fans of the The L Word, the popular lesbian television series, in which her work was featured.

“My hope was to find a museum emphasizing inclusion and diversity; one working toward greater representation of art by women and artists of color on its permanent collection, exhibitions and outreach programs” says Alter in a press statement.

A special exhibition of the newly acquired works will be on view at PAFA in late spring 2011, coinciding with the opening of Lenfest Plaza.