2019-03-01_American_Art_Collector

(Martin Jones) #1

144 http://www.AmericanArtCollector.com


UPCOMING SHOW PREVIEW / SOMERVILLE MANNING GALLERY
3/12-4/6 Greenville, DE

HOLLY TROSTLE BRIGHAM

Timeless Women


S


ister Plautilla Nelli (1524-1588) was the first
known female painter in Florence. She was
self-taught, copying the masters of the time.
Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) wrote in his Lives
of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and
Architects, “there were so many of her paintings
in the houses of gentlemen in Florence, it would
be tedious to mention them all.”
Holly Trostle Brigham earned her MFA at
The George Washington University where her
thesis was “The Self-Portrait Nude: Finding a
Modern Female Mythology.” While there, she
was influenced by the work and philosophy of
visiting artist Audrey Flack. She also trained at
the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She
has explored the role of women artists through
history, inserting herself into the narrative in
self-portraits as the artist.
In Sorella Plautilla Nelli’s Lamentation,
2012, she presents Sister Plautilla creating
her famous painting illuminated by light from
the cross. She looks directly at the viewer as
if asserting her right to be an artist among
the pantheon of male Florentine painters.
Kirsten Jensen, curator of the Michener Art
Museum, says, “Her strong engagement with
women’s history and women’s art history
makes her work compelling, but her technique

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