AS SEEN IN THE NEW YORKER

Japanese School Children                 Lois Heeney Bajor

  The other day I ran across an old review of an art exhibit at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.  The author  Peter Schjeldahl , was referencing a retrospective exhibit featuring the work of "Grandma Moses".  

He made a plea that the show was flawless but for the fact that the artist should be given the respect of being addressed by her proper name, Anna Mary Robertson Moses, painter.  Indeed, Anna Mary signed her work, Moses, not Grandma Moses.  He pointed out that she was the equal of Jackson Pollack in notoriety and desireability in her times.  Her age seemed to be both her attractor and detractor.

Her work was seen to be alienated and childlike . charming and naieve.  

Anna Mary, you give me courage. 

 

 

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2001/05/28/010528craw_artworld#ixzz1bnWGHbtq

 May 28, 2001 " childlike and alienated qualities" 

 

These days we seem to categorize everything and everybody.  In many ways it simplifies and consolidates a complicated universe.