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A small blemish to illustration on front cover, where a label has been removed; else in Fine condition. This copy signed by Melva Bucksbaum; scarce thus. Melva Jane Bucksbaum (1933 ? 2015) was an American art collector, curator, and patron of the arts. The Distaff Side is a survey of works by women artists from the collection of Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond Learsy. Among the more than 100 artists represented in the exhibition are Marina Abramovi?, Louise Bourgeois, Moyra Davey, Jenny Holzer, Käthe Kollwitz, Barbara Kruger, Mika Rottenberg, Cindy Sherman, Shinque Smith, Mickalene Thomas, and Zanele Muholi. With essays by Ryan Frank, Steven Learner, Joan Simon, and Caitlin Smith and an interview with Melva Bucksbaum by Elisabeth Sussman. Designed by Hans Cogne and printed at Meridian Printing in an edition of 1,500. 240 pages, hardcover, clothbound, color illustrations. Published by The Granary. 10 1/2 x 8 3/8 x 1 1/4 inches. 2 pounds, 14 ounces. The works in the exhibition range in date from 1921 to 2013 and encompass diverse mediums, including painting, sculpture, photography, video, installation, drawing, and printmaking. The artists come from Europe, South America, Africa, Asia, and throughout the United States, and they include established figures of international renown as well as emerging artists and those known locally. Through her curatorial eye and her perceptive and at times provocative installation groupings, Joan Simon writes in her catalogue essay, Melva Bucksbaum critically explores the ongoing conversation between past and present, between artists, between artworks and those who tend them, and between exhibitions and their publics, notably placing the women at the forefront. A bold accomplishment in its own right, The Distaff Side-as well as the collections from which it is drawn-offers an example for galleries and museums to note and perhaps also to follow. Bucksbaum served as the president of the Des Moines Art Center board. In 1996, Bucksbaum and her family endowed the Martin Bucksbaum Professorship in Urban Planning and Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University in memory of her late husband. Additionally, she established the Martin Bucksbaum Distinguished Lecture Series in Des Moines, Iowa at Drake University. Bucksbaum began serving on the Whitney Museum of American Art's board of trustees in 1996 and eventually became its vice chairwoman. In 2000 she and her family inaugurated the Melva Bucksbaum Prize with an award of $100,000 to an individual contemporary artist and an exhibition of the artist's work at the Whitney. Bucksbaum served on additional boards such as the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, the Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., the American Friends of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the Aspen Institute, the Drawing Center in New York, the Jewish Museum in New York, and the International Committee of the Tate Gallery in London. Bucksbaum collected over four hundred contemporary, impressionist, modernist and post-impressionist works, including pieces by Vanessa Beecroft, Gregory Crewdson, Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe, David Salle, Richard Serra, Terry Winters, Henri Matisse, Su-en Wong, and works by Peter Paul Rubens. In 2004?2005 Francesco Clemente painted a portrait of the couple.
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