WESTBETH GALLERY: Anita Steckel and Friends July 14 – 29, 2012

REVISIONS ON A PHOTO ALBUM

The exhibit comprises twenty-one of Anita Steckel’s intensely personal last works on paper before her passing on March 16, 2012.

We believe sexual subject matter includes many things: political statements, humor, erotica, sociological and psychological statements, as well as purely sensual or esthetic ‘art’ concerns, and of course, the primitive – mysterious reasons none of us know. – Anita Steckel.

Exhibit also includes works of her students at the Art Students League where Ms Steckel taught for over 20 years.

Exhibit Curator: Jessica Maffia.

Opening Reception Sunday July 15, 2012 at 6pm

Anita Steckel’s often witty and irreverent style has produced some of the most interesting and ground-breaking work of the last four decades. Her self portraits as a giant woman hanging from the Empire State Building may be tongue-and-cheek, yet they also speak to some of the main tenants of Steckel’s work where the phallic urban skyline is controlled, claimed, and made personal. She fearlessly investigates ideas of feminism, urbanism, sexism, racism and history. Her work has met with acclaim both internationally and nationally, and she has exhibited in over twenty museums and participated in countless gallery and university shows since the 1960s.

– BROOKLYN MUSEUM Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: Feminist Art Base: Anita Steckel

Her art shocked and surprised. Save within the feminist artistic world, her teasing and sometimes disturbing erotic works were not very widespread until the turn of the century when her creations were described as brilliant and avant-gardist. Among her best known works, is Giant Woman, a series of paintings (1969-1972) depicting a gigantic naked woman lazing around the skyscrapers of New York.

The New York Times writes that Anital Steckel founded an association of female artists ─ the Fight Censorship Group. The artist declared, during a lecture at the University of Pennsylvania, that by definition, being an artist is about breaking social norms. – ART MEDIA ASSOCIATION

Click on the link below for an essay about Anita Steckel’s work by Donald Goddard

http://www.newyorkartworld.com/reviews/steckel.html