Achi news desk-
This afternoon in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, people walking along Mercer Street were surprised to find a collection of materials that once belonged to the late feminist artist Mary Beth Edelson, all free for their take
Outside Edelson’s former studio at 110 Mercer Street, drawings, prints, and cut-out figures sat in cardboard boxes alongside posters from her exhibitions, monographs, and other ephemera. One box contained cards that the artist’s children had given her for birthdays and mothers’ days. Passersby competed with trash collectors who loaded the items into bags and threw them into a U-Haul.
“This is his last show,” joked her son, Nick Edelson, who had arranged for the garbage guys to come and collect what was on the street. He has been living in his old studio since the artist died in 2021 aged 88.
Naturally, neighbors speculated that he was clearing out his mother’s property in order to sell his old loft. “As you can see, we’re just clearing out the basement” is all he would say.
Photo by Annie Armstrong.
Some in the crowd criticized the disposal of the material. Alessandra Pohlmann, an artist who works next door at the Judd Institute, photographed the pieces she plans to frame. “It’s very disrespectful,” he said. “This shouldn’t be happening.” A colleague from the organization who was rummaging through a nearby pile said, “We have to save them. If I had more space, I would take more.”
Edelson’s estate, managed by her son and represented by the David Lewis Gallery in New York, holds a significant portion of her artwork. “I’m shocked and surprised by the sudden discovery,” Lewis said by phone. “The gallery has, of course, taken great care to preserve and promote Mary Beth’s legacy for almost a decade now. We immediately sent a team there to try and find the work, but it was gone.”
Sources close to the family said other artwork was still in storage. Currently museums such as the Guggenheim, Tate Modern, the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Whitney keep her work in their private collections. New York University’s Fales Library has her papers.
Edelson rose to prominence in the 1970s as one of the early voices of the feminist art movement. She is best known for her collage works, which re-imagine famous tableaux to tell women’s stories. For example, her piece Some Living American Women Artists (1972) attributed one to Leonardo da Vinci The Last Supper (1494–98) to include the faces of Faith Ringgold, Agnes Martin, Yoko Ono, and Alice Neel, and others as the apostles; Georgia O’Keeffe’s face covers the face of Jesus.
A lucky passer collects a couple of figurative cuts from Mary Beth Edelson. Photo by Annie Armstrong.
In total, it took about 45 minutes for the pioneering artist’s material to be removed by the litter collectors and those lucky enough to hear about what was happening.
Dealer Jordan Barse, who runs Theta Gallery, cycled by and took a poster from Edelson’s 1977 show at the AIR gallery, “Memorials to the 9,000,000 Women Burned as Witches in the Christian Era.” Artist Keely Angel picked up handwritten notes, and said, “They smell like mouse droppings. I’m glad someone got these before they did,” gesturing to the men shoving papers into trash bags.
A neighbor told one person who picked up some broken pieces, “Those could be worth a fortune. Don’t put it on eBay! Look into their work, and you will be into it.”
Follow Artnet News on Facebook:
Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter for breaking news, eye-opening interviews and insightful critiques that drive the conversation forward.
Ad blocking test (Why?)
Source link
The post Art and Ephemera Once Owned by Pioneering Artist Mary Beth Edelson Taken on the Street in SoHo – artnet News appeared first on Canada News Media.
