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| Winnifred Kingston, Seated Woman, 1914 (source) |
Every Week I find myself renewed in some sort of high/low process; Excited to find some woman who made art that speaks to women, long before my time, only to have that excitement tempered by the fact that there is only one work of hers available to see without hours of research that I don't have (as I write this my hands are being forcibly removed from the keyboard by two very sweet and determined chubby hands- while the owner of the hands is saying " No! Milk! Me! Mommmmy!" or some variation on that theme).
I am always a bit surprised that a whole piece of history has been totally removed from us (you'd think I'd be used to it by now) anything in the domestic sphere and so female, of course, and private, is so cloaked in mystery that even though this woman- Winnifred Kingsford- made lamp bases and 'other domestic items' in order to reach more people with her art- I can't see any of them, or find any of them. I can only imagine that they are languishing in some basement- lighting a tawdry teenage love scene- perhaps. The only piece available to view (online anyhow), is this Seated Woman- and even she looks bored, or patient maybe- waiting to see something interesting- or waiting to be noticed- or waiting to be taken seriously.
Actually If I'm honest I imagine her looking at children playing, or something else lovely and fleeting, and so I'll take this as a reminder that even though women may be almost wholly erased from history- at least they had some of the precious things in life; the adorable chubby hands pulling on them saying " MOMMY! MILK! ME!"
I read this post last week, but see I left no comment. Based on this one example, Kingston seems like a competent worker. I wonder why she has so completely disappeared from the record.
ReplyDeleteI only just found this post. Winnifred Kingsford was not the only woman sculptor in Canada at this time. A few women, a generation younger than she, worked from around 1920 through the 1950s - notably Merle Foster (see http://terrymurray.org/come-to-dust-the-long-life-short-art-and-shorter-afterlife-of-merle-foster/ ) and Elizabeth Wyn Wood. Foster actually worked with Kingsford and Loring on a sculpture at the entrance to the CNE in about 1917.
ReplyDeleteI am just finishing my manuscript of Merle Foster's biography, so can't take a lot of time now (i.e., at this precise moment) but would love to talk or exchange emails with you about our mutual interests. You can reach me at theterrymurray [at] gmail [dot] com. Re Kingsford's limited oeuvre: I think her productivity was limited when she married. I'm not sure of the details, but Merle Foster seemed to think that Kingsford's choice of husband was not the best.This piece is in the National Gallery of Canada of course; I thought there was at least one other, but apparently not. I may know a source where you can find some of her other work. Look forward to hearing from you.
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