Making the Unknown Known: Women in Early Texas Art, 1860s-1960s

About the Book

In Making the Unknown Known, leading scholars throughout Texas explore the significant role women artists played in developing early Texas art from the nineteenth century through the latter part of the twentieth century. The biographies presented here allow readers to compare these women’s experiences across time as they negotiated the gendered expectations about artists in society at large and the Texas art community itself. Surveying the contributions women made to the visual arts in the Lone Star state, Making the Unknown Known analyzes women’s artistic work with respect to geographic and historical connections. Including surveys of the work of artists such as Louise WÜste, Emma Richardson Cherry, Eleanor Onderdonk, Grace Spaulding John, and others, it offers a groundbreaking assessment of the role women artists have played in interpreting the meaning, history, heritage, and unique character of Texas. It places women artists within the larger social and cultural contexts in which they lived. In that regard, it contains an analysis of their varied styles of art, the media they employed, and the subject matter contained in their art. It thus evaluates the contributions made by women artists to defining the nature of the wider Texas experience as an American region.

Beautifully illustrated throughout with rich, full-color reproductions of the works created by the artists, this volume provides an enriched understanding of the important but underappreciated role women artists have played in the development of the fine arts in Texas. At last, the unknown story can be known.

About the Author :
Victoria Hennessey Cummins is A. M. Pate Jr. Chair of History, Emerita at Austin College. She is the coauthor, with Light Townsend Cummins, of Francis B. Fisk and the Promotion of the Visual Arts in Texas in Texas Women: Their Histories, Their Lives.

Light Townsend Cummins, former State Historian of Texas, is the author of many books, including Allie Victoria Tennant and the Visual Arts in Dallas. He is the emeritus Guy M. Bryan Jr. Chair of History at Austin College in Sherman, Texas.

Review :
“Making the Unknown Known, to borrow an incisive comment from artist and one-time Texas resident Georgia O’Keeffe, reveals, perhaps for the first time, the depth, diverse perspectives, and creativity of Texas women artists. Read about the sculptures of German emigrant and unique personality Elisabet Ney, the impressionist compositions of Houstonian Emma Richardson Cherry, and the Depression-era masterpieces of Lone Star Regionalist Florence McClung, among others. This illuminating collection concludes with insightful chapters on the avant-garde painter ‘Toni’ LaSelle and Coreen Mary Spellman, who developed from a prolific regionalist to a passionate modernist and master printmaker. Likely, James Chillman, the first director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, did not realize the import of his comment when he wrote in 1971 that ‘art in Houston was a woman’s concern.’”—— Ron Tyler, author of The Art of Texas: 250 Years

“Every few years, a book comes along that significantly enhances the body of scholarship addressing the history of Texas art. Light and Victoria Cummins, along with a ‘who’s-who’ of contributing art scholars, have combined their considerable talents to produce such a hallmark publication in their new book entitled Making the Unknown Known: Women in Texas Art, 1860s-1960s. Its pages trace the myriad contributions of Texas women who spearheaded the growth and sophistication of the Texas art scene over the span of the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth century. This book is an essential addition to every regional art library, and a ‘must read’ for all Texans interested in the evolution of Lone Star arts and culture.—— William E. and Linda J. Reaves, Co-Editors, The Joe and Betty Moore Series of Texas Art

“The first major academic history of women in early Texas art, this groundbreaking book makes known at last the significant role that women played in furthering—and in many cases leading—the visual arts in Texas, a role made all the more impressive given the varied challenges women faced during the era. Moreover, the stunning images reveal the aesthetic excellence of their art, equal or superior to that of their better-known male peers. This pioneering publication will serve as both the foremost source of information on women in early Texas art, and a springboard for further research.”——Bonnie Campbell, former director, Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston