Marion Greenwood
Marion Greenwood
Portrait and Self-Portrait—A Biography
This new biography reveals Marion Greenwood's central place in the pantheon of history’s remarkable women artists.
Marion Greenwood: Portrait and Self-Portrait—A Biography brings to life a woman who blazed through the twentieth-century art world. Born in Brooklyn in 1909, Greenwood thrived at storied institutions and arts centers such as the Art Students League, the studio of German modernist Winold Reiss, the Woodstock Colony, and Yaddo. In 1933, she catapulted to international fame as the first woman to paint a public mural in Mexico. Diego Rivera celebrated Greenwood as one of “the world’s greatest living women mural painters.” She traveled the globe to create award-winning portraits of people from diverse backgrounds, crossing racial, cultural, and class lines to reflect her vision for a more just world.
This biography, the first about Greenwood, is based on a decade of research and interviews. Author Joanne B. Mulcahy integrates the artist’s adventuresome personal life with her journey to artistic glory. Greenwood comes alive as a notable and spirited part of the heady art scenes of 1920s and 1930s Mexico, New York City, and Paris, and as one of two women artist-correspondents during World War II. After social realism and portraiture fell from favor, Greenwood doggedly stuck with what she called “the human thing” in art. Her freewheeling romantic life and independent spirit defied expectations for women, and she dismissed sexist critics who mixed acclaim for her work with commentary on her stunning beauty.
A feminist pioneer, Greenwood made a living as an artist in a time when few women could. In following Greenwood’s maverick path and artistic achievements, this book reveals her central place in the pantheon of history’s remarkable women artists.
‘Marion Greenwood was one of the leading figurative artists of the 1930s and 1940s, and a pioneering muralist to boot. Isamu Noguchi, Diego Rivera, Josephine Herbst, Winold Reiss, and many others are present [in these pages] as well, making this fast-paced yet carefully researched biography essential reading for anyone interested in American art and culture of the period.’—James Oles, author of Art and Architecture in Mexico
This thorough account of the life and work of Marion Greenwood is a monumental achievement and a significant addition to the growing library of work surrounding overlooked women in the history of art. The research is impeccable and the revelations via unpublished sources and interviews with still-living individuals are invaluable.’ —Bridget Quinn, author of Portrait of a Woman: Art, Rivalry, and Revolution in the Life of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard
Drawing on a rich trove of letters and primary sources, Joanne Mulcahy provides a lively and colorful account of painter Marion Greenwood’s life and career. Mulcahy is an excellent storyteller, and her writing easily draws the reader into Greenwood’s world.’ —Jennifer Jolly, author of Creating Pátzcuaro, Creating Mexico: Art, Tourism, and Nation Building under Lázaro Cárdenas
Joanne B. Mulcahy is author of Remedios: The Healing Life of Eva Castellanoz and Birth and Rebirth on an Alaskan Island: The Life of an Alutiiq Healer and coauthor of Writing Abroad: A Guide for Travelers. Her award-winning essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. For over thirty years, she taught creative nonfiction at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, and in prisons, libraries, and other community settings.
List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Prologue: “A Realist Woman Should Jump”
Part I. Foundations (1909–1936)
Chapter 1. “The Greatest Living Women Mural Painters”
Chapter 2. The Real Bohemians
Chapter 3. The Art Students League and the Woodstock Colony
Chapter 4. “My University”: Yaddo and the Gateway to Europe
Chapter 5. Representing “Others”: Winold Reiss, “Ethnic Types,” and the American Southwest
Chapter 6. Uptown and Downtown
Chapter 7. “A Large Dose of Painful Brooding”
Part II. Mexican Awakening (1932–1936)
Chapter 8. “The Enormous Vogue of Things Mexican”
Chapter 9. “A Perfect Romantic Setting”: Taxco and the Market Mural
Chapter 10. Pátzcuaro and the Music in the Square
Chapter11. “A Girl Alone” in Morelia
Chapter 12. “Life Will Become One Big Wall”
Chapter 13. Comrades in Mexico City
Chapter 14. “The Struggle Is Greater and Nearer to Me in the States”
Part III. Love and War (1937–1947)
Chapter 15. Partnerships with Men and Nature
Chapter 16. Art for Every Home
Chapter 17. War, Departures, and Returns
Chapter 18. Lost Time and Jealousy’s “Revolving Fire”
Chapter 19. The War Art Program
Chapter 20. Hsu Lost and Found
Chapter 21. The “China” Experience
Part IV. Rupture and Renaissance (1948–1970)
Chapter 22. “I Treasure What You Gave”
Chapter 23. The Caribbean and “That Nice Young Man”
Chapter 24. The Singing Mural
Chapter 25. In and Out of Tune
Chapter 26. Tributes to Women
Chapter 27. “The Most Alive Person I’ve Ever Known”
Chapter 28. Marion Greenwood’s Legacy
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
