Julie L'Enfant Releases Pioneer Modernists

April 19, 2011

Julie L’Enfant, Chair of Liberal Arts, has just released her fourth book, Pioneer Modernists: Minnesota’s First Generation of Women Artists, a book inspired by a 2007 exhibition at the Minnesota Museum of American Art, featuring prominent works by Minnesota women.

In the early twentieth century Francis Cranmer Greenman, Alice Hügy, Elsa Laubach Jemne, Clara Mairs, Evelyn Raymond, Jo Lutz Rollins, and Ada Wolfe established successful careers as artists in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. They played significant roles in the development of the art schools, galleries, and arts organizations that make the Twin Cities a major cultural center today. Yet their strong reputations were eclipsed mid-century by the rise of Abstract Expressionism and other male-dominated modernist movements.

Drawing on unpublished papers, contemporaneous accounts, and interviews with descendents and collectors, Pioneer Modernists presents a new picture of their cosmopolitan art training, multi-faceted careers, and sometimes unconventional lives, set in the context of the tumultuous events of the twentieth century. It examines their work – paintings, prints, decorative work, and sculptures – in terms of its humanistic ideas, technical sophistication, and visual appeal. By relating this work to national and international art movements, Pioneer Modernists contributes to a new understanding of Modernism as richly diverse.

This study grows out of a 2007 exhibition at the Minnesota Museaum of American Art, In Her Own Right: Minnesota’s First Generation of Women Artists. It is enriched by numerous reproductions of works in public and private collections, many never before published.

Her book was reviewed in the Minneapolis Star Tribune On Sunday, April 17th.

Read Mpls StarTribune Review   
Read Pioneer Press Review

Author Appearances

Wednesday, May 4, 2011
7:30 p.m.
Common Good Books
165 Western Avenue North
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55102
651.225.8989

Thursday, May 12, 2011
6:30 p.m.
Hennepin History Museum
2030 3rd Avenue South
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55404
612.870.1329

Wednesday, May 18, 2011
6:00 p.m.
Stillwater Public Library
224 North 3rd Street
Stillwater, Minnesota 55082
651.275.4338

Saturday, May 21, 2011
2:00 p.m.
Grand Hand Gallery
619 Grand Avenue
Saint Paul, Minnesota 551
651.312.1122

Image Credit

Frances Cranmer Greenman
Clara Mairs, 1923
oil, 77 by 41.4 inches
Minnesota Museum of American Art
Saint Paul, Minnesota

Photo Credit

Bill Kelley