May Wilson
Encyclopedia
May Wilson was an American
artist. A pioneer of the feminist and mail art
movement, she is best known for her Surrealist junk assemblages
and her "Ridiculous Portrait" photocollages.
mother, who sewed piece-work at home. Wilson left school after ninth grade to become a stenographer/secretary to help support her family. When she turned twenty she married a young lawyer, William S. Wilson, Jr. She continued to work until the birth of her second child, after which she devoted her energies primarily to mothering and homemaking. In 1942 the couple had prospered enough to move to Towson, Maryland. She began to take correspondence courses in art
and art history
from several schools, including the University of Chicago
. In 1948, after the marriage of her daughter, the couple moved to a gentleman's farm
north of Towson where she pursued painting and gave private art lessons to some of her neighbors. She exhibited her paintings, scenes of everyday life painted in a flat, purposefully primitive manner, in local galleries and restaurants. In 1952 and 1958 she won awards for her submissions to juried exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Art
.
In 1956 her son, the writer Williams S. Wilson, gave Ray Johnson
, founder of the New York Correspondence School
, his mother's address. Thus began a friendship and artistic collaboration between Johnson and Wilson which would last the remainder of Wilson's life. Wilson became an integral part of Johnson
's mail art
circle and was initiated into the New York avant-garde
through letters and small works that she exchanged with Robert Watts
, George Brecht
, Ad Reinhardt
, Leonard Cohen
, Arman
, and many others.
When her marriage dissolved, she moved to New York City in the spring of 1966, taking up residence in the Chelsea Hotel
where she threw legendary soirées and became known as the "Grandma Moses of the Underground" (Wilson was then 61.). By the time she arrived, Wilson was already working with photomontage techniques. Encouraged by Johnson
, who had sent her magazines through the mail, Wilson scissored patterns into images of pin-up girls and muscle men until they resembled doilies or snowflakes, as Wilson called them. Wilson decorated her hotel room, and later her studio on West 23rd Street, with these and other manipulated, found art
images. Around this time she also began her series of "Ridiculous Portraits." For these she would take the subway to Times Square where she would make faces in photo booths. She then would cut and paste her own face into postcards, old master reproductions, fashion shoots, and soft-core magazine pornography. Long before artists such as Cindy Sherman
and Yasumasa Morimura
would embark on similar critical projects, Wilson's "Ridiculous Portraits" sent up the ubiquitous sexism and ageism that exists in popular and fine art images of women. At the age of 70, she had a nude photograph of herself converted into a stamp that she pasted on envelopes. These collages and humorous self-portraits were made as gifts and mail art items for her friends and were not widely known until after her death.
Wilson also experimented with junk art assemblages
that were intended for exhibition. These incorporated high heels, bed sheets, sauce pans, toasters, liquor bottles, ice trays, and wrapped baby dolls. Wilson's sculptures were inspired by Surrealist and Dada
practices and are similar in spirit to Yayoi Kusama
's contemporary accumulations.
After her death in 1986, her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and retrospectives at the Baltimore Museum of Art
, Maryland; Gracie Mansion Gallery, New York; the Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ; Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York; and the University of the Arts, Philadelphia.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
artist. A pioneer of the feminist and mail art
Mail art
Mail art is a worldwide cultural movement that began in the early 1960s and involves sending visual art through the international postal system. Mail Art is also known as Postal Art or Correspondence Art...
movement, she is best known for her Surrealist junk assemblages
Assemblage (art)
Assemblage is an artistic process. In the visual arts, it consists of making three-dimensional or two-dimensional artistic compositions by putting together found objects...
and her "Ridiculous Portrait" photocollages.
Biography
Wilson was born in Baltimore, Maryland into a poor family. Her father died when she was young. She was raised by her Irish CatholicIrish Catholic
Irish Catholic is a term used to describe people who are both Roman Catholic and Irish .Note: the term is not used to describe a variant of Catholicism. More particularly, it is not a separate creed or sect in the sense that "Anglo-Catholic", "Old Catholic", "Eastern Orthodox Catholic" might be...
mother, who sewed piece-work at home. Wilson left school after ninth grade to become a stenographer/secretary to help support her family. When she turned twenty she married a young lawyer, William S. Wilson, Jr. She continued to work until the birth of her second child, after which she devoted her energies primarily to mothering and homemaking. In 1942 the couple had prospered enough to move to Towson, Maryland. She began to take correspondence courses in art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
and art history
Art history
Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...
from several schools, including the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. In 1948, after the marriage of her daughter, the couple moved to a gentleman's farm
Gentleman's farm
A gentleman's farm is an extremely small or non-operative farm. They are generally small acreages that are not used to produce large amounts of food, grain, or livestock for major markets. Gentleman's farms are also used as hobby farms, for horse rearing, or as bed and breakfast establishments...
north of Towson where she pursued painting and gave private art lessons to some of her neighbors. She exhibited her paintings, scenes of everyday life painted in a flat, purposefully primitive manner, in local galleries and restaurants. In 1952 and 1958 she won awards for her submissions to juried exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Art
Baltimore Museum of Art
The Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, was founded in 1914. Built in the Roman Temple style, the Museum is home to an internationally renowned collection of 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art. Founded in 1914 with a single painting, the BMA today has 90,000 works...
.
In 1956 her son, the writer Williams S. Wilson, gave Ray Johnson
Ray Johnson
Raymond Edward Johnson , known primarily as a collagist and correspondence artist, was a seminal figure in the history of Neo-Dada and early Pop art...
, founder of the New York Correspondence School
Mail art
Mail art is a worldwide cultural movement that began in the early 1960s and involves sending visual art through the international postal system. Mail Art is also known as Postal Art or Correspondence Art...
, his mother's address. Thus began a friendship and artistic collaboration between Johnson and Wilson which would last the remainder of Wilson's life. Wilson became an integral part of Johnson
Ray Johnson
Raymond Edward Johnson , known primarily as a collagist and correspondence artist, was a seminal figure in the history of Neo-Dada and early Pop art...
's mail art
Mail art
Mail art is a worldwide cultural movement that began in the early 1960s and involves sending visual art through the international postal system. Mail Art is also known as Postal Art or Correspondence Art...
circle and was initiated into the New York avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
through letters and small works that she exchanged with Robert Watts
Robert Watts
Robert Watts is a British film producer who is best known for his involvement with the Star Wars and Indiana Jones film series. His half brother is Jeremy Bulloch, who played Boba Fett in the original Star Wars trilogy.-Chichester University Visit:...
, George Brecht
George Brecht
George Brecht , born George Ellis MacDiarmid, was an American conceptual artist and avant-garde composer as well as a professional chemist who worked as a consultant for companies including Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Mobil Oil...
, Ad Reinhardt
Ad Reinhardt
Adolph Frederick Reinhardt was an Abstract painter active in New York beginning in the 1930s and continuing through the 1960s. He was a member of the American Abstract Artists and was a part of the movement centered around the Betty Parsons Gallery that became known as Abstract Expressionism...
, Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
, Arman
Arman
Arman was a French-born American artist. Born Armand Pierre Fernandez in Nice, France, Arman is a painter who moved from using the objects as paintbrushes to using them as the painting itself...
, and many others.
When her marriage dissolved, she moved to New York City in the spring of 1966, taking up residence in the Chelsea Hotel
Hotel Chelsea
The Hotel Chelsea, also known as the Chelsea Hotel, or simply the Chelsea, is a historic New York City hotel and landmark, known primarily for its history of notable residents...
where she threw legendary soirées and became known as the "Grandma Moses of the Underground" (Wilson was then 61.). By the time she arrived, Wilson was already working with photomontage techniques. Encouraged by Johnson
Ray Johnson
Raymond Edward Johnson , known primarily as a collagist and correspondence artist, was a seminal figure in the history of Neo-Dada and early Pop art...
, who had sent her magazines through the mail, Wilson scissored patterns into images of pin-up girls and muscle men until they resembled doilies or snowflakes, as Wilson called them. Wilson decorated her hotel room, and later her studio on West 23rd Street, with these and other manipulated, found art
Found art
The term found art—more commonly found object or readymade—describes art created from undisguised, but often modified, objects that are not normally considered art, often because they already have a non-art function...
images. Around this time she also began her series of "Ridiculous Portraits." For these she would take the subway to Times Square where she would make faces in photo booths. She then would cut and paste her own face into postcards, old master reproductions, fashion shoots, and soft-core magazine pornography. Long before artists such as Cindy Sherman
Cindy Sherman
Cindy Sherman is an American photographer and film director, best known for her conceptual portraits. Sherman currently lives and works in New York City. In 1995, she was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. She is represented by Sprüth Magers Berlin London in and Metro Pictures gallery in...
and Yasumasa Morimura
Yasumasa Morimura
Yasumasa Morimura is a Japanese appropriation artist. He was born in Osaka and graduated from Kyoto City University of Arts in 1978...
would embark on similar critical projects, Wilson's "Ridiculous Portraits" sent up the ubiquitous sexism and ageism that exists in popular and fine art images of women. At the age of 70, she had a nude photograph of herself converted into a stamp that she pasted on envelopes. These collages and humorous self-portraits were made as gifts and mail art items for her friends and were not widely known until after her death.
Wilson also experimented with junk art assemblages
Assemblage (art)
Assemblage is an artistic process. In the visual arts, it consists of making three-dimensional or two-dimensional artistic compositions by putting together found objects...
that were intended for exhibition. These incorporated high heels, bed sheets, sauce pans, toasters, liquor bottles, ice trays, and wrapped baby dolls. Wilson's sculptures were inspired by Surrealist and Dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
practices and are similar in spirit to Yayoi Kusama
Yayoi Kusama
is a Japanese artist whose paintings, collages, soft sculptures, performance art and environmental installations all share an obsession with repetition, pattern, and accumulation...
's contemporary accumulations.
After her death in 1986, her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and retrospectives at the Baltimore Museum of Art
Baltimore Museum of Art
The Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, was founded in 1914. Built in the Roman Temple style, the Museum is home to an internationally renowned collection of 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art. Founded in 1914 with a single painting, the BMA today has 90,000 works...
, Maryland; Gracie Mansion Gallery, New York; the Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ; Pavel Zoubok Gallery, New York; and the University of the Arts, Philadelphia.
Selected Exhibitions
- 2010 "Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958-1968" University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA (traveling exhibition)
- 2008 "1968/2008: The Culture of Collage" Pavel Zoubok Gallery, NY
- 2008 "Ridiculous Portrait: The Art of May Wilson" Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ
- 2008 "Woo Who? May Wilson" Pavel Zoubok Gallery, NY
- 1995 [Retrospective], Baltimore Museum of ArtBaltimore Museum of ArtThe Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, was founded in 1914. Built in the Roman Temple style, the Museum is home to an internationally renowned collection of 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art. Founded in 1914 with a single painting, the BMA today has 90,000 works...
, MD - 2001 "May Wilson: Ridiculous Portraits and Snowflakes" Grace Mansion Gallery, NY
- 2001 "Inside Out: Outside In-The Correspondence of Ray Johnson and May Wilson," Sonoma Museum of Visual Art, CA
- 1991 "May Wilson: The New York Years" Grace Mansion Gallery, NY
- 1973 "Sneakers" Kornblee Gallery, NY
- 1973 "Small Works: Selections from the Richard Brown Baker Collection of Contemporary Art," RISD Museum, Providence, RI
- 1971 Corcoran Gallery of ArtCorcoran Gallery of ArtThe Corcoran Gallery of Art is the largest privately supported cultural institution in Washington, DC. The museum's main focus is American art. The permanent collection includes works by Rembrandt, Eugène Delacroix, Edgar Degas, Thomas Gainsborough, John Singer Sargent, Claude Monet, Pablo...
, Washington, DC - 1970 "Sculpture Annual 1970," Whitney Museum of American ArtWhitney Museum of American ArtThe Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
NY - 1965 Baltimore Museum of ArtBaltimore Museum of ArtThe Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, was founded in 1914. Built in the Roman Temple style, the Museum is home to an internationally renowned collection of 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art. Founded in 1914 with a single painting, the BMA today has 90,000 works...
, MD - 1962 Johns Hopkins UniversityJohns Hopkins UniversityThe Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
- 1957 Bookshop Gallery, Baltimore, MD
Public collections
- Whitney Museum of American ArtWhitney Museum of American ArtThe Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
, NY - Baltimore Museum of ArtBaltimore Museum of ArtThe Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, was founded in 1914. Built in the Roman Temple style, the Museum is home to an internationally renowned collection of 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art. Founded in 1914 with a single painting, the BMA today has 90,000 works...
, MD - Brooklyn MuseumBrooklyn MuseumThe Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....
, NY
External links
- Estate of May Wilson at http://www.pavelzoubok.com/
- Woo Who? May Wilson, a documentary by Amalie R. Rothschild
- May Wilson on artnet