WILMINGTON, DE.- The Delaware Art Museum presents Women Collared for Work, featuring paintings, drawings, sculptures, and mixed media installations by eight female artists, on view February 6, 2010 – March 21, 2010. The artists explore both the well-known contributions and anonymous stories of women spanning more than 100 years of history—1889 to 1999. They interpret the collar as a symbol for the restraint, inspiration, and innovation of powerful female icons representing a range of occupations.

The theme of being “collared” was chosen as a metaphor for women’s issues because of the symbolic connotations of the word. A collar can be an article of clothing or a restraint around the neck, and it was the contrast between its uses as an adornment versus a shackle that inspired this selection of works.

Each of the artists created work inspired by a range of years as follows:

1889 – 1920 Bernice Davidson
1920 – 1950 Maria Keane
1930 – 1940 Deborah Stelling
1933 – 1945 Ann Stein
1942 – 1946 Margo Allman
1942 – 1959 Judith Schwab
1960 – 1970 Wilma Bulkin Siegel
1980 – 1999 Rosemary Lane

Some of the their particular sources of inspiration include: Native Americans who were forced to relocate; three female students of Howard Pyle known as the “Red Rose Girls”; Eleanor Roosevelt; Frances Perkins; Japanese internment camps; holocaust survivors; flower children; and artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Miriam Shapiro, and Louise Nevelson.

The Guest Curator for Women Collared for Work is Judith Schwab.