Historic re-staging of landmark 1970s feminist art installation displayed at Rowan

The Sister Chapel, a historic collaborative installation created at the height of the women’s art movement, opens at Rowan University Art Gallery West for its first public exhibition since 1980. Opening during National Women’s History Month, the exhibit runs from March 28 through June 30.

A reception on March 31 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. features a panel discussion with five of the contributing artists: Maureen Connor, Martha Edelheit, Diana Kurz, Cynthia Mailman, and Sharon Wybrants. Moderator Andrew D. Hottle, a member of the Department of Art faculty at Rowan, spent eight years researching and writing an extensive history of this important collaboration.

Rowan’s presentation of The Sister Chapel is only the third time all the paintings have been exhibited together, and the first since 1980. To house the components of The Sister Chapel, artist Maureen Connor’s fabric structure was designed for the original showing, but never constructed. In honor of this restaging, an enclosure based on Connor’s original design has been fabricated so that, for the first time in its history, The Sister Chapel is exhibited as its creators intended.

Conceived by Ilise Greenstein in 1974 and first exhibited in 1978, The Sister Chapel embraced the cooperative spirit of the women’s art movement. Using a nominal pun on Michelangelo’s famous Sistine Chapel ceiling, Greenstein issued a feminist challenge to the patriarchal conceptualization of history. In contrast to her male predecessor, she envisioned a nonhierarchical, secular commemoration of female role models from a female perspective; thus, The Sister Chapel invited viewers to reconsider familiar and often unconscious presumptions about gender roles and women’s achievements.

Between 1974 and 1977, Greenstein was joined by 12 other women whose individual contributions shaped the character and appearance of The Sister Chapel. In its final form, the installation consisted of Greenstein’s 18-foot abstract ceiling suspended above a circular arrangement of 11 nine-foot canvases, each depicting the standing figure of a heroic woman. The choice of subject was left entirely to the creator of each work. As a result, the paintings form a visually cohesive group without diminishing the individuality of the artists.

Contemporary and historical women, deities, and conceptual figures are featured, including Bella Abzug - the Candidate, a portrait of the American Congresswoman and social reformer painted by Alice Neel; Betty Friedan as the Prophet, a portrayal of the influential author of "The Feminine Mystique" by June Blum; Marianne Moore, the American poet by Betty Holliday; Frida Kahlo, the celebrated Mexican artist, by Shirley Gorelick; Artemisia Gentileschi, the 17th century Italian Baroque artist, by May Stevens; Joan of Arc, the sainted 15th century French military heroine, by Elsa M. Goldsmith; Lilith, the rebellious first wife of Adam, by Sylvia Sleigh; God, a female manifestation of the creator of the universe, by Cynthia Mailman; Durga, the powerful Hindu goddess, by Diana Kurz; Womanhero, a conceptual embodiment of female strength and power, by Martha Edelheit; and Self-Portrait as Superwoman (Woman as Culture Hero) by Sharon Wybrants.

Rowan University Art Gallery West is located in Westby Hall, 201 Mullica Hill Rd., Glassboro, NJ. Please visit www.rowan.edu/artgallery for directions and parking information.

Admission to the gallery, lecture, and reception is free and open to the public. Regular gallery hours are Monday – Friday, 10 am to 5 pm; and Saturday, 12 to 4 pm. For more information, call 856-256-4521, email arts@rowan.edu, or visit www.rowan.edu/artgallery.

Two of the paintings included in the exhibit are on loan and presented courtesy of Ryan Lee Gallery and a private collector. The other paintings, which are part of the university’s permanent art collection, were generously donated in order to preserve The Sister Chapel for future generations.

Support for programming at Rowan University Art Galleries has been made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.