FIGGE program highlights contributions of Female ARTIST and educator 

The Figge Art Museum presents a symposium on Mercedes Matter (1913-2001), Abstract Expressionist artist and founder of the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, from 2-4 pm Saturday, October 2. The symposium is offered in conjunction with the Figge exhibition Mercedes Matter: A Retrospective Exhibition, organized through Mark Borghi Fine Art Inc. in New York City. This exhibition is part of an increasing and significant art historical trend to examine the work of important women within the Abstract Expressionist movement, such as Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock’s wife, and Hedda Sterne.
 
The symposium will include two lectures, followed by discussion. Dr. Ellen G. Landau, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, Case Western Reserve University, and curator of the exhibition, will present the lecture “What a Picture Should Mean: Hans Hofmann, Mercedes Matter and the Role of Drawing in Modernism.” Dr. Michael Zakian, director of the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University and co-author with Landau of the monograph Mercedes Matter, will present the lecture “Mercedes Matter and the Modernist Still Life.” Dr. Gregory Gilbert, senior curator at the Figge Art Museum, will serve as moderator. 
 
Admission to the museum and program is $7. College professors and students receive free admission.