Kiki Smith Celebrated at MacDowell

Alexander Calder Kiki Smith Ellsworth Kelly Edward Hopper Bill Jacobson SFMOMA Considers Unusual Expansion Plan A Showdown for Doig at Christie’s Pompidou Plans a Roving Museum

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In honor of the Edward MacDowell Medal’s 50th anniversary, program directors at the artist colony offered the public a chance to participate in a project called “Make Art,” which ultimately resulted in a large-scale outdoor structure consisting mostly of string and aided by nearby trees. The brainchild of Maine-based artists John Bisbee and Wade Kavanaugh, “Make Art” was conceived as a child-friendly endeavor, though was open to the public as a whole, who were invited to the grounds to interact with such varied creatives as writers Donald Antrim, Christine Evans, and Meghan O’Rourke; interdisciplinary artist Joe Winter; architect Fritz Haeg; photographer and five-time MacDowell Fellow Bill Jacobson; and of course, the 2009 honoree, Smith.

Perhaps best known for her moving portrayals of the female form through such disciplines as sculpture, printmaking, and drawing, Smith became the 14th visual artist to receive the medal, following in the footsteps of recipients Alexander Calder, Edward Hopper, and Ellsworth Kelly. Born in Germany but raised in New Jersey, Smith has had her work shown in more than 150 solo shows at institutions including the Guggenheim, Smithsonian, and Whitney museums and the Walker Art Center, and was in 2005 elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

In 1997, MacDowell itself was singled out for an award, the National Medal of Arts, for its goal of helping to nurture and inspire the country’s contemporary artists.