Mary Beth Edelson
| Mary Beth Edelson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Mary Beth Johnson 1933 East Chicago, Indiana |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | DePauw University, School of the Art Institute of Chicago |
| Known for | Painting, collage, performances |
| Movement | Feminist art movement |
Mary Beth Edelson (born 1933) is an American artist and pioneer in the Feminist art movement, deemed one of the notable "first generation feminist artists." She was also active in the civil rights movement. She has created paintings, photographs, collages, murals, and drawings. Edelson is a printmaker, book artist, photographer, creator of performance art, and an author. Her works have been shown at museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Mary Beth Johnson was born in East Chicago, Indiana, in 1933 to parents who were involved in their community. They nurtured her interest in art and activism, which started when she was about 14. She had two children: a daughter from her second marriage and a son from her third marriage to Alfred H. Edelson, who was the CEO of Rytex. Robert Stackhouse, also an artist, lived with Mary Beth Edelson for 27 years in her live/work loft in Soho following the end of her third marriage.
She lived in New York from the mid-1950s, then lived in Indianapolis, IN and owned an art gallery until 1968, when she moved to Washington, D.C. She returned to New York in the 1970s.
From 1951 to 1955, Edelson attended DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, during which time she also studied at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago (1953–1954). Her works were exhibited in 1955 at an exhibition for senior-year students. One of her paintings was deemed unseemly for "ministers and small children." Her works were asked to be pulled from the show by angry faculty members, which resulted in protests at the university.
After her School of the Art Institute graduation, she moved to New York, where she enrolled in a graduate program at New York University. In 1958 she received her Master of Arts degree.
In the second half of the 1950s she was active in the emergent feminist movement as well as the civil rights movement. In 1968 she established the country's first Conference for Women in the Visual Arts in Washington, D.C. Edelson presented her first feminist speech at the Herron Art Museum’68, Misses NYC.
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