Sonoma Valley Museum of Art (SVMA) Presents Labyrinth of Forms: Women and Abstraction, 1930-1950

The Sonoma Valley Museum of Art (SVMA) is pleased to present Labyrinth of Forms: Women and Abstraction, 1930-1950, on display Saturday, May 13 through Sunday, September 3. Labyrinth of Forms: Women and Abstraction, 1930–1950, was organized by the Whitney Museum of Art, New York, and celebrates the groundbreaking abstract art made by women in the first half of the twentieth century. 

During the 1930s and 1940s, abstraction began to gain momentum as an exciting, fresh approach to modern artmaking in the United States, and a small contingent of American artists dedicated themselves to it. Labyrinth of Forms, a title inspired by an Alice Trumbull Mason work in the exhibition, alludes to the sense of discovery that drove these artists to establish a visual language reflecting the advances of the twentieth century. 

A significant number of American abstractionists were women, and their efforts propelled the formal, technical, and conceptual evolution of abstract art in this country. A few, such as Lee Krasner and Louise Nevelson, have been duly recognized, but most remain overlooked despite their contributions. Labyrinth of Forms highlights both the achievements of these artists and the ways in which works on paper served as sites for important exploration and innovation. This is the first time this group of works has been exhibited together outside of the Whitney Museum of American Art.