Art Review: ‘150 Years of Women at Yale’

‘So exquisite, so balanced,” I said, as close to purring as I get, while I assessed the first big gallery of On the Basis of Art: 150 Years of Women at Yale. I see so many exhibitions and, cynic that I’ve become, can smell a manipulative, or, worse, a flabby rat early if not immediately. Most shows are fine enough, with adequate starts, but this gallery had very, very good art presented with just the right touch. Art and placement combined to create a feeling of conversation and refinement, quiet confidence and, here and there, sprezzatura. That’s rare. “There are lots of duchesses and countesses but only one Coco Chanel,” said Coco herself, who knew something about presentation.

Though Yale first admitted women as undergraduates in 1970, its art school, which opened in 1869, taught women from the beginning. The 50th anniversary of one and 150th anniversary of the other occasioned this look at women artists who studied there. The 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote was in 2020. The title of the show draws from the 18th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act’s Title IX, which forbid denying rights “on the basis of sex.”

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

‘So exquisite, so balanced,” I said, as close to purring as I get, while I assessed the first big gallery of On the Basis of Art: 150 Years of Women at Yale. I see so many exhibitions and, cynic that I’ve become, can smell a manipulative, or, worse, a flabby rat early if not immediately. Most shows are fine enough, with adequate starts, but this gallery had very, very good art presented with just the right touch. Art and placement combined to create a feeling of conversation and refinement, quiet confidence and, here and there, sprezzatura. That’s rare. “There are lots of duchesses and countesses but only one Coco Chanel,” said Coco herself, who knew something about presentation.

Though Yale first admitted women as undergraduates in 1970, its art school, which opened in 1869, taught women from the beginning. The 50th anniversary of one and 150th anniversary of the other occasioned this look at women artists who studied there. The 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote was in 2020. The title of the show draws from the 18th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act’s Title IX, which forbid denying rights “on the basis of sex.”