Ep. 2: Artist on the Edge: A Story About Longing
Artist on the Edge is the story of Annette Nancarrow, an American artist who has remained in the shadows for far too long yet influenced a unique moment in history—1935 through 1955—in Mexico City.
Rosemary Carstens with a painting by Annette Nancarrow in the National Museum of Women in the Arts collection, Washington DC.
Longing is a seductive and subversive mistress. For women born into a life that does not fit their temperament or satisfy their deepest needs, rigid definitions of appropriate behavior, dress, and life pursuits can suffocate. Their differences may be tolerated among friends and family, but there is always the slight stench of disapproval in the air. The qualities they least value or enjoy in themselves are the very ones lauded by those around them.
Longing lives at the edge of the spotlight, a negative space lacking the bold, colorful flush of belonging, acceptance, and engagement that shapes our thinking and our actions. To live at the edge of the spotlight is to be seen only as a silhouette rather than fully defined. It is not unusual for talented, creative women to be relegated to that edge, slipping neither into the light nor into obscurity.
Artist on the Edge is the story of Annette Nancarrow, an American artist who has remained in the shadows for far too long yet influenced a unique moment in history—1935 through 1955—in Mexico City. It was an era when an international group of creative people, whose work would resonate throughout the world for decades to come, gathered to paint, write, sculpt, compose music, discuss politics and act upon them, love and procreate in a free-wheeling, exotic “city of palaces.”
Some few of these people, mostly men, would find themselves at the center of attention—Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, Leon Trotsky, Langston Hughes, Henri Cartier-Bresson, among them. Dozens of others, often women, were also actively producing art. Many were equally talented (some perhaps more so), interacting, creating, and serving as catalysts to the period’s output. Annette Nancarrow was one of these.
An early self-portrait by Annette Nancarrow.
A serious artist and designer, Annette’s paintings drew on the masculine energy of the mural school but incorporated a feminine sensibility all her own. Her work is in collections at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, where her name is inscribed on their wall, and at the Santa Fe Museum of Fine Art. Her bold and innovative jewelry designs have been shown in numerous collections and exhibited at MOMA in New York. Photos of her jewelry appeared in Women’s Wear Daily and in Vogue, and her pieces have been worn by such notable women as Elizabeth Arden, Helena Rubenstein, Frida Kahlo, Anaïs Nin, and Peggy Guggenheim.
Annette’s love of people and her joy at bringing them together created unexpected synergies. It could be said that some important work arose from her presence. Working as an assistant to José Clemente Orozco, one of very few to do so directly, her personal style influenced him in his portrayal of one the most innovative figures in the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. When the compelling black dancer and model Maudelle Bass came to Mexico City in the forties, staying with Annette, Annette arranged private modeling sessions for friends such as Diego Rivera to sketch her. Rivera speaks of these sessions in My Art, My Life (Dove Publications, 1992): “The most interesting of these was a series of nineteen small oils, each depicting a separate movement . . . by the wonderful-bodied American Negro dancer Modelle Boss [sic].”
There is a universal theme in Annette Nancarrow’s personal narrative. Her challenges and struggles correspond to those frequently faced by women in creative fields. Through her eyes, her art work, and her life—often in her own words—you will experience the gaiety, sensual exploration, and thrilling sense of possibility of those years when women helped shape the Mexican muralism movement and the socially conscious art, writing, and politics of the age.
I have chosen to write about Annette Nancarrow because I am passionate about art, the lives of women artists, and Mexico’s golden age of creativity. It’s the life I would have loved to live. People’s creativity fascinates me wherever I find it.
Please take the time to read all of the episodes and then, if Annette’s story intrigues you, I’d love to hear your thoughts through the comment section at the very end, following the interview posts.