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Excavated examples of figurines such as this one from northern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and Syria, made during the Late Halaf Period in the late fifth millennium B.C.E., have been found, often in groups, among domestic refuse.

We were thrilled to read of the discovery of the oldest known Paleolithic female figure and are fascinated by the widely divergent tone of the coverage from the press, as well as blogs and bloggers from all over the world just as our exhibition The Fertile Goddess nears its end. Although the ancient female figures on view in our exhibition are later, dating from the fifth to the first millennium B.C.E., they too have highly stylized forms that emphasize or reduce to abstraction breasts, bellies, and thighs; older Paleolithic figures are represented on a world map in the gallery.

Matthew Yokobosky, Chief Exhibition Designer, and I spent a lot of time positioning the mounts for each figurine. They were very tricky to steady because none of them, except for the seated Halaf figure, were made to stand by themselves.

Its interesting to compare the coverage of this discovery with the more nuanced views expressed in that of the anniversary of the discovery of the Venus of Willendorf last August, when Venus mania gripped Vienna.  The title of the new book produced for the occasion is Die Frau von W. (The Woman of W.).

Tomoko Nakano, Assistant Graphic Designer, looks over the world map of female figurines.  It took months and months to research and assemble a range of figurines from across the world, but we think it really paid off!

This weekend is your last chance to see nine extraordinary examples of ancient female figurines before The Fertile Goddess closes on Sunday, May 31st in the Herstory Gallery of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.

Currently up at Sloan Fine Art, Ladies & Clowns features the oil paintings of Marion Peck. In this solo-exhibition, Peck portrays a series of creepily stylized rendering of fairytale scenes, strange clown portraits, and a couple of seemingly feminist ladies too hilarious to pass up. This show closes June 13th.

(Marion Peck, Fuck You, 2008, 32″ x 26″ and Breck Girl, 2008, 16″ x 13″, both oil on canvas. Courtesy of Sloan Fine Art.)

Körpermuster, a solo-exhibition of the work of Sybille Hotz, opens May 27th at Green Contemporary in Manhattan. Hotz uses imagery of wrestling girls in this show to blur the line between power and submission, adorning the girls with repeated imagery of biological, clinical, and medicinal graphics sewn directly onto her pieces.

(Sybille Hotz, Neuronenohr, 2009, Wool on cotton cloth, 51″ x 62″. Courtesy of Greene Contemporary.)

In its last week at Fred Torres Collaborations, Little Pretty is an exhibition of the artwork of Gretchen Ryan. In her oil portraits, Ryan attempts to imbue her young subjects-all regular participants in child beauty contests-with a sense of their own autonomy despite the culturally constructed ideals imposed on them. Little Pretty closes Saturday, May 23rd.

(Gretchen Ryan, Lucky Six, from Little Pretty. Courtesy of Fred Torres Collaborations.)

Commune, curated by Dominique Nahas opens May 21st at Black and White Gallery’s Chelsea location. Feminist artist Chitra Ganesh will be among the twenty-four nationally and internationally recognized artists included in this exhibition who will examine the varied effects of social bonds.

(Chitra Ganesh, Her Shimmering Pulse, 2008, Digital collage, 66 1/4 x 50 inches. Courtesy of Black and White Gallery.)

Dionysus in Love, a retrospective of the work of artist Marco Silombria is currently up at Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation. Silombria combines classical motifs with modern subject matter in this show, which closes June 27th.

(Marco Silombria, D’après Botticelli, 1984, Acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation.)

Alice Neel: Nudes of the 1930s is currently up at Zwirner & Wirth in Manhattan. Neel’s honesty in her portraits gave individuality back to the idealized female nudes of art history. This show runs concurrently with Alice Neel: Selected Works at David Zwirner, both closing June 20th.

(Alice Neel, Rhoda Myers with Blue Hat, 1930, Oil on canvas, 27 1/2 x 23 1/4 inches. Courtesy of Zwirner & Wirth.)

Strong Suit: Armor as Second Skin shows feminist artist Linda Stein exploring her concept of the body as armor. The show will be up until June 19th at National Association of Women Artists in Manhattan.

(Exhibition announcement image for Strong Suit: Armor as Second Skin. Courtesy of national Association of Women Artists.)

Looped & Layered: A Selection of Contemporary Art from Tehran just opened at Thomas Erben Gallery. Twelve artists are included in this group show, up until June 27th.

(Amirali Ghasemi, from the Coffee House series. Courtesy of Thomas Erben Gallery.)

The True Body Project. Photograph courtesy True Body Project. Copyright Esther Freeman, True Body class of 2005.

This Mother’s Day program has grown out of a yearlong collaboration between the Brooklyn Museum and the True Body Project. Originally based in Cincinnati, the organization began conducting workshops with various New York-based community organizations in 2008 including Women of Storahtelling, We Got Issues, and the Arab American Association of New York to gather stories about women’s relationships with their bodies. The organization’s goal is to utilize art and performance as a means to facilitate promoting positive body image in young girls and women. During April’s Target First Saturday, representatives from the True Body Project shared their art-making process with Museum visitors by placing journals containing workshop participants’ reflections on each chair. The visitors were encouraged to leaf through the journals and read aloud entries that they personally connected with. The audience’s response was amazing with participants ranging in age from 10 to 65 reading to the group. Innovative and inspirational, the activity created a sense of connection across age, background, and experience. The Museum is thrilled to promote art projects which have grown directly out of collective voices and community collaboration. And, in a time of limited resources, this is a wonderful model for organizing quality and meaningful public programs on a shoestring.

The True Body Project captures workshop participants’ reflections on specific prompts in these shared journals. Photograph courtesy of the True Body Project.

This Sunday, May 10, the True Body Project will premiere their site-specific performance Body Language: Brooklyn Museum throughout the galleries. The performers will be responding to different installations in the Museum - including Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, the Museum’s well-known female figurine (known by most as the ‘Bird Lady’) in the Ancient Egyptian Art Galleries, and the Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Pavilion - with their own interpretive dance, new video, original song, and homemade replica sistra . Each piece combines Brooklyn women’s reflections on their bodies and lived experience with responses to the Museum’s artwork.

Take a sneak peak of the brilliant intergenerational theatrical work that will be in the Glass Pavilion. Here, the performers work out their spacing in advance of the program. Photograph by Cameron Anderson.

Many thanks to Lyndsey Beutin in Education for the following, and for her efforts to promote and co-organize the program. The True Body Project performs Body Language: Brookyn Museum throughout the Museum this Sunday, May 10th. For further details about the program please click here.