A crowd gathers for a presentation at the opening of Blanche Lazzell: Becoming an American Modernist.
The Art Museum of West Virginia University is debuting its first traveling exhibition, Blanche Lazzell: Becoming an American Modernist.
Blanche Lazzell was born in 1878 in Maidsville, West Virginia, just outside Morgantown. She graduated with an art degree from WVU in 1905, before continuing her studies in New York and Paris. She later moved to Provincetown, Massachusetts, where she co-founded the Provincetown Printers and became famous for her white-line printmaking.
As an early American modernist, Lazzell’s works were some of the first to include cubism and abstraction. Her colorful prints and paintings often included flowers and floral designs, reflecting her love of gardening.
“The artwork speaks for itself. She was innovative for her time, and her composition and color usage make her work appear surprisingly fresh almost 70 years after her death,” said Robert Bridges, curator for the Art Museum of WVU.
Some of Lazzell's artwork prepared to leave the Art Museum of WVU for the touring exhibition.
Though she was a well-respected figure in advancing the American modernist art style, she is underrecognized compared to others in her field. Bridges said this is likely due to the higher popularity of painting and sculpture over printmaking, as well as her refusal to rely on the support or promotion of a partner. After she passed away in 1956, the art from her Provincetown studio was given to her extended family in West Virginia.
“When people encounter Blanche Lazzell’s art and learn a little of her history, they often ask why she isn’t more widely recognized. Her career as an artist is so interesting because it traverses many historically significant art events and movements of the first half of the twentieth century,” Bridges said.
Blanche Lazzell: Becoming an American Modernist features a documentary about her career and the largest exhibition of Lazzell’s art to date with more than 60 of her works from the Art Museum of WVU’s permanent collection. The Art Museum of WVU has one of the largest collections of Lazzell’s art and received a gift last summer to continue its expansion.
The exhibit opened at the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Maryland.
While Blanche Lazzell: Becoming an American Modernist is the Art Museum of WVU’s first touring exhibition, Bridges hopes it won’t be the last.
“We hope this is the start of actively sharing our collection with more museums. It is important for the rest of the country to know about our museum and the art in our collection here at WVU,” he said.
The Art Museum of WVU partnered with the Art Bridges Foundation in 2022 to bring this tour to life. Art Bridges was established in 2017 to expand art access across the United States. Through various programs, it provides financial and strategic support to museums, allowing for larger exhibitions and greater community engagement. The partnership between Art Bridges and the Art Museum of WVU is one of four established over the past several years. The organization also supported the Bridge Ahead Initiative, which helped the museum connect with the community during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Collaboration for Ongoing Visitor Surveys (COVES). In January, the Art Museum joined the organization’s Access for All program, a three-year initiative to support community programs.
“Art Bridges is an invaluable partner with the Lazzell tour, and we just could not do this without them,” Bridges said. “Their team has so much experience helping plan and organize touring exhibitions. They were also instrumental in getting the art ready to exhibit with reframing and conservation.”
Blanche Lazzell: Becoming an American Modernist began its tour on July 30 at the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Maryland. It will remain there through October 20. From February 6 to April 27, 2025, it will be at The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, before moving to the Provincetown Art Association that summer. The tour will eventually conclude at the Art Museum of WVU.
For more information about the Art Museum of WVU, visit artmuseum.wvu.edu.