b'IhighlightAnita Steckel Estate GiftIN SPRING 2019 SCMA RECEIVED AN IMPORTANT State University, Chico, approached SCMA in late 2018 gift of 44 objects from the estate of Anita Steckel (1930 to offer a gift, citing the museums 2015 purchase of 62 2012). This gift, several years in the making, reflects the Steckels Giant Woman (Empire State) and frequent use museums demonstrated interest in deepening theof this art in teaching as a signal of SCMAs committed collection of art by pioneering figu es in feminist art circlesstewardship of the artists work. in the mid-20th century. Born and raised in New York City,Middleman provided a list of 125 objects Steckel studied at Cooper Union and the Art Studentsspanning Steckels career. The museum took this League. Her 1963 series Mom Art (a sly repudiation ofopportunity to further engage students, faculty and staff Pop Art) established her commitment to using collage,with the process of collection building. Students from ephemera and appropriation to critique the male-dom- Visiting Assistant Professor Emma Silvermans course inated power structure of contemporary American art.ARH 291: Intersectional Feminisms in American Art She consistently used erotic imagery and content towere invited to study and discuss the works in relation signal the artistic double standards both in the use ofto what they had learned. The group winnowed the nude women as subjects and the taboo against sexualfield to 44 objects including paintings, prints, photo -content. After her exhibition The Feminist Art of Sexualraphy, ephemera and ceramics, representing Steckels Politics (1972) at Rockland Community College causedvaried practice from the early 1960s to just prior to her an uproar, she founded the group Fight Censorship todeath in 2012. galvanize the support of like-minded feminist artists suchWith this gift, SCMA now holds the largest as Judith Bernstein, Joan Semmel and Hannah Wilke. institutional collection of Steckels work, furthering our Rachel Middleman, executor of the estate andcommitment to promoting the study and preservation an associate professor of art history at the Californiaof the work of important under-recognized artists. above:Steckel New York Woman Collages Poster, 1973. Offset lithograph on thin, smooth, white paper. Gift of the Estate of Anita Steckel.The Estate of Anita Steckel acquisition highlights'