Patsy Ann Norvell (1942–2013) was an American visual artist who worked in

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called ...

and

public art Public art is art in any Media (arts), media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and phy ...

. She was a pioneering feminist artist active in the

Women's movement The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for radical and liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality between men and women. Such iss ...

since 1969. In 1972 she was a founder of

A.I.R. Gallery A.I.R. Gallery (Artists in Residence) is the first all female artists cooperative gallery in the United States. It was founded in 1972 with the objective of providing a professional and permanent exhibition space for women artists during a time i ...

which was the first cooperative gallery in the U.S. that showed solely women's work. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in the U.S. and abroad. She received numerous grants, awards and residencies for her achievements, including the

Pollock-Krasner Foundation The Pollock-Krasner Foundation was established in 1985 for the purpose of providing financial assistance to individual working artists of established ability. It was established at the bequest of Lee Krasner, who was an American abstract expression ...

and the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

. She created permanent public art works for th
New York City subway system
designed and created lobby and plaza installations in Los Angeles, CA, New Brunswick, NJ, Bridgeport, CT, and Bethesda, MD. Her work has received historical and critical acclaim, and has been written about in books, journals and newspapers including, ''Art in the Land: A Critical Anthology of Environmental Art'', in

Sculpture (magazine) ''Sculpture'' is an art magazine, published in Jersey City, NJ, by the International Sculpture Center. Described as "the essential source of information, criticism, and dialogue on all forms of contemporary sculpture internationally," ''Sculpture ...

, the

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

and numerous other publications.

Education

She attended Oakwood School in Poughkeepsie, New York and graduated from there in 1960. Novell received her Bachelor of Art degree from

Bennington College Bennington College is a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont. Founded in 1932 as a women's college, it became co-educational in 1969. It claims to be the first college to include visual and performing arts as an equal partner in ...

in art and mathematics, and a Masters of Art from

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

in sculpture.

Involvement in the Women's Movement

Norvell was a prominent figure in the

Women's Movement The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for radical and liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality between men and women. Such iss ...

, actively participating since 1969. Norvell was involved in several artist consciousness raising groups to raise awareness of issues of gender inequality to the greater public. She went on to start consciousness-raising groups of her own. Norvell exhibited in ''13 Women'' show in 1972 in New York City. Also in 1972 she co-founded

the first women's cooperative gallery. A.I.R. Gallery is a permanent exhibition space that supports an open exchange of ideas and risk–taking by women artists in order to provide support and visibility. Her image is included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by

Mary Beth Edelson Mary Beth Edelson (born Mary Elizabeth Johnson) (6 February 1933 - 20 April 2021) was an American artist and pioneer of the feminist art movement, deemed one of the notable "first-generation feminist artists." Edelson was a printmaker, book art ...

Notable works

Norvell's early work focussed on the natural world and how she could recapture nature for internal spaces. She worked mainly with painted steel and later with glass and wood. She also worked with autobiographical references, approached using nontraditional techniques. Her 1973 work, ''Hair Quilt'' is a 5' by 8' wall piece made from clippings of her friends hair and scotch "magic" tape. The hair is arranged in patterns occupying 20 quilted squares. In 1979 Norvell wanted to further explore her interest in outdoor versus indoor spaces. She used glass as a material the explores volume, limits surface and transparency. In 1979 she created ''Glass Garden. Glass Garden'' functions as a greenhouse or pure structure that can be indoors or outdoors. Her use of glass continued, employing methods of sandblasting it with botanical motifs. Norvell was asked to create several public art installations, including a piece at the Beverley and the Courtelyou subway stations in the borough of Brooklyn in New York city. The work uses a geometric design in the fence that is sandblasted into the glass with images of ivy. The overall design includes sand-blasted

bay windows A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. Types Bay window is a generic term for all protruding window constructions, regardless of whether they are curved or angular, or r ...

, arched windows, stairway windows and painted steel fencing. Her other permanent installations include Newsstands in Manhattan, and plaza and lobby installations in Los Angeles, CA; New Brunswick, NJ; Bridgeport, CT; and Bethesda, MD, among others.

Exhibitions

In 1972 her work was exhibited in a pioneering show of women art, ''13 Women'', that originated in New York City. In 1973, Norvell worked with others to found the

, the first women's cooperative gallery in the United States. She had a retrospective exhibition at the

Vassar College Art Gallery Vassar may refer to: * Vassar Brothers Medical Center * Vassar College * 1312 Vassar, an asteroid People * John Ellison Vassar (1813–1878), American lay preacher and missionary * Matthew Vassar (1792–1868), American brewer and merchant, founder ...

, entitled, Patsy Norvell: Ten Years 1969 - 1979. She has shown at the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

, A.I.R. Gallery (New York, NY),

MoMA P.S. 1 MoMA PS1 is a contemporary art institution located in Court Square in the Long Island City neighborhood in the borough of Queens, New York City. In addition to its exhibitions, the institution organizes the Sunday Sessions performance series, the ...

(Long Island City, NY), Wallace Art Gallery, SUNY Old Westbury, Hillwood Art Gallery, (Long Island University). During her lifetime, she had thirteen solo exhibitions, and participated in 98 group exhibitions.

Permanent collections

Norvell's work is in the collection of the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

and the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Norvell, Patsy 1942 births 2013 deaths American women artists Sculptors from South Carolina Feminist artists Bennington College alumni Hunter College alumni 21st-century American women