Bowdoin College Museum of Art - There Is a Woman in Every Color: Black Women in Art

There Is a Woman in Every Color: Black Women in Art

Mildred Howard

American (b. San Francisco, California, 1945)

Mildred Howard is known for her mixed-media assemblages and sculptural installations. Her parents were activists, participating in labor unions, and civil rights issues within their community. Howard went on to be a member of civil rights organizations and was a part of protests against segregation in schools in Berkeley, California. In the 1980s, Howard began to manipulate windows from storefronts and churches as installation pieces. These evolved into Howard’s constructed habitats, where people could interact within built environments. In 1990 Howard created a house made from engraved bottles and sand. The piece was exhibited in the atrium of the Afro-American Museum in Los Angeles. Most recently, in 2019, Howard exhibited Tap: Investigation of Memory at the Oakland Museum of California. The show displayed an installation that explored church culture, gentrification, dance, and the complex dynamism surrounding lived identity.

Thirty-Eight Double Dee (from 10 x 10: Ten Women, Ten Prints, a serigraph portfolio), 1995

MILDRED HOWARD (American, born 1945), Thirty-Eight Double Dee (from 10 x 10: Ten Women, Ten Prints, a serigraph portfolio), 1995, silkscreen on paper, 22 x 22 in. (55.88 x 55.88 cm), Archival Collection of Marion Boulton Stroud and Acadia Summer Arts Program, Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Gift from the Marion Boulton “Kippy” Stroud Foundation, Accession number needed. © Courtesy the Artist and Anglim/Trimble, San Francisco. Digital reproduction by Sean BurrusMildred Howard (American, born 1945)

silkscreen on paper,

22 x 22 in. (55.88 x 55.88 cm)

Archival Collection of Marion Boulton Stroud and Acadia Summer Arts Program, Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Gift from the Marion Boulton “Kippy” Stroud Foundation, 2018.10.8.4. © Courtesy the Artist and Anglim/Trimble, San Francisco.

Working in the tradition of collage and assemblage, Mildred Howard brings this practice to bear in her printed work, Thirty-Eight Double Dee. Without including a figural representation of the female body, Howard uses abstract objects to express ideas related to womanhood and femininity, pairing a gauzy, floral-printed white bra with a two-dozen carton of eggs. The title of the work, referencing a woman’s bra measurements, helps one understand the connection between these mundane objects. In the absence of a woman’s presence, her metaphorical body is suggested through the intentional placement of the objects. The bra and the full carton of eggs suggest fertility and the role women take as mothers and life sustainers. Of particular importance is the “FRAGILE” warning stamped on the top of the carton, suggesting either fragility of unborn life or offering a critique on the stereotype that women are inherently fragile.

Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine

Bowdoin College Museum of Art