At a time when women artists were ignored, repressed, and/or relegated to second-class status, one man, Earl Stendahl, championed their cause and made his Los Angeles gallery a showplace for fine art that just happened to be created by females.
Author April Dammann will share stories and visuals from the 106-year-old archive of her family’s historic Stendahl Gallery, Los Angeles. Thanks to Stendahl’s extraordinary eye and appreciation of local talent, female artists ignored by other dealers were put front and center in his exhibitions, including solo shows, as early as 1930.
An award-winning screenwriter and producer of plays in Los Angeles, Dammann turned to non-fiction to chronicle the story of her husband’s grandfather in her first book, “Exhibitionist: Earl Stendahl, Art Dealer as Impresario.” She holds degrees from UCLA, the University of Rochester, and La Sorbonne, and she is active in the Writers Guild of America, Women in Theatre, and Hedgebrook, the global community of women writers.
This program is presented in conjunction with Pasadena Museum of History’s current exhibition, “Something Revealed; California Women Artists Emerge, 1860-1960.” Doors open at 5 p.m. on Jan. 31 to allow ticketholders to view the galleries prior to the lecture.
Ticket prices are $10 for members and $12 for general admission. They include entrance to exhibition galleries. Pasadena Museum of History is located at 470 W. Walnut St. in Pasadena. Free parking is available in the Museum lot and on Walnut St. For further information, please visit pasadenahistory.org or call (626) 577-1660, ext. 10.
