Howardena Pindell (American, b. 1943) is an African American artist who is currently the focus of a career survey exhibition organized by Naomi Beckwith, Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator at the MCA, and Valerie Cassel Oliver, Sydney and Frances Lewis Curator at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Despite Pindell’s lengthy career—filled with technical and conceptual innovations in the field of abstract art—her work is not as well-known as many of the white men and women of her generation.

Untitled #20 (Dutch Wives Circled and Squared) is a stunning example of Pindell’s pioneering work. This large-scale painting was made through a series of processes not typically associated with abstract painting. First, Pindell cut a canvas into squares, then she sewed it back together—an act that has distinct feminist undertones, as hand sewing is traditionally considered a feminine craft, in contrast to painting as a male-dominated field of creativity. From there, she layered the canvas with paper circles from a hole punch, acrylic paint, glitter, and other bits of paper. The result is a warm, scintillating field of color with rhythmic pops of blue, red, and pink created by the hole punches, and the thick layers of paint she stenciled onto the canvas. Of works such as this, Pindell has said, “in graduate school I remember that a woman artist would be criticized if she used pink. If a man used pink it was considered a mix of red and white. . . . When I noticed this, I started using the things that I was told not to use. Glitter. Pink. This was my way of resisting.” Pindell’s Untitled #20, and her larger body of work, are a testament to the possibilities of breaking free of the rules, defying gender norms, and walking one’s own path faithfully.