Recently, the New York-based Poster House held an exhibition called "Ethel Reed: I Am My Own Property." Curated by Angelina Lippert, chief curator of Poster House, the exhibition presents Ethel Reed's artwork in a male-dominated art age, Ethel Reed's thinking, cognition, presentation, criticism of art and her struggle with life, class, and patriarchy.

Young fame, genius poster designer, beauty, these are the labels of Ethel Reed in the eyes of the world. She was brilliant and mysteriously disappeared, like a flash in the pan, flashing across the starry sky of Art Nouveau, magnificent and splendid, and became one of the most legendary female artists in art history. Ethel Reed was born in March 1874 into a poor family in the suburbs of Newburyport, Massachusetts, USA. Ethel Reed was gifted and spent most of her time teaching herself to paint.

In 1890, Ethel Reed moved with his mother to Boston, which at that time had become the center of the publishing industry, bringing together all kinds of elites in publishing, art and design. As a printed matter with vivid images and bright colors, a good poster can not only promote the sales of goods, but also become the object of people's collection. Artists are passionate about poster creation, and the publishing industry is constantly looking for talented artists. In the winter of 1894, a friend who worked at the Boston Sunday Herald visited Ethel Reed and came across Ethel Reed's portrait, and recommended it to the Boston Sunday Herald. In the years that followed, Ethel Reed became America's most famous female graphic designer, writing for the Boston Sunday Herald, New Illustrated Magazine, and children's books, the story of Arabella and Araminta”, the poetry book “Treehouse and Other Poems”, the novel “Miss Traumere”, the play “The Madman and the Saint” and many other publications have completed the design of posters, covers, illustrations and other publications. It also made Ethel Reed a prolific designer between 1895 and 1896, when she was only 21 years old and was hailed by critics as the shining star of American graphic design.

During this period, Ethel Reed was not only full of enthusiasm and inspiration in creation, but also keen to participate in various social activities and made many artist friends. Among them were the renowned photographers Fred Holland Day and Frances Benjamin Johnston, who took a series of photographs of Ethel Reed that became her best image promotion. Ethel Reed gradually became a celebrity artist in Boston. At this time, fate played a joke on her, which also became a turning point in Ethel Reed's artistic career. Later, Ethel Reed's marriage to the Impressionist painter Philip Leslie Hale broke down. Ethel was deeply hurt and decided to take his mother to Europe to relax.

Ethel went to London and started a new life. The British avant-garde journal The Yellow Book offered Ethel an olive branch and invited her to illustrate the journal. In 1896, Ethel also designed a poster for the novel "The Pursuit of the Golden Lady" for the writer Richard LeGallienne, which became the last poster of the young Ethel. During this time, Ethel fell in love with Richard le Gallien, a relationship that was fruitless because Richard was already married. Ethel and Richard had a child, but Ethel was then abandoned by Richard. Since then, "The Yellow Book" was also announced to be suspended in 1897. Ethel was hit hard, and her works increasingly showed sad emotions. The elegant and romantic women in the posters she designed were bald-headed "female clowns", such as her illustrated works “Joker Love” and “The Sleeping Clown” published in journals. These negative emotions become obstacles for Ethel, who relies on state to create, and as life gradually gets into trouble, Ethel's creation becomes more and more difficult.

Ethel Reed is known as the female artist who disappeared in the mist. Her life was short and dramatic. She became famous at 21, disappeared at 24, and died young at 38. She is very successful as a female artist, not only talented, but also recognized by the outside world at a young age. However, as her life experiences and feelings changed, the inspiration and good state she relied on for her creation gradually became worse, and gradually disappeared in the art world. Today we re-examine Ethel Reed's art, her works are full of her thoughts and insights on life. In an era when women were considered a second gender, Ethel Reed believed that women should be independent and should not survive by pleasing men.

Ethel Reed's posters and illustrations are mostly designed with female images and delicate flowers, inspired by Art Nouveau and Japanese Ukiyo-e art, using curvaceous lines like vines, and flowers are often used in the background. Plants that emphasize the contrast between the characters and the background. At the same time, these works are also period-specific, smaller in size than European works, and adopt a simple and subtle graphic language that reflects the American culture of the time. Compared with contemporary American male graphic designers, Ethel's work is more personal, almost all women, and these women are also full of her own shadow, these coded and symbolized images also reflect Egypt. Ethel's story and the general challenges of being a female artist, in turn, make Ethel's work seem more modern and avant-garde than those of her peers. Among them, a representative work is her poster for the Boston Sunday Herald of February 24, 1895, which depicts an elegant woman reading a newspaper, with three poppies in the background, and the picture is strongly contrasted.

In addition, there is a poster she created for the children's book "The Story of Arabella and Araminta", the center of the picture is two blond twin girls - Arabella and Araminta, the expressions have subtle differences, suggesting that They have different personalities. The background features fiery red poppies with decorative lines and a red and black font that echoes the central pattern. The female artist group Guerilla Girls asks in their work: "Why are less than 5% of artists in modern art women, yet 85% of nudes are women?" This question points to the two realities that being a female artist is more difficult than being male in a male-dominated art world and that the female body is the object of gaze.

Ethel Reed, as a female artist, is well aware of these two points, so on the one hand, she has shaped her identity as a "charming female artist" through performance and imitation; In exploring the femininity of her time by portraying different female figures, she challenges the male gaze and stereotypes of femininity.
British writer Woolf said: "People should not be still things that are placed in a vase for people to watch, but a rhythm that spreads on the grassland and dances with the wind. Life is not an arrangement, but a pursuit. The meaning of life may never have an answer. But you must also enjoy this life without answers." Ethel Reed shows us not only her creations that are not inferior to those of contemporary male artists, but also her pursuit of women's independence, life and art. enthusiasm.

Article Source:艺术与设计

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