Diane Kendig

Woman with a Fan: On Maria Blanchard Diane Kendig

Poet and writer Diane Kendig's Woman with a Fan is about Spanish painter Maria Blanchard, a contemporary and friend of Pablo Picasso, Diego Rivera, Juan Gris, and other artists in Paris in the early twentieth century. Feminist critics have recently resurrected her reputation on the grounds that it was overlooked due to her gender and disability, and her most famous painting, Woman with a Fan, now hangs next to Rivera and above Guernica in the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid. Kendig's book presents eighteen poems as well as three essays to broadly explore the complexities of Blanchard's art and life. Several full-color plates of Blanchard's art are included, expanding this book's visual appeal to artists, art enthusiasts, collectors, and the curious.