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Little Taste Outside of Love, 2007. In her signature collage-like style, she replaces the traditional reclining white woman with a black pop culture icon. "Thomas takes the subjects of her paintings beyond the white gaze upon white bodies," Karnes says. This is the largest group exhibition that Karnes has curated to date. She began planning the show early in the pandemic, 50 years after Linda Nochlin's historic essay Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? was published. Karnes organizes the artworks by theme: Selfhood, The Body, Nature Personified, and Color as Portrait. "These are broad categories that I made while thinking about the conceptual underpinnings of each work," she says. "But the themes are fluid, and any of these women could be in all of the categories." Selfhood is about interior psychology, while The Body conveys a message through physical features. Nature Personified elaborates on women as a symbol of creation, and Color as Portrait explores the use of color in finding identity. Displaying works from different generations side by side allows visitors to grasp how the culture and perspective have shifted surrounding certain topics. Much has changed over the half- century since Nochlin raised her famous question about the lack of striking female masterpieces. Karnes points to the rising prominence of queer art as an example. "There are depictions that are not overtly about sexuality, but they do show intimate moments between women who are romantic partners, in domestic settings, that kind of thing," she says. Today, women are slowly being released from their binary definitions, and that's reflected in the art. On display is Apolonia Sokol's oil-on- linen painting Le Printemps, 2020, which offers a fetish-free depiction of nine women, all trans or gender fluid. Karnes says, "With this exhibition, I wanted to leave it open." The beauty of "Women Painting Women" lies in its inconclusiveness: All women, regardless of their identity, can see themselves in the work. themodern.org. CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: COLLECTION ALTURAS FOUNDATION, SAN ANTONIO; © HOPE GANGLOFF, COURTESY THE ARTIST AND SUSAN INGLETT GALLERY, NYC. COLLECTION ISABELLA WOLFSON TOWNSLEY, LONDON; © SOMAYA CRITCHLOW, COURTESY THE ARTIST AND MAXIMILLIAN WILLIAM, LONDON. PRIVATE COLLECTION, © AMY SHERALD, COURTESY THE ARTIST AND HAUSER & WIRTH, PHOTO BY JOSEPH HYDE. Previous page, from top: Emma Amos' Three Figures, 1967. Marilyn Minter's Red Flare, 2018-2019. This page, clockwise from top le: Hope Gangloff's Queen Jane Approximately, 2011. Somaya Critchlow's Untitled (Pink Hair), 2019. Amy Sherald's A Midsummer Aernoon Dream, 2020. (Continued from page 74) 76