Pioneer Activists is an ongoing series of artworks by Suzanne Benton. Consisting largely of monoprints with Chine collé where the artist references suffragists, feminists, writers and educators from the 19th century and beyond. These works embody the artist’s stellar theme of bringing past to present.
Mabel Loomis Todd, monoprint with Chine collé, 10 3/4"x 8 3/4," 1992
(1856 – 1932)
Raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Washington, D. C., Mabel Loomis Todd studied music at the New England Conservatory.
In 1879 she married astronomer David Peck Todd and moved to Amherst, Massachusetts where her husband began teaching at Amherst Collége. While there, Todd became acquainted with the Emily Dickinson and read some of her poems, although the two never met face-to-face. After Dickinson’s death, Lavinia Dickenson, the poet’s sister, approached Todd for help in publishing the poems. With the assistance of Dickinson’s literary mentor, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Todd edited the first volume of Dickinson’s verse, released in 1890.
The Women’s Rights Historical Park exhibited the growing series in 1995 during the 75th anniversary of women’s suffrage. The Oberlin College Library offered their photo archive of early women attendees and graduates that also including African American women. The artist exhibited 19th Century Women at Oberlin College, a collaboration between Oberlin College and FAVA Art Center in 1996. Oberlin subsequently purchased the more than 20 works they keep on rotating display throughout college buildings. In 2018, the Oberlin College library, changed its name to the Mary Church Terrell Library, and Suzanne received a commission to create a large monoprint using photos of this pioneer African American Civil Rights activist. An exhibit of the library’s holdings of Suzanne’s monoprints were exhibited at the official re- naming ceremony.
Most of the artworks in this series have been acquired. The Women’s Rights National Historical Park, Seneca Falls, NY; the Radcliffe/Harvard Schlesinger Library, Cambridge, MA; Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH; Central Connecticut College, New Britain, CT; and the Ridgebury Congregational Church, Ridgefield, CT keep the works on permanent display. Others from the series are owned by the Allyn Museum, Oberlin, OH; St Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts, St Petersburg, FL; Lyman Allen Museum, New London, CT; and the Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT.
Suzanne Benton is a native New Yorker who has shared her many-faceted art for over 60 years and in 32 countries. Exhibiting widely (150+ solo shows and representation in museums, and private collections worldwide), she’s a highly recognized metal mask maker and mask performance artist, printmaker, painter, lecturer, and workshop leader. A trans-culturalist and feminist pioneer based in the States, her venues have stretched from New York City to villages in remote parts of Africa, India, and Nepal, and to philosophy and education portals from Calcutta to Cambridge. A former Fulbright Scholar (India), she’s received many grants and artist residencies, including numerous hostings by the cultural arm of US Embassies. Her unique artwork has carried her worldwide since 1976, sharing her work in Bali, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Canada, Hong Kong, Denmark, Egypt, England, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, South Korea, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkey, Yugoslavia. Author of The Art of Welded Sculpture and various articles, Suzanne is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Art, and Feminists Who Changed America 1963-1975, Edited by Barbara Love, 2006.