The Sister Chapel

"The Sister Chapel" in Glassboro, NJ. Photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Inquirer's story, March 30, 2016

On a recent drive to Santa Fe, I listened to Katy Hessel's podcast "The Great Women Artists" episode 152, where she interviews Andrew Hottle on Sylvia Sleigh and her work, including a collaborative piece called "The Sister Chapel" from 1978.

Have you ever heard of it, dear reader? I'm guessing not because it was only on view from 1978 to 1980. But Andrew Hottle fell in love with it, wrote a book about it, and worked tirelessly to bring it back to life in 2016. Now it is part of the permanent collection at the Rowan University Art Gallery in Glassboro, New Jersey.

If I lived closer, I would get in my car right now to go see it.

Why?

In 1974, artist Ilise Greenstein enlisted a group of twelve artists to help bring to life her vision of a hall of fame for women. The work’s title is an obvious reference to Michelangelo‘s fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, but the figures enshrined in "The Sister Chapel" represent important women from history, religion, and myth, rather than Biblical figures. The artists didn't have financial support and created the paintings with their own money because they were excited by the vision of the project and believed feminism was an important topic.

The artists each painted a woman they admired on canvases 9 feet tall and 5 feet wide. Then, in the installation, they are displayed together, in a circle, inside a nylon tent and under a hand-painted abstract sky by Ilise with a mirror in the middle so viewers literally become part of it. Another artist designed the tent.

The women that the artists chose are all as fascinating as their portraits are. In one, Joan of Arc is seen as she struggled to accept the call to battle forces much greater than herself - something the artists related to as she struggled for recognition as a female artist in the 1970s, when women were laughed out of galleries and museums.

Here are the paintings in the installation:

• Bella Abzug—the Candidate (1976) by Alice Neel

• Betty Friedan as the Prophet (1976) by June Blum

• Marianne Moore (1977) by Betty Holliday

• Joan of Arc (1976) by Elsa M. Goldsmith

• Artemisia Gentileschi (1976) by May Stevens

• Frida Kahlo (1976) by Shirley Gorelick

• God (1977) by Cynthia Mailman

• Durga (1977) by Diana Kurz

• Lilith (1976) by Sylvia Sleigh

• Womanhero (1977) by Martha Edelheit

• Self-Portrait as Superwoman (Woman as Culture Hero) (1977–78) by Sharon Wybrants*Note: this painting is a recreation by the artist because the original was lost

  
  

In an interview, Andrew Hottle said, “Many of them [the artists] did not imagine that this would ever resurface. It was buried for so long that they thought maybe no one would ever find an interest in it.”

Personally, I love that this was a collaborative project - anyone who has been involved with a collaborative project knows how difficult they are - and that is women celebrating women.

If YOU are interested in learning more about it and seeing all of the artwork, I highly recommend this video from 2022 narrated by Andrew Hottle: