Martha Edelheit facts for kids

Martha Nilsson Edelheit (born September 3, 1931) is an American artist. She was born in New York City. She is also known as Martha Ross Edelheit. Today, she lives in Sweden.

Martha Edelheit is famous for her feminist art from the 1960s and 1970s. This type of art often explores women's experiences. It also shows their strength and challenges.

Early Life and Education

Martha Edelheit was born on September 3, 1931. Her birthplace was New York City. She showed a talent for creative things early on. She first learned to be a musician.

Her grandparents came from Romania. They kept a traditional home. Martha lived in Queens first. Later, at age 10, she moved to the Bronx.

She went to the High School of Music and Art. She studied at the University of Chicago from 1949 to 1951. She also attended New York University in 1954. During that time, she studied art with Michael Loew.

In 1955 and 1956, she studied at Columbia University. There, she learned about art history from Meyer Schapiro. In the mid-1950s, she married Henry Edelheit. He was a medical student.

Art Career and Styles

Martha Edelheit has had a long and varied art career. She often works in different series. Each series explores new styles and ideas.

Her first works were Abstract Works. These were made from 1958 to 1961. Next came her Children's Game series (1960–1962).

She then focused on watercolors from 1961 to 1962. She returned to watercolors after moving to Sweden in 2015. Her Watercolor series overlapped with her Flesh Wall series. This series was created between 1960 and 1966. It showed many themes, including human figures and rooms.

Around 1962, she started working with tattooed figures. These artworks showed how figures' dreams and thoughts could appear on their skin. She also made body paint sculptures in the 1960s.

From 1972 to 1975, she created her Back Paint series. In 1975, she also experimented with Self Portraits. In 1978, she made a pencil on rag series. This was called Flesh and Stone. She completed it in Sweden.

Between 1980 and 1985, she worked with cutouts. She painted on both sides of these pieces. This was at the same time as her Paper Doll Book series (1984). She also created her Tool Paintings then.

While in Sweden from 1983 to 1986, she used monoprints and oil pastels. She also worked with colored pencils, ink, and graphite. In 1988, she created bronze sculptures. She used string as part of these artworks.

Later, she made a series of grief paintings. In 1991, she showed Bateaux des Revés in Central Park. Her later works in Sweden often featured animal portraits. This is because she lives on a farm.

She also created her Ice Dancers series in 1998. In 2016, she made a series called USA. This series depicted animals and their well-being.

Women's Art Movement

During the 1970s, the women's art movement grew. Martha Edelheit was an active part of it. She showed her work in many women-only exhibitions.

These included Women Choose Women (1973) in New York. She also participated in Works on Paper—Women Artists (1975). This show was at the Brooklyn Museum. Another was Sons and Others (1975) at the Queens Museum of Art.

She was also part of The Sister Chapel (1978–80). This was a traveling art installation.

Her painting Womanhero (1977) was for The Sister Chapel. It is a large painting of a female figure. It is inspired by Michelangelo's David. The figure is tattooed with images of goddesses. These include Nut, Kali, Athena, Diana, and Guanyin. These symbols show women's shared power through history.

Film and Teaching

Martha Edelheit also worked in theater and film. She designed sets for small theaters in New York. This was from 1971 to 1974.

She made several experimental art films in the 1970s. These films were shown in the U.S. and Europe. One film was Hats, Bottles & Bones: A Portrait of Sari Dienes (1977). This film was about artist Sari Dienes. It was shown at the Museum of Modern Art. It is also part of collections at the Anthology Film Archives.

She taught filmmaking from 1976 to 1980. She was also an artist in residence at several colleges. These included Wilson College in 1973. She also visited the Art Institute of Chicago in 1975. Other places were the University of Cincinnati in 1975 and the California Institute of the Arts.

In 2023, her art was part of an exhibition. It was called Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970. This show was at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.

Activism for Artists

Martha Edelheit was involved in groups that supported artists. In 1977, she became part of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP). This group supports women in media.

She was also a member of Women/Artist/Filmmakers, Inc. She belonged to the Women's Caucus for Art (WCA). She was also an associate member of Soho20 Chelsea Gallery.

Her image is on a famous poster from 1972. It is called Some Living American Women Artists. This poster was made by Mary Beth Edelson.

Life in Sweden

Since 1993, Martha Edelheit has lived in Sweden. She lives on a farm in Svartsjölandet. This area is outside Stockholm. She moved there after marrying her childhood sweetheart, Sam Nilsson.

Theatre Sets

Martha Edelheit designed sets for these plays:

• The Wonderful Adventures of Tyl, by Jonathan Levy, Triangle Theatre, 1971
• Message from Garcia and Was I Good?, two plays by Rosalyn Drexler, New Dramatists Workshop, 1971