Nancy Cusick Fox, 1924-2010 Surrealism Collage

History is full of women artists overlooked, difficult, unloved, forgotten, unrealized and overshadowed.  Cusick was her professional name, and what a career. She was known in multiple genres: foreign diplomacy and international relations, college instructor, art historian and an artist. She combined all of these elements into an international art career where she coordinated women's conferences and worked on feminist ideals around the world. These venues allowed her to exhibit widely and to share her story.

Cusick had an undergraduate degree from the Ivy League Georgetown University and a masters degree from American University in Art History. Living in the Washington, DC area, her home and education became a platform for her international conferences on women's issues. At Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service she would have been introduced to the multiple languages and cultures around the world.  Likewise with an art history degree, she would further expand her horizons regarding the interdisciplinary practices that analyzes the various factors of cultural, politics, religions and all the other elements that contribute to international relations and the visual appearance of art.

Her artistic talents lead to many early exhibits in and around Washington, old newspaper clippings announced diverse exhibits of drawings, watercolors and paintings, but she is best known for her collages and assemblages. As an art historian, she surely understood the French origins of how the concepts of collage, montage and assemblage played roles in the Dada and Surrealism movements. The three words; collage to stick, montage to mount, and assemblage to bring together; Cusick used these component parts to make up images that were provocative.

In the image below titled, Illustrated Woman: Magritte, Cusick creates a collage/assemblage that allows for the incorporation of "chance-found" images, as in this case, precisely cut from a Penthouse magazine, then matched and spatially arranged with other images to replicate a portion of a famous painting by the Surrealist René Magritte (1898-1967).

Illustrated Woman: Magritte
Photo Montage of Found Images
Cut and Pasted, Signed

Magritte was a famous Belgian Surrealist that created dream like images that were thought provoking. He wore and frequently used the image of derby bawler hats in his paintings. In this case, Cusick uses just half of the painting, the other half includes the back of a man wearing a black bawler hat. This side of the image (used here) includes the upside-down silhouette of the bawler hat with a cloud formation passing through the head shaped hat. The painting by Magritte pictured below was accomplished in 1966 and titled: DÉCALCOMANIE.

DÉCALCOMANIE
Color Lithograph
René Magritte

Cusick uses comparative analysis when laying the Penthouse image over the silhouette of the neck and shoulders of the man. She uses the symbol of all men's desires, a naked woman that could be an erotic one-night lover. She understands that thoughts of a naked lover like the clouds could easily pass through a man's mind, as she confronts men’s ideals of naked women in art. Cusick's understanding of art history made her interrupt Magritte's artwork as "nothing seems as it is" a version of surrealism.  So perhaps the partial nude is not a statement about soft-porn, but instead a statement about the mistreatment of women and misogynist ideals.  A topic frequently bantered around by Cusick who served frequently as an international director for global women’s conferences where her and her colleagues examined art criticism by feminists, as well as used art to approach delicate subject matters and concerns.

Cusick uses the soft porn photograph where her downward glance doesn't confront the camera.  In the image, the model's breasts are full-sized, pictured by Penthouse to increase the male fantasy.   Like Magritte, Cusick uses a mind blowing image to change male eroticization - soft-porn into a feminism statement about men's magazines.  Cusick takes on the subject matter as a "woman picturing another woman" in her art, similar to other feminist artists such as Miriam Schapiro and Judy Chicago.  

These women revolutionized the traditional woman imagery beyond the straightforward portrait and women located in domestic scenes and idyllic landscapes. As one noted feminist writer, Maryse Holder (1941-1977) pointed out, that when women write and create art around women sexuality, they take away power from men, who frequently subjugate women with sexual imagery. Holder’s paraphrased response is: Women are redeeming their cunts from the male pawn shops, appropriating the entire matter of human sexuality as well. This is what Cusick is doing here, she creates a Surrealism collage in the Magritte fashion to take on Penthouse’s subjugation and taking on the female form as art, not sexuality.

References:

Who's Who in American Art, 1984, 16th Edition:

Exhibits: Washington Artist Ann, Smithsonian Inst, 60-69; Corcoran Gallery Art Area Exhib, 67; Women Show, Washington, DC, 79; Feminist Show, Washington Womens Art Ctr, 80; two-person show, Collages & Masks, Studio Gallery, Washington, DC, 79; Women Artists Exhib, Converse Col, Spartanburg, SC, 80; solo exhib, Anne Hathway Ballery, Folger Shakespeare Libr, Washington, DC, 83.
Positions: Exec. Dir. Washington Women's Art Ctr, 79-80; Contib. Ed. Women Artists News, New York, 80.
Teaching: Instr painting and art history, Dunbarton Col Holy Cross, 66-72; Instr art, Prince George’s Col, 72-77.
Awards: First Prize Painting, Soc. Washington Artists, 66; Best of Show, Hagerstown, Mus, 67.
Bibliog: Ruth Dean (author), Networking from here to Copenhagen, Washington Star, 7/80; Pamela Kessler (auth), Masks, the myths and the magic, Washington Post, 10/81; Karen Alexis (auth), Nancy Cusick, illustrated women series, Women Womens art Orgn; Womens Caucus Art; Soc Washington Artists.
Media: Collage, Assemblage, oil.
Member: Artists Equity Asn (mem chmn, 1971-); Nat Art Educ Asn; Soc Washington Artists (ann exhib chmn, 1964 & 1968).
Comments: Preferred Media: Constructions, Mixed Media, Acrylics, Oils. Teaching: Instr art hist, Dunbarton Col Holy Cross, 1967-1972, instr advan painting, 1969-1972; instr art hist & drawing, Prince George's Col, 1972-1973.
Notes - International exhibitions: Denmark, Lithuania, Russia, and China, have been part of a lengthy career that includes solo exhibitions and workshops undertaken for "Arts America" in Belgium, Greece, Turkey, and former Yugoslavia.  International Conferences:  Cusick has been a participating artist in three world conferences, most recently as Project Director for "Global Focus: Women in Art & Culture," for the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China, 1995.

Arlene Raven, Cassandra Langer, Joanna Frueh, Feminist Art Criticism, IconEditions, Harper Collins Publishers, New York, NY, 1991. 

Simon Larbalestier, The Art and Craft of Collage, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA, 1990.   

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