Barbara Maples
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{{Short description|American photographer}}
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Barbara Lucile Maples (1912–1999) was an American photographer, artist, educator and professor. She is known for her work with modernist photographic techniques in the style known as Texas Bauhaus. Her work is part of the permanent collection of several museums.
Biography
Maples was born in Temple, Texas in 1912.{{cite web |title=Barbara Maples |url=https://awarewomenartists.com/en/artiste/barbara-maples/ |website=AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes |access-date=10 June 2024}} She graduated from the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor with a bachelor of arts in 1933 and then went on to get her Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University in 1939.{{Cite web|url=http://pdnbgallery.com/SITE/barbara-maples/barbara-maples-bio.html|title=Barbara Maples Biography|website=Photographs Do Not Bend Gallery|access-date=23 December 2017}} Maples attended Temple High School and graduated from there in 1929.{{Cite news|url=https://hamonlibraryblog.org/2017/12/07/bywaters-special-collections-artist-profile-barbara-lucile-maples/|title=Bywaters Special Collections Artist Profile: Barbara Lucile Maples|date=December 7, 2017|work=Blog of the Hamon Arts Library|access-date=23 December 2017}}
She taught art in the Dallas independent school District between 1937 and 1964 and also taught at the Dallas Museum of Art between 1940 and 1954. Maples was a professor and the head of the Department of Art Education at Southern Methodist University from 1965 to 1978. Maples was the president of the Texas Printmakers from 1945 to 1946 and also served as the organization treasurer from 1950 to 1960.
In 1999, she died in Dallas{{cite book |title=Women in abstraction |date=2021 |publisher=Thames & Hudson |location=London |isbn=9780500094372 |pages=140–141}} and was buried in the family plot in Temple.
Career
Maples was proficient in painting, ceramics, sculpture, printmaking and weaving.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15957519/the_mexia_daily_news/|title=Miss Barbara Maples, SMU Art Director Will Conduct Programs in Area Feb. 28|date=February 26, 1968|work=The Mexia Daily News|access-date=23 December 2017|pages=3|via=Newspapers.com}} Maples studied printmaking during the summers between 1943 and 1945 with Lawrence Barrett. Maples was influenced in her photography work by Carlotta Corpron, who she worked with at the Texas Women's University (TWU) on weekends.{{Sfn|Gerstheimer|2006|p=13}} Maples' photography was experimental in nature. She used everyday objects in her photo work, transforming the ordinary into abstract art.{{Sfn|Gerstheimer|2006|p=13}} Some of her photographs did not use camera work, but instead was created directly in the light room.{{Sfn|Gerstheimer|2006|p=13}}
Maples was included in the 1938 exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art, "Exhibition by Women Artists of Dallas County."{{Cite book|url=https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth225360/?q=%22barbara%20maples%22|title=Exhibition of Women Artists of Dallas County [Checklist]|publisher=Dallas Museum of Fine Arts|year=1938|via=The Portal to Texas History}} In 1944, Maples won an honorable mention for her painting, Satin Glass and Fruit in the Sixth Texas General Exhibition held at the Dallas Museum of Art.{{Cite book|url=https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth183312/m1/3/|title=The Sixth General Exhibition|publisher=Dallas Museum of Art|year=1944|via=The Portal to Texas History}} In 1959, Maples' print, Summer Madness (1956) was shown in the exhibition, "60 Prints by 60 Artists from Local Collections: Post-War Prints 1946–1959."{{Cite book|url=https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth176569/m1/3/?q=%22barbara%20maples%22|title=Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts. 60 Prints by 60 Artists from Local Collections: Post-War Prints 1946–1959|last=Dallas Museum of Art|year=1959|location=Dallas, Texas|via=The Portal to Texas History}} Maples participated in an exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art in 1990 called "Photographic Abstractions: Barbara Maples & Carlotta Corpron."{{Sfn|Gerstheimer|2006|p=13-14}}
Maples' work is part of the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, the El Paso Museum of Art and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Maples' work was also purchased by the Corpus Christi Art Foundation.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15957891/the_corpus_christi_callertimes/|title=Permanent Art Collection to Be On Display Today|last=Locke|first=Lucie|date=May 11, 1952|work=The Corpus Christi Caller-Times|access-date=23 December 2017|pages=51|via=Newspapers.com}}
Her work was included in the 2021 exhibition Women in Abstraction at the Centre Pompidou.{{cite book |title=Women in abstraction |date=2021 |publisher=Thames & Hudson Ltd. ; Thames & Hudson Inc |location=London : New York City |isbn=978-0500094372 |pages=170}}
References
= Citations =
{{Reflist|30em}}
= Sources =
- {{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pSFEAQAAIAAJ&q=texas+bauhaus|title=Texas Bauhaus: The Photographs of Carlotta Corpron, Ida Lansky and Barbara Maples|last=Gerstheimer|first=Christian John|publisher=El Paso Museum of Art|year=2006|location=El Paso, TX|oclc=316867169}}
External links
- [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/52952393 Barbara Maples Papers, 1853–1997]
- [https://www.smu.edu/CUL/Hamon/Bywaters/About/Collections Barbara Maples Collection] at SMU
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Category:People from Temple, Texas
Category:Academics from Dallas
Category:University of Mary Hardin–Baylor alumni
Category:Columbia University School of the Arts alumni
Category:Southern Methodist University faculty
Category:American women photographers
Category:20th-century American women artists