Climbing Mountains

Unexpected and nearly invisible histories sometimes unite objects in the Birmingham Museum of Art’s collections. For two American artists, painting and mountain climbing were connected pursuits. Georgia Engelhard and Elaine Hamilton cultivated careers in alpine trekking even as they also worked as professional artists. For these women, painting a few decades apart in the mid-twentieth century, this connection is not only coincidence; it can also be read as a metaphor. Both women not only literally climbed mountains, they also climbed figurative mountains in the art world.

This focus installation drawn from the Museum’s collection highlights the work of Engelhard and Hamilton. Here their work is paired with the work of five other women artists who ventured into the mountains, conceptually or physically, to create the pieces you see. While none of these women were alpine mountain climbers aside from Engelhard and Hamilton, each work conveys a point of view rooted in the mountains.