Beth Ames Swartz

'Musical Bridge', New York Jewish Museum, ASL, Woman Artist, Smithsonian

1966

Signed lower right, 'Beth Ames Swartz' (American, born 1936) and dated 1967. Primarily working in the idioms of abstraction and semi-abstraction, Beth's paintings and mixed-media works are commonly informed by philosophical and spiritual concepts shared by people of different cultural worldviews, and incorporate both symbols and words in the vocabulary of their visual language. Her art practice has been guided by aesthetic philosophies including Wassily Kandinsky’s Concerning the Spiritual in Art and Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, and inspired by various religious and philosophical systems including Native American Healing practices, Buddhism, Jewish Mysticism, and Christianity in order to facilitate communication with viewers on both the conscious and unconscious level. Swartz synthesizes these spiritual traditions in her work with the purpose of revealing the commonality between them. Beth was born in New York City and grew up in Manhattan, and by her mid-teens was studying at the Art Students League in New York in the late 1940s. Her education continued at The High School of Music & Art in New York City, and Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where she graduated in 1957 with a Bachelor of Science degree, followed by a Master of Arts degree in 1959 from New York University. Beth Ames Swartz exhibited nationwide including at over seventy solo exhibitions including a solo show at The Jewish Museum in New York. In addition, she participated in three major traveling museum exhibitions and her work is held in the permanent collections of numerous major museums including the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian. She received the Governor's Individual Artist Award in 2001 in Arizona, and a retrospective of her work was mounted in 2002 at The Phoenix Art Museum, with a monograph about her work co-published by The Phoenix Art Museum and Hudson Hills Press. Swartz explores systems of knowledge by translating philosophical concepts into aesthetic visual experiences. Fellowships, Awards, Grants and Honors: New York, NY - 2003 Veteran Feminists of America, Medal of Honor Phoenix, AZ - 2001 Recipient, Governor's Arts Award, the highest honor in Arizona for one individual who may be a visual or performing artist or a writer. Snowmass Village, CO - 2000 Anderson Ranch, Artist in Residence Phoenix, AZ - 1994 Founder, Culture Care , an international, non-profit organization sponsoring The Sacred Souls Project, to identify, support and honor individuals who demonstrate positive human societal values New York, NY - 1994 Awarded Flow Fund grant for discretionary philanthropic use for non-personal benefit New York, NY - 1994 Panelist, College Art Association, Art, Earth and Medicine: A Healing Approach New York, NY - 1993 Panelist, The Sacred in the Arts Conference New York, NY - 1992 Speaker, MedArts Conference, Research Study on A Moving Point of Balance Stinson Beach, CA - 1991 Speaker, Symposium, Art as a Healing Force New Harmony, IN - 1990 Keynote Speaker, Art and Healing Conference Phoenix, AZ - 1988 Co-Founder, International Friends of Transformative Art (IFTA), an international, non-profit organization for positive global change Payson, AZ - 1988, '87 Project Coordinator, Rim Institute, Transformative Artist's Conference and Workshop Phoenix, AZ - 1985 Governor's Award, Outstanding Women of Arizona - Women Who Create Sun Valley, ID - 1980 Sun Valley Center for the Arts & Humanities, Artist in Residence, The Awesome Space: The Inner and Outer Landscape Hawaii National Park, HI - 1979 Volcano Art Center, Artist in Residence Phoenix, AZ - 1978, '77 Named Master Teacher by State Department of Public Instruction Phoenix, AZ - 1978, '77 Educational Grant for Inquiry Into Fire, Arizona Commission on Arts and Humanities Selected Bibliography and Reference: Davenport’s Art Reference Guide, 2007/8 Edition, p.2468; Arizona/Women '75 (exhibition catalogue). Tucson, AZ: Tucson Art Museum, 1975; Baigell, Matthew. "Art and Spirit: Kabbalah and Jewish-American Artists." Tikkun vol. 14, no.4, (July-August 1999): 59-61 (illus. in b&w of Shen Qi Series: the Cabalistic Scheme of the Four Worlds #5); Beth Ames Swartz, Inquiry Into Fire (exhibition catalog). Scottsdale, AZ: Scottsdale Center for the Arts, 1978. Introduction by Melinda Wortz; Beth Ames Swartz, 1982-1988: A Moving Point of Balance (exhibition catalog). Scottsdale, AZ: A Moving Point of Balance, Inc., 1988. Introduction by John Perreault; Biennial 1979 (exhibition catalog). Phoenix: Phoenix Art Museum, March 9-April 8, 1979, 35-37, 64 (illus. in color Sedona, #23; illus. in b&w, Torah Scroll, #5); Body and Soul: Contemporary Art and Healing (exhibition catalog). Lincoln, MA: DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, 1994. Introduction by Rachel Rosenfeld Lafo, Nicholas Capasso, and Sara Rehm Roberts; Cembalest, Robin. "The Ecological Art Explosion." ARTnews vol. 90, no. 6 (summer 1991): 96-105; The First Western States Biennial Exhibition (exhibition catalog). Denver: Western States Art Foundation, 1979. Introduction by Joshua C. Taylor (with illus. in color of Torah Scroll #4); Gablik, Suzi. The Reenchantment of Art. Thames and Hudson: New York, 1991, 155-57; Gadon, Elinor W. The Once and Future Goddess: A Symbol for Our Time. New York: Harper and Row, 1989, 245-46; 248; Henderson, Barbara. "Beth Ames Swartz," A Magazine of Fine Arts vol. 2, no. 15 (April 1976): 34-41; Israel Revisited: Beth Ames Swartz (exhibition catalog). Scottsdale, AZ: Beth Ames Swartz, 1981: 40 pp. Introduction by Harry Rand...

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