The Willits Center for the Arts is pleased to present an engaging lecture by Professor Paula Birnbaum titled Self-Fashioning as Modern Women Artists in Paris. This illuminating talk will explore the lives and works of three remarkable Paris-based women artists—Maria Blanchard (1881–1932), Tamara de Lempicka (1894–1980), and Chana Orloff (1888–1968)—all émigrés who forged influential careers during the interwar period.
Professor Birnbaum will delve into how these artists navigated and redefined prevailing artistic norms through their explorations of female embodiment. Central themes include self-representation, portraiture, motherhood, and the female nude—expressed through painting in the work of Blanchard and Lempicka, and sculpture in Orloff’s art. Together, these pioneering women challenged artistic conventions and reshaped both the trajectory of modern art and the cultural politics of their time.
About the Speaker
Paula J. Birnbaum is the inaugural Ann Getty Endowed Chair and Academic Director of the Museum Studies Master of Arts Program and Professor of Art History and Museum Studies at USF. She is a specialist in modern and contemporary art and holds a doctorate in Art History from Bryn Mawr College. Professor Birnbaum is a former Fulbright Scholar and fellow at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Stanford University.
This is a free event:
The art center can be located at 71 E. Commercial St. Willits, 95490
For more information contact willitscenterforthearts.org
or call Gary Martin at 707-972-3326

Radio Press release:
Paula Birnbaum Ph.D.— Self-Fashioning as Modern Women Artists in Paris
The Willits Center for the Arts proudly presents a lecture by Dr. Paula Birnbaum, Professor of Art History and Academic Director of Museum Studies at the University of San Francisco. An acclaimed scholar specializing in modern and contemporary art, gender, and identity, Dr. Birnbaum will explore how émigré women artists Maria Blanchard, Tamara de Lempicka, and Chana Orloff shaped modernism in interwar Paris. Her talk examines themes of self-representation, portraiture, motherhood, and the female nude—illuminating how these pioneering figures redefined the role of women in the arts and challenged cultural norms through painting and sculpture. July 11, 2025, at 6:30. This is a free event
The art center can be located at 71 E. Commercial St. Willits, 95490
Contact: willitscenterforthearts.org or call Gary Martin at 707-972-3326