Aquatint Etching “Changing Woman” [SOLD]

Sue Di Maio, an art dealer from California, Arizona, and Santa Fe, made it her mission to talk Helen Hardin into supplementing her acrylic painting with carefully controlled prints.  She felt that Helen could not keep up with the demand for her art if she only produced original paintings.  At first, Helen was not in agreement.  Helen agreed to meet with Richard Ximinez of El Cerro Graphics in Los Lunas, New Mexico, for a primer in printmaking.  Helen agreed to give printmaking a try.  Fortunately, she loved it and collectors love her prints too.

Helen produced several etchings at El Cerro, but the most popular series she did was her Women’s Series. It was not her intent to produce a series but after completing Changing Woman, she was so pleased, she decided to continue with that line.  Changing Woman was completed in 1981.  Hardin then produced, a year later, Medicine Woman, followed the next year with Listening Woman.

“Hardin’s ‘Women Series’ does get at the real meaning of things—at the agony that accompanies change, at the hurt that accompanies healing, at the pain that accompanies empathy, and paradoxically, at the liberation that accompanies change, at the health that accompanies healing, at the knowledge that accompanies understanding.” Scott 1989, 140

Changing Woman was the most ambitious of the etchings Hardin had undertaken at the time.

 “When the proofs had been pulled, it was obvious that Hardin had achieved a great synthesis, a powerful self-portrait; the artist as young woman and ageless kachina. The geometry that sometimes dominated her work was now utterly subservient to an underlying emotion.  But what emotion?  Changing Woman is an ambivalent woman, a woman in dissonant flux, a woman whose internal movements have been externalized by all those irregular, collapsing rectangles.  No firm conclusions are possible as to her state of mind—happy? Sad? In-between—but her well-being or lack of it would prove to be a topic of a heated interpretive dispute wherever she was exhibited.” Scott 1989, 137

After completing Changing Woman, Hardin the next year completed Medicine Woman.  The third and final in the series, Listening Woman, was completed another year later, a year when Hardin was undergoing treatment for breast cancer which eventually metastasized into her lungs and took her life in 1984.

The women series of aquatint etchings is a beautiful expression by Helen Hardin of her life and the lives of all women:

She made Changing Woman at a time in her life when she was working hard and loving her art and life.

The completion of Medicine Woman occurred at a time when she was informed that she had cancer.

Listening Woman was completed during the times when Helen was undergoing chemotherapy. 

The Women’s Series is a strong representation of women.  Hardin focused on the faces of the three women as she believed that was the strength and wisdom of women and that would be the strength of the images.  The three etchings also are strong in geometric imagery and color.  They are the most popular of all her etchings and will remain a favorite of collectors because of their visual appeal, emotional appeal, and importance to the life of Helen Hardin.

The etching is signed in lower right by the artist and numbered III/VIII in lower left.  Roman numerals are applied to a small series of impressions that are not visually different from the main edition but are numbered separately in roman numerals.  These images help support guest artist programs, enabling other artists to experiment with the medium.

Condition: appears to be in original condition

Provenance: from the collection of artist Amado Pena of Santa Fe

Reference:  Changing Woman: The Life and Art of Helen Hardin by Jay Scott