Untitled, n.d., Joanna Beall Westermann
The artist Joanna Beall Westermann is little known, having been eclipsed by the famed sculptor and printmaker H. C. Westermann, whom she married in 1959. She had studied with Josef Albers and Diego Rivera, but was reticent, quiet. As the artist Bill Barrett recalls, she was “reluctant to open up about her work.” Similarly, her paintings, drawings, and collages are quiet, yet also compelling. Beall Westermann’s still lifes and figurative paintings invoke the metaphysical, with surrealistic touches that have been compared to de Chirico and Magritte. Beall Westermann’s palette is muted. One can see that she applied her impeccable brushwork stroke by calm stroke. —E.C.
