Newspaper Fiction: The New York Journalism of Djuna Barnes, 1913-1919

January 20 through October 28, 2012. Among the works on view will be eight illustrations Barnes composed to accompany her newspaper columns.

The Herstory Gallery is devoted to the remarkable contributions of the women represented in The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago, on permanent view in the adjacent gallery. Barnes is one of 1,038 women honored in Chicago’s iconic feminist work.

Prior to publishing the modernist novels and plays for which she is now remembered, such as Ryder (1928), Nightwood (1936), and The Antiphon (1958), which present complex portrayals of lesbian life and familial dysfunction, Barnes supported herself as a journalist and illustrator for a variety of daily newspapers and monthly magazines, including the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, McCall’s, Vanity Fair, Charm, and the New Yorker.

Brought up in an unconventional household, Barnes developed an outsider’s perspective on “normal” life that served her well as a writer. Her liberal sexuality fit in perfectly with the bohemian lifestyle of Greenwich Village and, later, the lesbian expatriate community in Paris. From her first articles in 1913 until her departure for Europe in 1921, Barnes specialized in a type of journalism that was less about current events and more about her observations of the diverse personalities and happenings that gave readers an intimate portrait of her favorite character-New York City. Attempting to capture its transition from turn of the century city to modern metropolis, Barnes developed her unique style of “newspaper fictions,” offering impressionistic observations and dramatizing whatever she felt to be the true significance or subtexts of a story.

Newspaper Fiction: The New York Journalism of Djuna Barnes, 1913-1919 is organized by Catherine Morris, Curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum.

We gratefully acknowledge Beth M. Alvarez, Curator of Literary Manuscripts, and the staff of the Archives and Manuscripts Department of the University of Maryland Libraries for their support for the planning and coordination of the exhibition.

This exhibition is made possible by the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation. It will be accompanied by a series of educational programs to be announced at a later date.