The pastel stick is the artistic medium most like the human finger. The stick disappears as it strokes the paper, symbolically leaving the “hand” of the artist lodged in the paper’s weave. Examine Cassatt’s hands, both her own and those we see literally and figuratively in her pastels. And through these works, explore the sociological, psychological, and gendered interpretations of the sense of touch.

Nancy Mowll Mathews, Eugenie Prendergast Senior Curator, emerita, Williams College Museum of Art

Wednesday, November 28, 2018