Fall, —St. Paul, MN—The M (Minnesota Museum of American Art) is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition Hazel Belvo: For Love, opening Saturday, November 4, 2023 in the Nancy and John Lindahl Gallery. 

Hazel Belvo is a significant American artist, art educator, and feminist leader. From delicate drawings to monumental paintings, Belvo’s work often honors intimate moments of love and connection, as well as nature and spirituality. Born in Ohio, she spent significant time on the East Coast before moving to Minnesota, where she has lived, taught, worked, and loved for many years.

This retrospective celebrates love as an artistic force in Belvo’s career of more than seventy years, while gaining insight into the broader struggles of many women artists as they build careers while caring for others; working for others, and endeavoring to make change in the world. While reflecting on Belvo’s proposition that sorrow and joy are innately connected, For Love explores Belvo’s lifelong work and dedication as an artist through a focus on her deep relationships, her strong sense of place, and her feminist worldview. Belvo’s artwork thrives because it is inextricably tied to her extraordinary, multidimensional life. Her body of work is as multilayered as her lived experiences.

This exhibition brings together beautiful artwork from across the artist’s long career–from early abstractions to intimate sketches she drew of her son Briand the morning he was born. Belvo’s important Love Drawings, made while her son Joe struggled with a tragic illness, are a centerpiece of the exhibition. “The Love Drawings and the book about them are my life’s contribution to humanity,” Belvo says. 

This series of exquisite artworks, representing couples in positions of intimacy, tenderness, and reciprocity, began in 1967 as a counter to the dry and shame-inducing sex education her son was receiving in school and continued until 1982. The Love Drawings are about so much more than intimacy and pleasure, although these are important themes. They are exquisite representations of loving connections, tenderness, and reciprocity—a call for love and respect instead of war and violence, dignity and joy instead of shame and insensitivity.  Too few people know about these important and forward-thinking feminist works.

OPEN HOUSE

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2023
10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
 

All are welcome on Saturday, November 4, for a special opportunity to celebrate the opening of Hazel Belvo: For Love on view in the Nancy and John Lindahl Gallery. Meet Hazel Belvo, enjoy coffee and treats from Legacy Chocolates, and mark the momentous occasion of the M’s first exhibition inside the galleries since 2020.

11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.
Tour the exhibition with Belvo and the exhibition’s co-curators Dakota Hoska (Oglála Lakhóta) and Dr. Laura Joseph. Sign up for the exhibition tours here.

2:00–4:00 p.m.
Jazz guitarist Briand Morrison (Ojibwe, Grand Portage Band) and singer Roxann Berglund will perform from 2:00–4:00 p.m.

ARTIST HAZEL BELVO

"Hazel Belvo’s artistic journey of integrating competing priorities through her art, and bringing her whole, multifaceted self to each artistic endeavor is an inspiration. While she is a singular and distinctive force, the foundation of her worldview is a feminist one that honors and acknowledges our mutual reliance and need for mutual support. As she approaches ninety, the M is proud to bring the beauty and wisdom expressed in her work to existing and new audiences." 

ARTIST PORTFOLIO

In conjunction with Hazel Belvo: For Love the M is producing an artist portfolio of Belvo's important Love Drawings series, along with a catalogue about the drawings with contributions from the artist, theater and performance critic Jennifer Cayer, and M Curator of Exhibitions Dr. Laura Wertheim Joseph.

For more information about the artist portfolio and catalogue, contact Kate Tucker at [email protected].