The Pioneering Art of Louisa Keyser

In his review of the Independent 20th Century and Armory Show, Brian P. Kelly of the Wall Street Journal is emphasising a display of baskets by Louisa Keyser, also known as Dat So La Lee (1850-1925). Exhibited by Donald Ellis Gallery, “this collection of her marvelously geometric work proves that she should also be heralded as a pioneering modernist, an icon in her field as finely attuned to form as any artist working in her lifetime,” the author writes. Lauding the Independent 20th Century’s aim to expand the modernist canon, “this display makes an important case not just for Keyser’s place in art history, but also for more inclusively evaluating indigenous art as a whole.”