Ethel Wallace: Modern Rebel

Ethel Wallace: Modern Rebel will revisit the work of a little known, locally beloved artist whose adaptation of batik, a Javanese technique of dyeing cloth, made her work a coveted modernist trend among New York’s elite in the 1910s and ‘20s. Born in Recklesstown, New Jersey (now Chesterfield Township), in 1886, Wallace grew up in the artistic community of New Hope, Pennsylvania, before moving to New York City and building a sensational reputation and successful business as a textile and fashion designer. However, with the onset of the Great Depression, Wallace returned to New Hope, where she struggled to maintain her career’s momentum amid economic upheaval. She remained in New Hope for the rest of her life, where she happily painted flowers from her garden and portraits of her darling cats.