May Stevens (American, 1924- )

May Stevens, born in Boston, received her BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and studied at the Art Students League, New York, and the Académie Julian, Paris. A committed "political artist," she became a major force in the feminist movement within the New York art world during the 1970s. Stevens' work pursues issues related to peace and human rights. She is noted for her artists' book Ordinary/Extraordinary, which documented the mark of a political woman (Rosa Luxemburg) while also marking the life of her mother, Alice Stevens, a woman otherwise unknown. Stevens is married to artist/activist Rudolph Baranik and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
- Virginia Lee Lierz

Selected Bibliography
Alloway, Lawrence. May Stevens. Catalog for Big Daddy Series. New York: Herbert F Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, 1973.

Olander, William. One Plus or Minus One. Essays by Olander, William and Lippard, Lucy. New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1988.

Shapiro, Barbara Stern. May Stevens: Images of Women Near and Far. Introduction by Barbara Stern Shapiro. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1999. Conversation with May Stevens, Mary Ryan Gallery. New York, (1999): 13.

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