Toronto-based Anita Kunz has employed a distinct contemporary classical style of painting to create some caustic caricature and satire of the late 20th and 21st centuries (though to see her, you wouldn’t know she’s been working as long as she has). Her assignments as an editorial illustrator, however, like many of her generation, have not been consistent. So, she’s turned inward and outward to find inspiration for current projects. In recent years she’s been working on portraits of highly accomplished and under-represented women from past and present. From November 9- May 26, 2025, her exhibit of over 250 images from her massive oeuvre, titled “Anita Kunz: Original Sisters: Portraits of Tenacity and Courage,” will be on exhibit at the Norman Rockwell Museum. Here, we speak of the show, the women, the causes, and the state of her art.
You have been doing portraits for a number of years. You are known for caricature-portraiture, in other words, faces with a satiric edge (I recall your sardonic John Wayne). How did this shift to, well, less-comic “celebratory” portraiture come about?
Since I stopped my main focus as an editorial illustrator, I’ve been working on self-generated projects. First, I did a book that re-configured old iconic paintings into works from a modern female perspective, then I did a book about male nudes, and now this project has occupied my time through the pandemic until recently. This project is a celebration of under-appreciated women (in my view) and by its definition needed to have a more historic perspective. The project was less about my view of things and more about the women I portrayed; I keep saying it’s not about me, it’s about them. And since the portraits were honoring the women, I stayed away from anything cheeky or satirical. This is a serious subject and requires a serious approach. A year ago, the United Nations did a worldwide study to find out what percentage of people have a fundamental bias against women, and the percentage was a staggering 9 out of 10. And that includes women! I think many of us sense this inequality in everyday life. So, I think there’s work to be done in this area.* But my project is not negative in any way, rather it is positive. It’s a celebration; an expression of love dedicated to women on whose shoulders I stand. These are great stories! Included are pirates, artists, scientists, doctors, warriors, queens, musicians, and more. And the portraits cover women from the beginning of time to now, and through different cultures and religions. Also, I’ve painted them in a way that I believe makes them accessible to women and also to men, kids, teens, boys, and girls. I’m trying to fill a hole in history with colorful art.
What was the genesis of your current exhibition?
I’ve been thinking about this and trying to remember how I came up with this idea. A few years ago, I was invited to an artist residency on Peaks Island, Maine. While there, on a boat tour, the captain talked about a woman who lived all alone on a tiny cold foreboding windswept island hundreds of years ago. I was intrigued and wanted to find out how anyone could survive such harsh conditions. I did some research and found out she was a transgender woman. And she drowned in the bay wearing a Japanese kimono. And that was it. Try as I might I could not find any more details. And I wondered how many more women’s fascinating stories were lost to history. That, I think was the germ of the idea. Then I thought about how I could do portraits of unknown women who inspired famous quotes. For example, Mary Anning was a brilliant, unrecognized paleontologist who is thought to have inspired the quote “She sells seashells by the seashore”. And St Aebbe was a Mother Superior who advised her nuns to cut off their noses so they would be too hideous to rape by the advancing Viking marauders. She is thought to have inspired the quote “to cut off one’s nose to spite one’s face.” That idea was a dead end because I couldn’t find enough subjects. So, I finally decided to just keep it simple and do portraits of women who were not treated kindly by history. Once I started looking, they were everywhere. I found them on websites, blogs, encyclopedias, Google, etc. I asked friends in different fields if they could suggest subjects. And I decided to paint their portraits. And I thought that the project also needed a small written blurb to describe their accomplishments. The pandemic proved the best time to paint the portraits because there were so few distractions and I could just work. So, I painted one a day. It kept me busy and it kept me sane.
I’m sure you haven’t lost your edge for graphic commentary, but have you become more circumspect in what you devote your art and time to in recent years?
Well, I’m getting older and I do feel a sense of urgency. I’m finding my time is increasingly precious and there are still so many things I want to explore so I want to make sure I use my time in a meaningful way. But the projects themselves dictate how edgy the work should be.
How have you grown into the artist you’ve become? What social, cultural, political, and personal factors have altered your art?
That is a tough question. I was never really interested in making decorative art. I wanted my work to have some sort of cultural relevance. For years I was fortunate to work with great editorial art directors who gave me a lot of creative freedom to visually comment on social and political issues. But recently it’s become more difficult to find artistic autonomy in publishing (except for a few magazines) and with the threat of AI and other factors, I’ve more or less gone off on my own. (And I should say that I’m eternally grateful to the book publishers, galleries, and now the Norman Rockwell Museum who support this newer work.)
There are many faces in this crowd (forgive the movie reference) that I have never seen or heard of before. What governed your selection?
Exactly that. There are so many women who made significant contributions to all of the areas of society who have been underappreciated, fallen through the cracks, or who have been forgotten entirely. I felt they needed to be recognized. For example, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin was an astrophysicist who discovered the chemical makeup of stars (contrary to prevailing scientific thought) and who should be a household name yet I’d never heard of her. The National Geographic Society studied ancient cave paintings and concluded that many of the hand paintings were made by women, not men; possibly making women the first artists of our species. Eunice Newton Foote discovered the greenhouse effect in 1856. Alice Ball pioneered a treatment for leprosy and died at age 24. Ada Lovelace was the first computer programmer in the 1840s. On and on and all marginalized by history (see www.originalsisters.com for more examples). This was a project that I felt compelled to take on.
Is there anyone left on the cutting room floor?
So many! And so many more to add. At this point I have at least 50 more subjects in my files I’d like to paint and write about. I’m considering ending the project at 500 paintings (I’m currently at 460) but I keep discovering new women whose life stories I’d like to learn. So, who knows?
What do you hope the Rockwell Museum visitors— many of whom are mainstream art-neutral walk-ins—will take away from your show?
Well, hopefully, they will discover some interesting women they never heard of. The project is at the end of the day an exploration of achievers who made great strides despite the odds. So that’s inspiring for everyone, I hope!
Is there space in your space to focus on others on the fringes who’ve made some under-represented mark on society?
That’s tough to answer. I think I am able to make portraits of women because I can relate on some level. I would never be able to properly address very personal issues of other marginalized groups because I simply don’t have that experience. It would be presumptuous and I don’t think it would be authentic. But I have tried to be as diverse as possible within my chosen subject.
What is next in your artistic journey?
I’ve just completed a book of fables, updated for the modern world, called Allegoria. My ancestry dates back to 12th century Transylvania (I know! Creepy!) and as a child, I read books like Struwwelpeter, Max und Moritz, and the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. They were short and dark and often had a moral warning. Later I devoured TV shows like The Outer Limits, Night Gallery, and Twilight Zone which were also short stories with a message. This project is similar in nature. It’s an art book of paintings accompanied by short fables I wrote, except they have to do with climate change, ocean acidification, species extinction, and various other issues we are currently facing. It’s a completely different project than “Original Sisters.”
*New UN report reveals chronic bias against women over last decade