As curator of the Contemporary Art Program (1971–75) at the Suffolk Museum (now the Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages), Blum conceived Unmanly Art (1972), the first in-house museum-curated exhibition of works by women artists.[3] Blum also coordinated Works on Paper/Women Artists (1975) at the Brooklyn Museum, another show that supported the work of women.[5] The exhibition, however, "was outflanked by a major exhibit" called Of Men Only: A Review of Men's and Boys' Fashions, 1750–1975.[6] During Works on Paper/Women Artists, Blum served as the moderator for "Curators, Critics & the Economics of the Woman Artist," a panel that included Judith Van Baron, Patricia Mainardi, and Janet Schneider.[7] Also in 1975, she formed an organization called Women Artists Living in Brooklyn and served as a juror for Washington to Washington, an exhibition held at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.[3] Blum participated in the first formal panel on "Gender and Art" to be held in Seattle, which coincided with her solo exhibition in 1977 at NN Gallery.[8] On the panel, she stated her belief that "there is gender in art, that female consciousness exists and should be encouraged," which contrasted with the idea that art is gender-neutral.[8] In 1980, after moving to Cocoa Beach, Florida, Blum formed the East Central Florida chapter of Women's Caucus for Art.[3] She also founded Women for Art, an imprimatur for the publication of catalogues, and was a member of the New York Professional Women Artists.[3] In addition, Blum was a founding member of Central Hall Artists Gallery (est. 1973), an all-women cooperative exhibition space in Port Washington, New York.[9]
June Blum's early work focused on black-and-white abstractions, especially between 1963 and 1968, although she painted both figuratively and abstractly throughout her career.[10] She was inspired by Theodoros Stamos and Ad Reinhardt, but their forms were "not enough" because she "needed more visual involvement," according to the artist.[10] Blum's "black and whites," as she called them, have distinctive organic forms that arc, loop, and curve against a dark background.[10]
Derived from her abstractions and the influence of Happenings, Blum sporadically created "time–light–space environment events" between 1968 and 1982. The first was The Female President (1968–69), in which she posited a female commander-in-chief of the United States, conveyed abstractly through changing light effects on dancers and actors, accompanied by sounds and electronic music.[9] Other such events were Medusa (1970) and American Queen (1972), both of which concerned feminist themes that coincided with Blum's emerging activism.[9] Blum also created "conceptual documentations," likewise feminist, which included The Female Connection (1978).[11]
In the 1970s, Blum began to paint portraits of women in feminist circles, including Alice Neel (c. 1972–73), Patricia Mainardi (1974), Cindy Nemser (1975), Sylvia Sleigh (1975), and Betty Friedan.[9] For The Sister Chapel, which premiered at PS1 in 1978, she created a nine-foot portrait of Betty Friedan as the Prophet (1976), a towering figure who has just descended from a distant mountain like a biblical prophet with The Feminine Mystique tucked under her arm.[9] Friedan was Blum's main inspiration for becoming a feminist[12] and she continued to inspire the artist's work, most notably in a series of portraits and a group of "conceptual documentations," created between 1976 and 1978.[9]
