Featuring over 100 women artists and 350 color illustrations, this book reexamines the work of women artists dating from the 1860s to the 1980s that contributed to the history of abstraction.
Far from being a mere catalogue, the idea is to highlight the decisive turning points that marked this history, while simultaneously questioning the canons of abstraction. Special attention is accorded to highlighting the specific contexts surrounding, favoring or, on the contrary, hindering recognition of female artists. These contexts are at once educational, social, institutional, ideological, and even aesthetic. The exhibition thus reveals the process of invisibilization that marked the work of these artists, while still presenting their positions, with all their complexities and paradoxes. Many of these artists adopted a non-gendered identity while others laid claim to a “female” art. — Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
While many familiar artists appear, such as Georgia O’Keeffe, the book is more comprehensive than past studies and includes artists “unjustly eclipsed from the history of art” as well as artists from non-Western countries. Additionally, the authors embrace an expanded definition of abstraction and include the decorative arts, dance, film, performance art, and photography.
The publication was created in conjunction with the major exhibition, Women in Abstraction, organized at the Centre Pompidou in 2021 by curators Karolina Lewandowska and Christine Macel, which subsequently traveled to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
Women in Abstraction, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, exhibition October 2021 - February 2022. Includes links to related exhibition programing such as a virtual tour and installation photographs.
Women in Abstraction, another history of abstraction in the 20th Century, Centre Pompidou, symposium May 2021. In connection with the Women in Abstraction exhibition, the Centre Pompidou is organized an international symposium in partnership with the association AWARE (Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions) and the LEGS (Laboratory for Gender and Sexuality Studies – University Paris 8 Vincennes Saint-Denis / Paris Nanterre). Links to video recordings of the event. In French.
While many familiar artists appear, such as Georgia O’Keeffe, the book is more comprehensive than past studies and includes artists “unjustly eclipsed from the history of art” as well as artists from non-Western countries. Additionally, the authors embrace an expanded definition of abstraction and include the decorative arts, dance, film, performance art, and photography.
The publication was created in conjunction with the major exhibition, Women in Abstraction, organized at the Centre Pompidou in 2021 by curators Karolina Lewandowska and Christine Macel, which subsequently traveled to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
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