Women in Abstraction
10.22.2021 - 02.27.2022
Women in Abstraction sets out to write the history of the contributions made by “female artists” to abstraction in the 20th century, through to about the 1980s, with a few original incursions into the 19th century.
The artists are presented here as players and co-creators in their own right, of modernism and its legacy. 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.
Saloua Raouda Choucair
Fractional Module, 1947-1951
Oil on canvas
47 x 67 cm
Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation
© Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation, Beirut
© Galerie Saleh Barakat
Virtual Tour
Resources
The Exhibition
Georgiana Houghton
Album of Spirit Art, 1866–84
Album containing a series of watercolours by Georgiana Houghton and other artists
49 × 42 × 3.5 cm
The College of Psychic Studies, London
Natalia Goncharova
Composition, 1913–14
Oil on canvas
104.2 × 97 cm
Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, Paris, donation de l’État soviétique, 1988
© VEGAP, Bilbao, 2021
Carlotta Corpron
Light, White Paper, and Glass, ca. 1944
Gelatin silver print
27 × 35.5 cm
Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, Paris, don de Jacqueline Gilliam, 2014
© 1988 Amon Carter Museum of American Art
Lygia Clark
Critter “In Itself”, 1962
Aluminum
20 × 22 × 15 cm
Seroussi Collection
Photo: Courtesy of “The World of Lygia Clark” Cultural Association
Aurèlia Muñoz
Palm Tree Fragment, 1976
Sisal
231 × 70 cm
Ajuntament de Sant Cugat, donació: Aurèlia Muñoz
© Hereus d’Aurèlia Muñoz
Harmony Hammond
Floorpiece VI, 1973
Cloth and acrylic
167.64 cm (diam.)
Courtesy the artist and Alexander Gray Associates, New York
Photo: Jeffrey Sturges
© VEGAP, Bilbao, 2021
In the Museum
Video about The Exhibition
Did you
know that...?
WOMEN IN ABSTRACTION
As part of the Didaktika project, the Museum designs educational spaces and organizes activities that complement the exhibitions in an effort to provide tools and resources, both in the galleries and online, to facilitate the appreciation and understanding of the works on display.
WOMEN VISIONARIES. AHEAD OF THEIR TIME
To understand how the first works exhibiting an abstract language emerged, it is essential to understand the importance of theosophy and spirituality at the time.
WOMEN ARTISTS vs ARTISTIC WOMEN
Did women artists exist? In the 1970s, art historians like Linda Nochlin began to reflect on why the great women artists were missing from art history books.
ABSTRACTION IN ART
The early 20th century witnessed major political and social changes throughout Europe. Among avant-garde artists, the idea of the transformative power of art and its ability to improve society was taking root.
THE BOUNDARIES OF THE BODY
How can we talk about the body without representing it? Dancer and choreographer Trisha Brown blurred the boundaries between the disciplines of dance and the fine arts in the series It is a Draw.
FIBER ART. BETWEEN FUNCTION AND CRAFT
An ancient technique to make modern designs? At the Bauhaus, the weaving workshop played an important role. In 1929, one of its artists, Anni Albers, designed an abstract tapestry made of cellophane, chenille, and cotton, creating a fabric that was dust-repellent while also serving to insulate sound.
