Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-70
81 international woman artists are brought together in the major exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery. Over 150 paintings of the overlooked generation are showcased, with more than half of the works never having been displayed before in the UK.
At a time where the world was processing the anxieties of a post World War II climate and began navigating the affects in deeply conflicted political debates, artists from across the world began expressing their concerns in a new art, embracing personal and political freedom.
Reaching beyond the the predominantly white, male painters from this era, the exhibition highlights well-known artists associated with the Abstract Expressionism movement, like Lee Krasner and Helen Frankenthaler, alongside lesser-known creatives such as Bertina Lopes and Wook-kyung Choi.
Laura Smith, Curator of Whitechapel Gallery said: "Action, Gesture, Paint reveals how these international artists were redefining artistic practice as an immersive arena for action, process and consciousness, drawing on the avant-garde movements of Expressionism and Surrealism. We also see how they endowed the ideas and methodologies of the movement with their own specific cultural, political and subjective dimensions. Their paintings were regarded not as images but as events, and they were an important catalyst for changing ideas around aesthetics, poetry, philosophy and politics in their distinct and particular regions."
The exhibition has been shaped by a curatorial advisory board including Iwona Blazwick, Margaux Bonopera, Bice Curiger, Christian Levett, Erin Li, Julia Marchand, Joan Marter, Laura Rehme, Agustin Perez Rubio, Elizabeth Smith, Laura Smith, Candy Stobbs and Christina Vegh.
Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-70 is open until 7th May.
After closing in London, the exhibition will travel to France (Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles, France, 3 June–22 October 2023) and Germany (Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany, 2 December 2023–3 March 2024).