Escape to myself

I visited this exhibition today with my friend. It was really interesting and inspiring to see such an excellent representation of women artists. While i knew many of them it was intriguing to see them together and explore the gradual development of their art in the context of the various artistic zeitgeist through the centuries.

From Tudor miniaturists through women like Mary Beale, celebrated for their talent and running their studios in the seventeenth century to the two women founders of the RA in the eighteenth century the exhibition was revelatory. Among the more famous like Kauffman and Moser there were those who are now obscured by the art historical canon established in the eighteenth century and later.

What was interesting was how many women came from artist dynasties. Having a father or husband opened the doors for many talented women who were otherwise denied access to academic training. The social mores excluded women from the opportunities to develop and refine their art in the academies. There is much to be said about the social mores and attitudes excluding women which i haven’t room to discuss here. Go and visit this excellent exhibition.

The exhibition further explored the struggles of women in the nineteenth century to be admitted to schools and gain acceptance often founding their own schools admitting women. It wasn’t until the 1930s that Dame Laura Knight became the first woman to gain full membership of the Royal Academy!

From women artists in watercolour to pioneer photographers, portraitists and war artists and women in the vanguard of modern art this was an exhibition that is long overdue and to which I cannot give the justice it so deserves here