The National Gallery in London owns about two and a half thousand pictures. Barely a dozen are from female artists – less than half a percent! While there have always been more male artists, this not explain this huge difference in the National Gallery collection, and we are forced to conclude the gallery has until still very recent times operated a policy of not buying artworks from female artists. This unbalanced policy has a long history. In 1969 Kenneth Clarke produced the blockbuster BBC series “Civilisation” about European art from the Middle Ages to present day. He mentioned hundreds of artists - all male, not a single woman! In the lecture, there will be work from half a dozen artists – three female and three male artists – and their work will be compared, including a comparison of Leonardo da Vinci with Artemsia Gentileschi, a woman overlooked by Kenneth Clark but who now has the long-denied status as a major artists that she fully deserves.
Course aim
The lecture will consider the imbalance in the presentation of female compared with male artists. Even to the present day, female artists occupy just a tiny part of the public space in the galleries, exhibitions, art books and documentaries.
Do I need any particular skills or experience?
- This course is for beginners and improvers
By the end of the course I should be able to:
- To have a greater knowledge and appreciation of women artists who have been overlooked by history.
- To be aware of the factors which have led to the imbalance in the presentation of art from men compared with women.
What else do I need to know?
All materials will be provided, including fully illustrated notes which will be circulated before the lecture.
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