National Galleries Surveys Woman Artists 1885-1965

There is a huge problem in the Art world – that problem is women. To quote the late Brian Sewell: "The likes of Bridget Riley and Louise Bourgeois are of the second and third rank. There has never been a first-rank woman artist… Only men are capable of aesthetic greatness. Women make up 50 per cent or more of classes at art school. Yet they fade away in their late 20s or 30s. Maybe it's something to do with bearing children." How is it possible that there is a belief sex will dictate quality of artistic practice? And how does this belief still prevail throughout the UK Art scene? Did we all simply close our eyes and cover our ears for the past twenty years?

This is where The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art steps in: the contribution of Scottish women painters and sculptors is set to be uncovered and celebrated in a revelatory exhibition of work starting in November. Modern Scottish Women: Painters and Sculptors 1885-1965 documents an 80-year period which saw an unprecedented number of Scottish women training and working as artists.

Alice Strang, senior curator at the Gallery and curator of Modern Scottish Women, explains: “Every artist and every work in this exhibition has a story to tell about being a female art student and professional artist. We hope that our visitors will enjoy learning about their experiences and discovering their wonderful creations.”

This is surely one of the most exciting things about this exhibition – as viewers we are given the opportunity to explore and learn about the struggles facing women artists throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, through celebrating their tremendous and skillful work. There has never been such a thorough investigation into the contribution of women artists to modern art history in Scotland.

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The exhibition, which displays over 90 paintings and sculptures, celebrates the lives and works of women artists, some of whom never received recognition in their life-time. It shines a light on the overarching themes inherent in women’s practices of the time – for instance, Cecile Walton, whose 1912 painting of her future husband Eric Robertson features in the exhibition, wrote of “the tragedy that attends so often the attempt to reconcile career and domestic life.” The artist Anne Redpath, meanwhile, took a 20 year break from art in order to raise her children and Phyllis Mary Bone became the first woman to be elected a full member of the Royal Scottish Academy despite the institution having been founded over 100 years previously.  

Many of the artists featured did not have access to the same standard of Art education as men, highlighted by the fact that for several years in Scotland women were unable to attend life-drawing classes which were considered the pinnacle of an Art education at the time. These are just a few glimpses into the stories that are told in this exhibition: a celebration of underappreciated women who all faced similar hardships in the art world due to their sex.

Modern Scottish Women: Painters and Sculptors 1885-1965 is a compelling intervention into the the art canon's rubberearing of women artists. Although the exhibition itself does not identify itself as a feminist endeavor, it encourages a reinterpretation by viewers of the dictatorial art canon: why have many of these artists been forgotten, underappreciated or unsupported despite their artistic skills and practices being of a high standard? It's a gentle provocation, yes. More importantly, as the first major exhibition of work by women artists to be mounted by the National Galleries of Scotland, it's something of a mending, too.

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Modern Scottish Women, Painters and Sculptors 1885-1965

7 Nov 2015-26 Jun 2016, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Modern Two