BRITISH WOMEN ARTISTS 1750-1950

Report

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Our Second Meeting was hosted at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh to coincide with Modern Scottish Women Painters and Sculptors 1885-1965, an exhibition curated by Sub-Group member Alice Strang and highly relevant to the Group’s subject specialist members. The day-long meeting was co-organised by Sub Group Leader, Katie J. T. Herrington (Postdoctoral Researcher, University of York) and Sub Group Facilitator, Melissa Gustin (Postgraduate Researcher, University of York) with Alice Strang, and included a series of five papers, a tour of the exhibition and a roundtable discussion. From start to finish the sixteen members in attendance enthusiastically and openly conversed, sharing their research and ideas for future directions in the field.  The papers were focused on the topic of British women artists’ studios, which was identified at the Sub Group’s first meeting, held at the University of York in November 2016. Wilhelmina Barns-Graham’s evocative Studio Interior (Red Stool, Studio), a work on show at SNGMA was taken as the subject of the keynote paper and a central image for discussion. The day confirmed that the study of women’s studios, a hitherto relatively neglected subject, deepens our knowledge about their work, lives, and receptions. Speakers addressed the studios of women painters and sculptors, inside and outside the home, in schools and among artistic groups. From this, conversations developed around notions of amateur versus professional, domestic duties, the shaping of identity, archives detailing materials, studio equipment and props that inform understandings of practices, and appropriately in the spirit of the Sub Group, how women artists worked with their male and female peers.

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In the short term this meeting enabled the Group to identify specific themes within the Women’s Studio topic for developing into a collaboratively sourced and maintained online, free access resource and/or Occasional Series. To be accompanied by a map of studio locations throughout the UK that will be a work in progress on our website which all Sub Group Members will be invited to contribute to. The themes to be explored through texts made available online might include:

 

• Representations of the studio and the formation of identity

• Ad-hoc studios in the domestic setting of the home

• Bespoke studio-homes designed and/or built by/for women artists

• Studio practice in Art Schools

• Professional Artistic Groups’ Shared Studio spaces

• Studio materials and props

 

Alice Strang’s guided tour of the exhibition was a highlight of the day. The exhibition, with ninety works from forty-five artists spread across four rooms, brought together an unprecedented number of Scottish women artists—many of whom are disregarded in the wider literature of the period. The extraordinary collection of works, including sculpture integrated into the display, inspired members to begin thinking about a future exhibition on the Studio theme that would include women artists active all over the UK. Following the tour, the group discussed the possibility of preparing  an exhibition proposal on the subject of women’s studios, integrating many of the themes raised during the day and as part of the plan for future directions. Such an exhibition might be accompanied by a catalogue containing essays by individual authors.

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There will be a third meeting of Sub Group Members in autumn 2016 the format of which is yet to be decided. There is opportunity to use the third gathering to develop this theme through workshops and continue mapping research in the field through networking. The Group also discussed plans to record Podcasts pertaining to each Member’s research to post on their online profiles in the A to Z of Members section of the website.