Alice Strang, senior curator of the SNG opened the event. She was the senior curator for the Modern Scottish Women exhibition. She touched on many of the subjects on the information boards in the exhibition.
Alice Strang set up the exhibition to focus on painting and sculpture. Few Scottish women in these fields had been seriously studied, whereas serious research in the applied arts has already been conducted about women. The hierarchy she has observed is
Painting - (women allowed to be recognised for flowers)
Sculpture (male, the least feminine of the arts)
Applied Arts - more suitable for women.
So the exhibition focussed on portraiture, landscape, sculpture and photographs by women to challenge what had already been studied.
Women had short artistic careers for various reasons - the marriage bar precluded women from holding full-time teaching positions which many used to support their artistic practice. This has led to very few women producing enough work for solo shows, so this exhibition brings together the work of many women.
Focussed on 1885-1965 because of conflicting views on women in 1885 times - the misogynist Sir William Fettes Douglas, President of the Royal Scottish Academy declared the work of a woman artist was like a man's, only weaker and poorer, but Fra Newbery Director of the Glasgow School of Art drove the Institution into its heyday by supporting and recognising women. The end date is 1965, death of Anne Redpath, first woman elected to full membership of RSA. Additionally in the 1960s state support for the Arts and university grants meant more women accessing education and artistic employment.
Another difficulty to be overcome was the changing of female artists names. Some had 4 or more names - maiden name, one or several marriages, and possibly a husband attaining a peerage and therefore a title. Daughters and sons of female artists supplied back-up information. Challenges of gaining information included the Academy system ignoring women; critics using restricted vocabulary about work when it was identified as by a woman "charming"; and women being referred to by their husband's name "Mrs William …" making it difficult to identify them.
Exhibition catalogues are the legacy of exhibiting careers. Valuable starting points for research. Also Yourpaintings website - has online record of all paintings held in public galleries. Also used contacts in art galleries, auction houses and dealers.
The exhibition did not seek to portray a feminine aesthetic - there were images of self portraits, portraits, religious themes, Belsen and landscape waves. The curator chose to have a chronological ordering. There had been criticism of the photos being displayed in a corridor, but this was done as the light levels were lower and were better for photo conservation.
Marketing of the exhibition was neutral/factual. But even the image by Dorothy Johnstone of Anne Finlay was controversial as it was deemed sexy by some. However it was chosen as the exhibition image as it was by a woman, of a woman. It did not come across as sexy to me - I very much like it because of the bright, cheerful colours, tonal contrast and direct case.
An excellent opening given by the curator.
More to follow
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