The Rise of Women artists

 I visited this exhibition as some background research for my essay that is due in next week, The exhibition boasts that even though art galleries are coming under scrutiny for not having enough female art in its collections, the Walker has been purchasing female art since the year it opened in 1877. (One could argue that if an organisation had always fairly represented both genders it wouldnt need to dedicate a exhibition to one gender to prove it, but thats just me being overly critical as always, of course we should celebrate this exhibition for all it has to offer)

I loved the fact the exhibition almost followed the format in which I'm writing my essay, beginning with early forms of female art such as embroidered greek pilows then moving on throughout history into contemporary art. Along the way demonstrating the struggle between genders and womens fight for artistic recognition.

I loved seeing some of my personal favourite artists on display. such as Helen Chadwick's 'Viral Landscapes' (1988-1989) which has been a big influence on me and my work. She was an artists fully dedicated to exploring the body and what is to be a living ogranism and live inside the human body. Her work dealt with identity and issues of gender just as my own but she always had this truely unique twist on the subject matter that completely stepped out of the box and hits you like a ton of bricks. As an artists I love concepts behind work but I do sometimes find it difficult to read into works myself without a small clue or a question to spark my trail of thought however with Chadwicks work I've always found the connection imeediately and had a personal reaction to the work.

 

If one day I could be half as talented  and create reactions for other people as her work has done for me I would die a happy man.

Another piece I came across was Louise Bourgeois who sadly died recently and was a greta loss to the art world. The piece was called 'Ears' (2005) It attracted my ear for being very clear images of  human ears which reminded me of some lino prints I had produced last year. However this piece was a drypoint print on fabric with sewn detailing. It was almost a combination of my early work with the stuff I've been working on recently. Which is odd since the description in the gallery described the work as a link between her early career and her recent one.