Enfilade

Now on view at the Thyssen:

Maestras / Women Masters
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 31 October 2023 — 4 February 2024

Curated by Rocío de la Villa

Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Portrait of a Woman, ca. 1787, oil on canvas. 100 × 81 cm (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Quimper).

Artemisia Gentileschi, Angelica Kauffmann, Clara Peeters, Rosa Bonheur, Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot, María Blanchard, Natalia Goncharova, Sonia Delaunay, and Maruja Mallo were celebrated artists in their lifetimes who are now enjoying renewed recognition in response to their erasure from the art-historical account alongside others who broke moulds with creations of undoubted excellence. Featuring nearly 100 works—including paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and textiles—Maestras is curated from a feminist viewpoint by Rocío de la Villa. The exhibition presents a survey from the late 16th century to the early decades of the 20th century through eight contexts important within women’s path towards emancipation. Starting from the contemporary notion of sisterhood, it focuses on groups of female artists, patrons, and gallerists who shared values as well as favourable socio-cultural and theoretical conditions despite the patriarchal system. Employing a structure principally based on the conjunction of historical periods, artistic genres, and themes, the exhibition reveals how these artists approached important issues of their day, established their positions, and contributed new iconographies and alternative gazes.

The exhibition is divided into eight sections:
• Sisterhood I. The Causa delle Donne
• Botanists, Well-Versed in Wonders
• Enlightened Women and Academicians
• Orientalism / Genre Painting
• Workers, Carers
• New Portrayals of Motherhood
• Sisterhood II. Rapport
• Emancipated Women

Women Masters is the first major exhibition to reflect the process of feminist rethinking on which the Museo Thyssen has been engaged over the past few years. It benefits from the collaboration of the Comunidad de Madrid and sponsored by Carolina Herrera. After its presentation in Madrid, a reduced version of the exhibition can be seen at the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck in Remagen (Germany).

Rocío de la Villa, Haizea Barcenilla, Ana Martínez-Collado, and Marta Mantecón, Maestras (Madrid: Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2023), 256 pages, ISBN: 978-8417173784, €38. Spanish with appendix with texts in English.