GWA Newsletter: April
Australia & NZ Tour; Museums Without Men; and everything you need to see, read and listen to this month!
Dear Art Lovers,
Spring has arrived, and there is much going on in the GWA world. First up, I am excited to announce that I will be coming to Australia and New Zealand this May!
Australia & New Zealand Tour: May 2024
Please join me at the following places:
18 May: Auckland, NZ | Auckland Writers Festival | Tickets
22 May: Sydney | In conversation with Tracey Moffatt | Tickets
25 May: Sydney | Sydney Writers Festival | Tickets
26 May: Bundanon | Tickets
29 May: Melbourne | National Gallery of Victoria | Tickets
31 May: Brisbane | Brisbane Writers Festival | Tickets
1 June: Brisbane | Panel – On the Basis of Sex | Tickets
1 June: Brisbane | Panel – Writing About Art | Tickets
Museums Without Men
More audioguides – highlighting works by women in museum collections – are now launched across the world. Head to The Met, Hirshhorn, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Tate Britain, Hepworth Wakefield to take a tour of their collections (or listen remotely!), and read all about it in The Guardian (here and here).
Art in Cities
In the third instalment of Art in Cities, we head to Dublin to find all sorts of gems, like this extraordinary work by Irish painter Mary Swanzy:
In The Guardian
At the beginning of March I wrote about Angelica Kauffman, whose exhibition at the Royal Academy is the museum’s first ever solo exhibition dedicated to a female artist working prior to the 19th century. I look at how the Swiss-born painter retold the stories of famous female figures from a distinctly female gaze:
“Take Cleopatra. Famed for her tempestuous love life, she is normally portrayed in the process of killing herself. Almost invariably, Cleopatra is depicted as beautiful and, for some reason, nude. Kauffman, however, took a different route, instead presenting the queen as a mourning widow, dressed in white robes, carefully laying a garland of flowers over her husband’s tomb.”
‘…One critic called the Kauffman show “overly polite”. This seems very derogatory. For me, this exhibition is about revisiting ancient stories, amplifying the female point of view, and offering a more nuanced understanding of them in both fiction and fact.’ Read the rest here.
This week I wrote about the power of public art to include and engage us, after taking my five-year-old nephew to see the new Banksy in London.
“Public art requires us to be present, to bring it to life with our imaginations, to think about how it was constructed, what its location looked like before, and how the art ties in with what already exists – all tools we can use for dreaming up a better world.”
“…This is public art’s great strength: it’s a celebration of communal looking.. Everyone is able to participate/contribute on an equal basis, engaging in the work however best suits them, no matter what their age or level of artistic knowledge…”
In conversation with Tracey Emin
Don’t miss my conversation with the fantastic Emin, recorded at TKE Studios, on International Women’s Day 2024. Watch now:
OK! Here are your top cultural picks. Katy. Xoxo
10 Great Things to Listen To
On Hilma af Klint: Julia Voss and Briony Fer on Dialogues: The David Zwirner Podcast
Architecture Repopulated on The LRB Podcast
Lavinia Greenlaw & Jennifer Higgie: The Vast Extent on London Review Bookshop Podcast
Adam Shatz with Margo Jefferson on Myself with Others
Women in Revolt! Mini Series on Tate Art Stories
Empress Theodora: From the Brothel to the Throne on Empire
Anthony Gormley on Leading: The Rest is Politics
Who Trolled Amber? on Tortoise
Sheila Heti on Thresholds
A Statue for Virginia Woolf on The Virginia Woolf Podcast
Shahzia Sikander on A Brush With…
The Second Best Way to Get Divorced According to Maya Hawke on Modern Love
10 Great Shows to See in the UK
Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron: Portraits to Dream In at the National Portrait Gallery (until June 16)
Survival Spell: Ann Hardy at Maureen Paley (until May 19)
Yoko Uno: Music of the Mind at Tate Modern (until September 1)
Acts of Resistance: Photography, Feminism and the Art of Protest at the South London Gallery (until June 9)
Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood at Arnolfini, Bristol (until May 26)
Dora Budor: Again at Nottingham Contemporary (until 5 May)
Mother Tongue at the MAC, Belfast (April 26–July 21)
Shirley Craven at the Whitworth, Manchester (until May 11)
10 Great Things to Read
Isabella Hammad: Enter Ghost
Mary Wellesley: Hayward of the Dale for the LRB
Claire Kilroy: Solider Sailor
Zoe Dubno: The Full Package for Granta
Louise Kennedy: Trespasses
Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀: A Spell of Good Things
Julia Halperin: A New Way of Looking at the Nude for the NYT
Tiya Myles: Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped Women Who Challenged a Nation
Hazel V. Carby: Remembering the Future for LRB
Maryse Condé: Crossing the Mangrove
4 Artists You Should Know
Mary Swanzy (1882-1978)
Swanzy was one of Ireland’s first abstract painters. She took art classes at Mary Manning’s studio, studied modelling at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art and lived in Paris where she encountered Modernism. Swanzy was also an avid traveller, and visited the islands Hawaii and Samoa. Her works inspired by these places showcase her company of colour and form.
Jac Leirner (b.1961)
Leirner is a sculptor and installation artist who often works with everyday objects, from cigarettes to bank notes to tote bags. Her work is influenced by Constructivism from her native Brazil. I am fascinated by how she manages to engage impossibly large issues, such as capitalism, through seemingly small and discrete objects.
Bunmi Agusto (b.1999)
Agusto is an emerging artist from Lagos, Nigeria. Her imagery is an expression of the artist’s internal paracosm she names as ‘Within’. This physic imaginary is populated with hybrid beings, indigenous inhabitance and familiar faces that are explored through paint. Through her work, Agusto allows the viewer to dwell in her rich interiority.
Mary Lovelace O’Neal (b.1942)
O’Neal is a force in American art. Through her powerful blend of art and activism, O’Neal paints truly compelling abstract canvas. I love the sheer energy that almost vibrates from each work. Alter earning her undergrad at Howard University, she studied for an M.F.A. at Columbia University, and went on to become a professor of art at the University of California at Berkeley in 1979, where she is now professor emerita.
Listening to Lavinia Greenlaw podcast took me right back to my early concerns as a painter and poet. To balance words and silence. Really warming.
I’m so curious - why isn’t Cute at Somerset House on your list of shows in London?
Also the Yoko Ono exhibit was amazing - I had really misunderstood her and her work, and it felt so expansive to learn about how engaging and collaborative she was through her art.