GWA Newsletter: April
A selection of the best things to see, read, listen to and do this month
Dear Readers,
Happy April! Coming to you from sunny London.
We’ve got a lot of exciting updates this month, from new GWA podcast episodes to an essay about sitting for Celia Paul. And, as always, a selection of the best things to see, read, listen to and do this month.
For those in NYC: I will be in conversation with the painter, Antonia Showering on Thursday 8 May, 5.30pm, for her exhibition at Timothy Taylor. Tickets here!
Also: don’t miss a painting of us by Chantal Joffe, shown alongside Alice Neel, Marcia Marcus, and Sylvia Sleigh at Lévy Gorvy Danyan! PS. This week’s podcast is on Sleigh.
Enjoy! Xoxo Katy
The Great Women Artists Podcast: Jenny Saville
We’re back, and kicked off the new season with the legendary painter, Jenny Saville!
“[As a child] I just made things in my bedroom and I was very conscious. [My mother] gave me a sort of broom cupboard, which I always call my first studio. And I was really conscious in the summer of waking up and having a sort of trajectory in my head of what needed to be done that day, in exactly the same way as I still have.”
Rose Wylie
I also had the pleasure of visiting the icon that is painter Rose Wylie, in her Kent studio/cottage.
Now 90 years old, Wylie is back for her exhibition “When Found becomes Given” at David Zwirner, London — and a 2026 show at the Royal Academy!
Rose told me about her experience at art school in the 50s; where her inspiration comes from; the serious playfulness of her practice; how her ever-changing studio and the nature outside continue to inspire her work; and much more.
“I don't like perfection. I like breaks and joins and additions and movement and organic progression, all of that sort of stuff, which is why I paint canvases which aren't stretched. Because I can add them and put them together and cut them up and slit them and separate them and put bits in the middle.
I like movement. I don't too much like stuff which is static. I think it relates to death and coffins… I like a bit of movement.”
Katherine Bradford
The last time I was in NYC I was lucky enough to interview the extraordinary painter, Katherine Bradford.
We chatted about her commitment to depicting inclusivity and community; what it was like to be a painter in 1970s New York as a single mother; the magical feeling of swimming at night - and so much more.
“I like to do paintings about things that I want to dwell on and live with, and a lot of it has to do with colour and light and shapes, people being kind, people relating to each other, the psychological electricity between one human being and another. These are the kinds of things that I want to spend a day or a week or a lifetime examining.
[…] I found out accidentally that if you put a thin coating of painting over a figure, it looks like they're standing in water or fog or air, and that just seemed kind of magic. And so I returned to it often enough.”
In The Guardian
For this month’s Guardian column I wrote about the life of pioneering painter Vanessa Bell, after a visit to Charleston Lewes’ brilliant exhibition, Vanessa Bell: World of Form and Colour.
When you think of the Bloomsbury Group – the writers, artists and intellectuals who congregated at 46 Gordon Square in London in the early 20th century – you might think of Virginia Woolf; the Omega Workshops, which brought fine art to modernist designs; Charleston, a farmhouse in Sussex, frequented by core members who painted every available surface in blazing hues; or the famous phrase about their unorthodox sex lives – they “painted in circles and loved in triangles”.
But do you ever think – or know much – about a woman at the heart of the group, Vanessa Bell, sister of Virginia and co-director of the Omega Workshops? If Bloomsbury member John Maynard Keynes was the economics pioneer, and Woolf its literary star, then Bell was the painter equivalent.
Read the rest here!
On Substack
To celebrate the new season of The Great Women Artists Podcast, I reflected on some of my favourite moments from 2024, ft. Doris Salcedo, Barbara Kruger, Judy Chicago, Barbara Walker, and more. You can read that here!
Spring has officially sprung. The daffodils are out, the magnolias are blooming, and the days are – finally! – getting longer. To celebrate, I shared a selection of my favourite spring scenes by the likes of Joan Mitchell, Mary Moser, Jennifer Packer, Jordan Casteel, and more. Check it out here!
I am still so in awe of the art I saw in Australia last year. So, as a follow up to my Sydney guide, I’ve put together an Art in Cities for Melbourne. Dive in here.
In Harper’s Bazaar: Sitting for Celia Paul
On a rainy summer’s day last July, I had my portrait painted by the wonderful Celia Paul. I wrote about the experience for Harper’s Bazaar, which you can read here.
The Artsy Podcast
I loved talking to the Artsy Podcast for a special Women’s History Month episode about women’s representation in the art world, the progress that has been made towards gender parity, and the contemporary women artists I’m watching now.
Listen here!
Ok, now for my recommendations for the month of April. Enjoy!
12 great shows to see in the UK:
Rose Wylie: When Found Becomes Given at David Zwirner, London, until 23 May
Vanessa Bell at Charleston, Lewes, until 21 Sep
Maggi Hambling at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, until 27 Apr
Maeve Gilmore at Alison Jacques, London, until 3 May
Rhea Storr: Subjects of State, Labours of Love at Wolverhampton Art Gallery, until 8 Jun
Leigh Bowery! at Tate Modern, London, until 31 Aug
Women in Revolt! at Whitworth, Manchester, until 1 Jun
Si On at Edel Assanti, London, until 13 May
Tarot: Origins and Afterlives at Warburg Institute, London, until 30 Apr
Elizabeth Fritsch at Hepworth Wakefield, until 2026
Barbara Hepworth: Strings at Piano Nobile, London, until 2 May
15 great shows to see outside of the UK:
Chantal Joffe at Skarstedt, Paris, until 31 May
Maruja Mallo at Centro Botín, Santander, until 14 Sept
Gertrude Abercrombie at Carnegie Musem of Art, Pittsburgh, until 1 Jun
Good Mom Bad Mom at Centraal Museum, Utrecht, until 14 Sep
Amy Sherald at Whitney Museum, New York, until 10 Aug
Magdalena Abakanowicz at Het Noordbrabants Museum, 's-Hertogenbosch, until 24 Aug
Caroline Walker at Grimm Gallery, New York, until 3 May
María Magdalena Campos-Pons at Getty Center, LA, until 4 May
Suzanne Lacy at Museum Tinguely, Basel, until 7 Sep
Veronica Ryan at Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, until 27 Jul
Louise Bourgeois at Hauser Wirth, Hong Kong, until 21 Jun
Madalena Santos Reinbolt: A Head Full of Planets at American Folk Art Museum, New York, until 25 May
Kennedy Yanko: Retro Future at Salon 94, until 17 May
Tracey Emin at Palazzo Strozzi (and for those in the US, Yale Center for British Art)
Paula Rego and Adriana Varejão: Between Your Teeth at Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian, Lisbon, until 22 Sept
10 great things to read:
Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
On Girlhood: Lauren Greenfield & Eimear Lynch in Conversation via AnOther
Yoko: A Biography by David Sheff
Judith Butler on Executive Order 14168 for LRB
Nova Scotia House by Charlie Porter
Deborah Levy on The Beatles via The New Statesman
The City Changes its Face by Eimear McBride
You Are Here by David Nicholls
Zoe Williams interviews FKA twigs, via The Guardian
Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert
4 great things to listen to:
Anne Rothenstein via Talk Art
Candy Darling, More Than a Warhol Superstar via Dialogues
The Lost Food of Soho, via Vittles
David Hockney (from 1972!), via Desert Island Discs
3 great things to do in London:
Ealing Book Festival, 24th — 27th April — featuring talks with so many amazing writers, including Elif Shafak, Natasha Brown, Tracy Chevalier, and Andrew O’Hagan!
Helen Jukes in Conversation with Lucy Jones, Waterstones Gower Street, Tuesday 22nd April
Watch One to One: John and Yoko at the Barbican, until 24th April
5 great artists to know:
Anne Rothenstein (b.1949)
Beatriz Milhazes (b.1960)
Ming Smith (b.1947)
Hilda Rix Nicholas (1884—1961)
Nellie Mae Rowe (1900—1982)
That’s it from me! Happy GWA’ing. Thank you for reading this Substack. If you think someone else might enjoy this too, please spread the word and share this article. If you have any feedback — or your own April recommendation! — please comment below.
Thank you, Katy, for another wonderful newsletter! Please consider adding SFMOMA's Ruth Asawa: Retrospective to the list! A wonderful celebration of an amazing woman artist and advocate. https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/ruth-asawa-retrospective/
I think I said this when you first started but you have and continue to introduce me to so many artists I had not known about. And I love your enthusiasm and positivity for all of them! Thanks