The Easel

28th February 2023

The Problem With All-Women Exhibitions

A show of female abstract artists is justified by the gallery as being “tactically necessary” to correct a art historical narrative that is biased toward men. It usefully reminds us of unfairly overlooked artists. But, protests the writer, “I simply do not buy the claim that we need more lists of women artists. [We need] to shake out where these artists fall … in the context of art history. How does their work broaden, disrupt, fit into, or question existing narratives of art history?”