DE
EN
artists & participants
Mary Abbott,
Maliheh Afnan,
Gillian Ayres,
Barbara Hammer,
Ida Barbarigo,
Anna-Eva Bergman,
Janice Biala,
Bernice Bing,
Sandra Blow,
Trisha Brown,
Mary Ellen Bute,
Rosemarie Castoro,
Chinyee ,
Wook-kyung Choi,
Elaine De Kooning,
Niki de Saint Phalle,
Jay DeFeo,
Noemi di Benedetto,
Amaranth Ehrenhalt,
Mitra Farahani,
Asma Fayoumi,
Lilly Fenichel,
Perle Fine,
Else Fischer-Hansen,
Elna Fonnesbech-Sandberg,
Juana Frances,
Helen Frankenthaler,
Judith Godwin,
Gloria Gomez-Sanchez,
Martha Graham,
Elsa Gramcko,
Grace Hartigan,
Buffie Johnson,
Joan Jonas,
Kang-ja Jung,
Yuki Katsura,
Helen Khal,
Lee Krasner,
Yayoi Kusama,
Maria Lassnig,
Bice Lazzari,
Lifang ,
Bertina Lopes,
Ana Mendieta,
Marta Minujin,
Joan Mitchell,
Aiko Miyawaki,
Yolanda Mohalyi,
Nasreen Mohamedi,
Lea Nikel,
Tomie Ohtake,
Fayga Ostrower,
Lygia Pape,
Mercedes Pardo,
Betty Parsons,
Pat Passlof,
Alice Rahon,
Yvonne Rainer,
Carol Rama,
Marie Raymond,
Judit Reigl,
Deborah Remington,
Britta Ringvall,
Erna Rosenstein,
Behjat Sadr,
Nadia Saikali,
Zilia Sanchez,
Fanny Sanin,
Miriam Schapiro,
Carolee Schneemann,
Sarah Schumann,
Ethel Schwabacher,
Sonja Sekula,
Sylvia Snowden,
Janet Sobel,
Vivian Springford,
Atsuko Tanaka,
Franciszka Themerson,
Alma Thomas,
Yvonne Thomas,
Hedwig Thun,
Nina Tryggvadottir,
Vincent van Gogh,
Elsa Vaudrey,
Maria Helena Vieira da Silva,
Michael West
director
press release
ACTION, GESTURE, PAINT
WOMEN ARTISTS AND GLOBAL ABSTRACTION (1940–70)
Sat 3 Jun – 22 Oct 2023
The Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles presents a major exhibition of 130 paintings from an overlooked generation of 70 international women artists.
Reaching beyond the predominantly white, male painters whose names are synonymous with the Abstract Expressionist movement, this exhibition celebrates the practices of the numerous international women artists working with gestural abstraction in the aftermath of the Second World War.
It is often said that the Abstract Expressionist movement began in the USA, but this exhibition’s geographic breadth demonstrates that artists from all over the world were exploring similar themes of materiality, freedom of expression, perception and gesture, endowing gestural abstraction with their own specific cultural contexts – from the rise of fascism in parts of South America and East Asia to the influence of Communism in Eastern Europe and China.
The exhibition features well-known artists associated with the Abstract Expressionism movement, including American artists Lee Krasner (1908-1984) and Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011), alongside lesser-known figures such as Mozambican-Italian artist Bertina Lopes (1924-2012) and South Korean artist Wook-kyung Choi (1940-1985). This touring exhibition is the result of a close collaboration between the Whitechapel Gallery, the Kunsthalle Bielefeld and the Fondation Vincent Van Gogh Arles.