Paint, She Said

Between 9th October and 15th December 2015, Rochechouart Museum of Contemporary Art presents “Paint, She Said”, an exhibition of paintings by nineteen women artists celebrating the current buoyant state of painting and particularly of painting by women artists living in France. Grouped under this title (reminiscent of Marguerite Duras' film and book "Destroy She Said") are a selection of established or up-and-coming artists who have clearly placed themselves in a painterly tradition and contribute to its continuing renewal.

Paintings in this exhibition juxtapose approaches adopted by nineteen women artists today. Interestingly, femininity is not a central issue in many of the works. Is the question now old-fashioned or outdated? That could be a good sign, even if prejudices die hard and can be subverted with irony or punk-like attitudes (e.g. Giulia Andreani, Anne Brégeaut, Nina Childress, Béatrice Cussol, Oda Jaune). So why mount an exhibition of works exclusively by women artists? The reason is simple: despite improvements since the nineteen sixties, and a favourable evolution in France over the last few decades, many women artists continue to be underrated. Consequently, the exhibition could be seen as pursuing a feminist agenda. Our aim is to underline the work of selected women artists, illustrating their contribution to the field of painting in a range of styles and reflecting current trends in France. Included are French artists working abroad as well as foreign artists living and working in France. Most paintings showcased here are figurative in style without excluding abstract works. Some of the paintings demonstrate how recent technological advances in imagery have been assimilated (e.g. Amélie Bertrand, Marion Charlet, Elodie Lesourd). The exhibition demonstrates painting's synergy with other expressive media, for example in Hélène Delprat's and Anne Bregeaut's use of sculpture, drawings by Iris Levasseur and Béatrice Cussol or in installations by Laure Prouvost and Delphine Trouche.

All these artists employ the traditional medium of painting, a field that has long been subject to cycles of fashion, especially in recent decades. “Paint, She Said”, with its intimations of Marguerite Duras' work, is a joyful celebration of well-established and younger women artists who are tackling an historically loaded field and are updating it with new modes of communication and expression.

With works from Giulia Andreani, Farah Atassi, Amélie Bertrand, Anne Brégeaut, Marion Charlet, Coraline de Chiara, Nina Childress, Béatrice Cussol, Hélène Delprat, Vanessa Fanuele, Vidya Gastaldon, Oda Jaune, Elodie Lesourd, Iris Levasseur, Maude Maris, Eva Nielsen, Laure Prouvost, Claire Tabouret and Delphine Trouche.