Action / Gesture / Paint: a global story of women and abstraction 194070
By (Author) Laura Smith
Whitechapel Gallery
Whitechapel Gallery
15th June 2023
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
Theory of art
History of art
709.040520922
Paperback
200
Width 155mm, Height 255mm
1420g
Drawing on the avant-garde movements of both Expressionism and Surrealism, the women of Abstract Expressionism redefined artistic practice as an immersive arena for action, process and consciousness. Their paintings were regarded not as images but as events. Although the movement officially began in mid-century USA, it quickly - through myriad means - spread around the world and became a catalyst for redefining ideas around aesthetics, poetry, philosophy and politics.
This new publication, accompanying a major European touring exhibition, will include works by 40 artists from across the globe, from well-known practitioners such as Carmen Herrera, Etel Adnan, Sandra Blow and Helen Frankenthaler, to lesser-known names from countries such as Australia, China, Iceland, Japan, Mexico, Mozambique, Romania and Venezuela: women who took up the ideas and methodologies of the movement but endowed them with specific cultural and subjective dimensions.
The catalaogue will include essays by Christian Levett, Joan Marter, Agustin Perez Rubio and Elizabeth Smith, as well as full colour illustrations of all the works.
Laura Smith is Curator at Whitechapel Gallery.