British Women Artists

From Suffrage to the Sixties

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The story of modern British art history told through the stories of its women

Consider for a moment the history of modern art in Britain; you may struggle to land on a narrative that features very many women. On this journey through a fascinating period of social change, artist Carolyn Trant fills in some of the gaps in traditional art histories. Introducing the lives and works of a rich network of neglected women artists, British Women Artists sets these alongside such renowned presences as Barbara Hepworth, Laura Knight and Winifred Nicholson. In an era of radical activism and great social and political change, women forged new relationships with art and its institutions. Such change was not without its challenges, and with acerbic wit Trant delves into the gendered make-up of the ‘avant-garde’, and the tyranny of artistic ‘isms’.

In the decades after women won the vote in Britain, the fortunes of women artists were shaped by war, domesticity, continued oppressions and spirited resistance. Some succeeded in forging creative careers; others were thwarted by the odds stacked against them. Weaving devastating individual stories with playful critique, British Women Artists reveals this hidden history.

Extent: 336 pp
Format: Paperback
Illustrations: 128
Publication date: 2024-03-07
Size: 19.8 x 12.9 cm
ISBN: 9780500297827
Introduction 1. Daughters of the Sun 2. Blessed Company 3. Not Merely a Window 4. A Room of One’s Own 5. Alternative Arrangements 6. Women on Top 7. On Growth and Form 8. The Subversive Eye 9. Art for Love 10. Education Through Art 11. Proletarians and Painters 12. These Things that War Has Made 13. Thinking in Common 14. Significant Others 15. Three Salutary Tales 16. In the Service of Art 17. The Kitchen Sink 18. This is Tomorrow

Press Reviews

Offers a powerful and important corrective to historical accounts that continue to draw on the same small pool of participants ... It was a pleasure to discover for the first time so many women artists overdue serious attention
Times Literary Supplement

A wonderfully rich panorama of creative lives, by turns elegiac and celebratory. Truthful, practical and open-minded, Trants book points us in new directions
Alexandra Harris

A lavish chronicle of female artists and their struggle to succeed ... full of surprises
Rachel Cooke, Observer


About the Author

Carolyn Trant is a practising artist who was trained at the Slade University College of London She is the author of iArt for Life The Story of Peggy Angusi and a contributor to iThe Cultural Life of Imagesi

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