Women Masters exhibition, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza is presenting Women Masters, an exhibition curated from a feminist perspective by Rocío de la Villa. It features more than 100 works which together offer a survey of artistic creations by women from the late 16 th century to the early decades of the 20 th century: Artemisia Gentileschi, Angelica Kauffmann, Clara Peeters, Rosa Bonheur, Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot, María Blanchard, Natalia Goncharova, Sonia Delaunay and Maruja Mallo, celebrated artists in their lifetimes who are now enjoying renewed recognition in response to their erasure from the art-historical account, alongside other lesser-known figures who broke moulds with works of undoubted excellence.
 

Starting from the present-day notion of sisterhood, the exhibition focuses on groups of artists, patrons and gallerists characterised by shared values and by favourable socio-cultural and theoretical conditions despite the prevailing patriarchal system. This combination of historical periods, artistic genres and themes constructs the exhibition’s principal axis, allowing it to reveal how these women artists approached important issues of their day, took up positions and contributed new iconographies and alternative gazes.
 

Women Masters is the first major exhibition to reflect the process of feminist rethinking on which the Museo Thyssen has been engaged over the past few years. It benefits from the collaboration of the Comunidad de Madrid and sponsored by Carolina Herrera. After its presentation in Madrid, a reduced version of the exhibition can be seen at the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck in Remagen (Germany).