Beyond Figuration: Then and Now: Group Exhibition

The canon of art history often refers to the abandonment of imitative practices as having roots in the Romantic period. This period saw the initial disruptions of representation over imagination. Shortly afterwards, at the dawn of the 20th Century and with the birth of psychoanalysis, a fascination with the study of the subconscious mind began to seize all sectors of intellectual thought, from science to art. Abstraction emerged as a way to represent the subconscious and to purify human emotion and thought.

Women have often been pioneers of abstraction, and yet their contribution has historically been marginalised and overshadowed by their male counterparts. Only recently have their names been fairly recognized within the canon of abstract art. Going beyond the predominantly white, male painters who are synonymous with the genre, the paintings in this exhibition demonstrate how female artists were, and still are, essential in the development of abstraction.