Monday

The restrictions female practitioners had historically faced in their art training, were by the Twentieth Century becoming more relaxed. Women now rightly took their place alongside their male peers, forming radical new styles and were frequently at the forefront of artistic developments. Both socially and culturally, the role of the female artist changed to such an extent that they were integral to the organisation of avant-garde events and establishing groups. This attitude was not confined to France, indeed other centres were often more progressive towards the inclusion and support of women artists in a male dominated system. We will look at practitioners from Europe and the US, focussing on the first half of the 20th Century, a period of great change for women and see how collectively, these practitioners changed the role of the artist and the course of art history.