Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940 -1970 was an art exhibition held at the Whitechapel Gallery from 9 February 2023 through 7 May 2023. [1] The exhibit presented 150 mid-century abstract paintings by 81 women artists. The show included artists from Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. [2] [3]
The Guardian review discussed the breadth and depth of the show, stating that "not everything is equally distinguished, powerful, or even individual. With its clamour of voices, approaches, touches, tempos, styles, its wild differences in scale, surface treatment, materiality and intention, there are surprises and discoveries here, great things and dismal things, anxious things and angry things." [4] Time Out recommended the show but found it too large and the techniques too similar among the artists. [5] Artforum rated the show as a "must see", [6] The Art Newspaper subtitled their review "An ambitious exhibition at London's Whitechapel Gallery will celebrate the female artists from around the world who, against the odds, helped redefine art in the post-war period." [7] The New York Times review discusses how Abstract expressionism was occurring around the world, when it is often associated just with New York City and men. [1]
The following artists were included in the show: [8]
Ethel Kremer Schwabacher was an influential abstract expressionist painter, represented by the Betty Parsons Gallery in the 1950s and 1960s. She was a protégé and first biographer of Arshile Gorky, and friends with many of the prominent painters of New York at that time, including Willem de Kooning, Richard Pousette-Dart, Kenzo Okada, and José Guerrero. She was also the author of a monograph on the artist John Ford and a memoir, "Hungry for Light".
Sylvia Snowden is an African American abstract painter who works with acrylics, oil pastels, and mixed media to create textured works that convey the "feel of paint". Many museums have hosted her art in exhibits, while several have added her works to their permanent collections.
Lea Nikel was an Israeli abstract artist.
Mary Lee Abbott was an American artist, known as a member of the New York School of abstract expressionists in the late 1940s and 1950s. Her abstract and figurative work were also influenced by her time spent in Saint Croix and Haiti, where she lived off and on throughout the 1950s.
Deborah Remington was an American abstract painter. Her most notable work is characterized as Hard-edge painting abstraction.
Yvonne Thomas was an American abstract artist.
Pat Passlof was an American abstract expressionist painter.
Elsa Gramcko (1925–1994) was a Venezuelan artist, known as an abstract sculptor and painter. Her earlier works, which date from 1954, were geometric paintings, while her later works were more tachist in nature. While her earlier works consisted of mostly paintings, she expanded into sculpture and assemblage in the 1960s and 1970s.
Bernice Bing was a Chinese American lesbian artist involved in the San Francisco Bay Area art scene in the 1960s. She was known for her interest in the Beats and Zen Buddhism, and for the "calligraphy-inspired abstraction" in her paintings, which she adopted after studying with Saburo Hasegawa.
Amaranth Roslyn Ehrenhalt was an American painter, sculptor, and writer, who spent the majority of her career living and working in Paris, France before returning to New York City.
Corinne Michelle West (1908–1991) was an American painter; she also used the names Mikael and Michael West. She was an Abstract Expressionist.
Lilly Fenichel (1927–2016), was an American painter who explored abstraction through a wide range of media and approaches, with her various periods linked together by a common emphasis on color harmonies and expressive, often calligraphic gesture. Her earliest work is associated with second-generation Bay Area Abstract Expressionism.
Buffie Johnson was an American painter, associated with the Abstract Imagists.
Ruth Armer was an American abstractionist painter, teacher, art collector, and lithographer, from the San Francisco Bay area in California. Her art is held in the collections of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Emiko Nakano (1925–1990) was an American abstract expressionist painter, printmaker, fiber artist, and fashion Illustrator.
Elsa Vaudrey or Elsa Vaudrey Barker-Mill (1905-1990) was a British painter. Vaudrey née Dun was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1905. She attended the Glasgow School of Art. During World War II she was involved with the administration of the Stonefield Maternity Home located in London, known for promoting a vegetarian diet for its clientele. Married twice, her second husband was fellow artist Peter Vaudrey Barker-Mill in 1937. The couple had one child and were divorced in 1950. Vaudrey exhibited often at The Redfern Gallery, including a solo show in 1957. She died in 1990 the same year that the Fine Art Society held an exhibit of her later paintings.
Asma Fayoumi is a Syrian Abstract Expressionist painter. She attended Damascus University in Syria. Her work is in the collection of the Barjeel Art Foundation
Juana Francés was a Spanish Abstract Expressionist painter. She was born on 31 July 1924 in Altea, Spain. She attended the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. In 1957 she co-founded the El Paso (grupo) a Spanish Abstract Expressionism group. She died on 9 March 1990 in Madrid.
Wook-kyung Choi was a Korean Abstract Expressionist painter. She was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1940. She attended Seoul National University and then immigrated to the United States where she studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art and the Brooklyn Museum Art School. In 1978 Choi returned to South Korea where she taught at Yeungnam University and Duksung Women's University. Choi died in 1985 at the age of 45 in Seoul.
Chinyee is a Chinese-American Abstract Expressionist painter. She emigrated to the United States to study at the College of Mount Saint Vincent and went on to earn her MFA from New York University. In the mid-1960s Chinyee became involved with the United Nations, working in New York City, the Belgian Congo, and multiple other overseas UN missions.