Monster Chetwynd, Jesus and Barabbas (Odd Man Out 2011), 2018. © The artist, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London.
Back in 1989, feminist activist art group the Guerrilla Girls famously asked, “Do women have to be nude to get into the Met Museum?”. They claimed that although less than 5% of artists displayed in the gallery were female, 85% of the nudes were depictions of women. And whilst we can’t speak for the Metropolitan, Tate Britain announced yesterday that they will be bucking the long-established trend by dedicating their permanent (and free) exhibition space to work entirely by women artists from next spring.
The announcement comes as a fitting end to the UK’s celebrations of a centenary of female suffrage. Opening in April 2019 and running for at least a year, the new display, Sixty Years, will tell the story of British art from 1960 to the present day, featuring an outstanding showcase of artists, including Bridget Riley, Rachel Whiteread, Monster Chetwynd and Sarah Lucas, who is currently enjoying her first US retrospective at New York’s New Museum.
Sixty Years is Tate’s latest instalment in their series of projects aiming to address the gender imbalance in the curation of art, and follows LDN WMN, Tate Collective’s series of 20 public artworks across London celebrating women who played a vital role in the capital’s history. And it’s not set to be the last — throughout 2019 there will be a range of exhibitions showcasing women artists such as Natalia Goncharova, Dora Maar, Dorothea Tanning, Sol Calero, Anna Boghiguian, Otobong Nkanga, Rose Finn-Kelcey and Joanna Piotrowska at Tate’s sites across the UK.
“The recent histories of the Turner prize, Tate’s exhibition programme and contemporary acquisitions reflect the critical role of women in the history of British art over the last 60 years,” explained Alex Farquharson, director of Tate Britain. “This celebration [the Sixty Years display] will offer a significant moment to recognise and celebrate a selection of Britain’s most important artists working from the 1960s to the present day.”
The announcement of the display has been celebrated by female creatives across social media, including @thegreatwomenartists curator Katy Hessel. “It will change the future generation’s knowledge of art. Anyone from any background, of any age, will be able to walk into the free galleries and learn that women were also major contributors to art history, and that they mattered,” Hessel tells SLEEK. “This display will have a huge affect on education and looking at art history from a balanced point of view. Although it is long overdue, it is brilliant that Tate Britain is starting the conversation that women artists need to be catapulted into the spotlight, and I hope other institutions follow suit.” We couldn’t agree more.