Curator: Alison M. Gingeras
Cooperation: Ewa Klekot, Beata Purc
Organized by curator and art historian Alison M. Gingeras, this exhibition challenges the notion that women were largely absent from art before the late 1800s. The eight-part visual narrative is a testament to the enduring and dynamic creativity of women artists over the last 500 years. The result is a collection of nearly 200 works, including paintings by Renaissance, Baroque and 19th-century women artists through more contemporary works, offering a centuries-long visual history of women’s “emancipation.” Among the featured artists are several prominent British figures who have shaped feminist and conceptual art over the past decades, such as Sonia Boyce, Lubaina Himid, Tracey Emin.
It’s a fallacy that women artists were rare exceptions before the 20th century. The Woman Question demonstrates that women have consistently pursued their creative missions despite being often underappreciated and operating against various social restrictions. Women have asserted their artistic presence while simultaneously using their art to represent and validate their individual experiences. In addition to showcasing a diverse range of artistic practices, the exhibition aims to show the power inherent in a feminist approach to art history—one that demands justice, restores the voices of the “erased,” and leads to a revision of the so-called canon.
The exhibition showcases allegorical representations of power, resistance and sexual violence; it looks at the struggle for access to artistic education; representations of women’s bodies and erotic desires; iconography of motherhood and reproductive choice; women’s agency in times of war; and how the role of women in society changes dramatically in times of upheaval. The Woman Question 1550–2025 brings together works by almost 150 women artists, divided into eight thematic sections:
- Femmes Fortes: Allegories and Agency
- Palettes and Power: The Self Portrait as Manifesto
- Education and the Canon
- A Muse of Her Own
- Surreal Self, Mystical Me: Symbolism, Surrealism and Mysticism
- No Gate, No Lock, No Bolt: Imaginaries Unleashed
- Of Woman Born
- Wartime Women
- Femmes Fortes: Allegories and Agency
- Palettes and Power: The Self Portrait as Manifesto
- Education and the Canon
- A Muse of Her Own
- Surreal Self, Mystical Me: Symbolism, Surrealism and Mysticism
- No Gate, No Lock, No Bolt: Imaginaries Unleashed
- Of Woman Born
- Wartime Women
The Woman Question 1550–2025 is more than a historical survey—it is a call to reframe art history through the lens of feminist continuity and resistance. As art historian Mary Garrard has written, “Feminism existed before we knew what to call it.” This exhibition makes that lineage visible.