Drawing on untapped archives, as well as aggregating a wide range of existing published sources, this book recalibrates the understanding of women artists' roles, outputs and receptions in London during what was indubitably a vibrant and innovative period in the history of British art, and in which the work of their male contemporaries is so well understood. The book takes its starting point from Alicia Foster's article Gwen John's Self-Portrait: Art, Identity and Women Students at the Slade School, published in 2000, where the expression a talented and decorative group was coined to describe common attitudes towards women artists in the late 19th and early 20th century London. This pejorative attribution strongly implied a status less significant to that of their male counterparts. The author challenges this statement's basic tenet by casting a wide net in examining women's art education from the Slade School of Fine Art, through to the role of its graduates within a selection of London's exhibition groups, societies and publications. This book also reconstructs 'from scratch' the role of the Women's International Art Club (WIAC), hitherto entirely overlooked in art historical studies of the era. This book will be of interest to students and researchers in art and cultural history, gender studies,and in sociological studies of pre-War World War Britain.

Presents an entirely new historical understanding of women artists' roles and contributions in academic institutions and key exhibition groups in London during the early 1900s Examines the nature and efficacy of clusters, circles, and networks that sustained female artists both in college and in their professional lives Develops an innovative research trajectory that prioritises institutional rather than personal approaches and locates individuals and evaluates their roles within these institutional histories

Autorentext

Dr. Mengting Yu is an art historian, artist and scholar with a multidisciplinary background in fine arts, art history and curatorial related studies. Dr. Yu recently received her Ph.D. in art history from the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, under the supervision of Professor Michael J. K. Walsh. Her research interests include painting, 20th century British art, London's early Modernism, exhibition societies, women artists and women art education in cross-cultural contexts. During her PhD years, she successfully received Research Support Grants from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies of British Art, Yale University on two occasions in support of her trips to London in April 2015 and December 2016, as well as a Dissertation Fellowship from Harry Ransom Centre, University of Texas at Austin in 2015 to visit its collections of rare manuscripts and works of art.

Inhalt

Chapter 1: Women Artists at the Slade School of Fine Art in Edwardian London, 1901-1910.- Chapter 2: Women Artists at the Slade School of Fine Art in the Pre-war London, 1910-1914.- Chapter 3: Women Artists and English Exhibiting Societies.- Chapter 4: Women Artists and the Rhythm Magazine, London 1911-1913.- Chapter 5: Women's International Art Club: Inclusivity, Diversity and Femininity, 1900-1914.