Beyond Figuration: Then and Now.

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'Beyond Figuration: Then and Now' champions abstract women artists from across generations. Female artists have always been at the forefront of abstraction. And yet, from Eileen Agar to Berenice Sydney, their contribution has historically been overshadowed by that of their male counterparts. Today, GJG selects eleven artists working throughout the 20th and 21st Centuries to create a dialogue between the female pioneers of yesterday and tomorrow.

The canon of art history often refers to the abandonment of imitative practices as having roots in the Romantic period. This period saw the initial disruptions of representation over imagination. Shortly afterwards, at the dawn of the 20th Century and with the birth of psychoanalysis, a fascination with the study of the subconscious mind began to seize all sectors of intellectual thought, from science to art. Abstraction emerged as a way to represent the subconscious and to purify human emotion and thought.

Non-figurative art thus became one of the driving forces in the evolution of art over the past 150 years; in his 1936 book Cubism and Abstract Art, Alfred H. Barr, Jr., MoMA’s first Director, described it as ‘independent painting, emancipated painting; an end in itself with its own peculiar value.’ Abstract art stands the test of time due to its widely appealing visual style and its interpretive subjectivity. The intense individualism of abstraction paradoxically lends a certain universality whereby each viewer finds intimate meaning in each piece.

Women have often been pioneers of abstraction, and yet their contribution has historically been marginalised and overshadowed by their male counterparts. Only recently have their names been fairly recognized within the canon of abstract art. Going beyond the predominantly white, male painters who are synonymous with the genre, the paintings in this exhibition demonstrate how female artists were, and still are, essential in the development of abstraction.

Amongst the female artists at the forefront of the development of non-figurative art throughout the 20th Century are Eileen Agar, Paule Vézelay, Berenice Sydney, Bridget Riley, and Fiona Rae. From early experimental abstraction to Op-Art and geometric abstraction, these artists were striving and succeeding artistically in an overwhelmingly male milieu. Each artist exhibits different responses to abstraction thereby highlighting the movement’s diversity and scope. Their work is distinctly Modernist: responding to the divisions of abstraction that arose in the 20th century, like the Russian-originated Constructivist movement.

In this exhibition, artists like A’Driane Nieves, Jemima Murphy, Manon Steyaert, and Megan Baker bring a contemporary sensibility to an established art form. They are representative of the current wave of abstraction, forging individually owned paths whilst commemorating the trailblazers of yesterday. Although they build upon the artistic language of their 20th century forebears, their work is inextricable from their present-day context.

‘Beyond Figuration: Then and Now’ will seek to generate new perspectives on this much debated artistic form, putting established 20th Century abstract artists in conversation with contemporary emerging creatives who work in non-figuration. Abstraction continues to be prevalent within art production, and contemporary artists recall the legacy of their predecessors, adopting their formal strategies while recontextualising and personalising their underlying meanings.