Action, Gesture, Paint: Whitechapel Gallery's explosion of colour
Featuring over 150 paintings, we take a look at Whitechapel Gallery's new all-women exhibition...
February 15, 2023

Action, Gesture, Paint: Woman artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 is an explosive survey of abstract expressionism. The title “Action, gesture, paint” calls to mind “lights, camera, action” or “ready, set, go” and after seeing over 150 paintings spanning a generation of 80 women artists you do feel like you’ve just finished a marathon. The play on words may not have been intended but is apt for this tour de force which immediately proclaims itself in a riot of colour that goes on to fill five rooms at the Whitechapel Gallery.

Promenade for a Bachelor, Pat Passlof, 1958

While there I overheard a woman saying there was too much on the walls. ‘Each painting deserves their own wall’ she said, ‘and why are all women pushed into one exhibition they should be having solo shows’. The lady was right, the walls are crammed but it’s brilliant. The exhibition acts as an encyclopaedia of work for anyone interested in the women artists all too often overlooked when we think of Abstract Expressionism. It’s refreshing to have such a dense variety of women’s work in one place.

April Mood, Helen Frankenthaler, 1974

Women artists from around the world and different eras are united under one roof. The extravagance of Gillian Ayres (1930-2018) across the wall from Audrey Flack (b. 1931) next to Sandra Blow (1925-2006) and Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) makes for an engulfing start; these paintings mark the first room with rich moments of titillating colour contrasted with the coarse darkness of Marta Minujín’s (b. 1943) sand and lacquer compositions and minimalist elegance of Bice Lazzari’s (1900 – 1981) work. 

The Bull, Elaine De Kooning, 1959

Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning come to mind when we think of Abstract Expressionism. But how familiar are we with the work of their partners Lee Krasner (1908-1984) and Elaine de Kooning (1918-1989)? While Krasner’s retrospective ‘Lee Krasner: Living With Colour’ at the Barbican back in 2019 was an incredible insight into the life and work of a woman overshadowed by her husband, seeing her work within the context of other female artists is an entirely different affair, uncovering a parallel narrative hiding in plain sight. The exhibition also sheds light on artists working outside of the mid-century modern movement in the United States, representing artists from the Middle East, East Asia and Central and South America.

Untitled, Behjat Sadr, 1956

We are offered a great opportunity to hear about the names of women whose contribution has not been well acknowledged - Janet Sobel (1893 – 1968) born in Ukraine, developed her own style, not attending art school herself she discovered her own technique of ‘drip painting’ by observing her son’s studies at Art School in New York. She exhibited at Sidney Janis’s gallery as well as at Peggy Guggenheim’s where she was seen by Pollock and the art critic Clement Greenberg, yet her contribution to ‘all-over’ and ‘drip painting’ is only now being recognised.

Untitled, Janet Sobel

Parallels are made by presenting Sobel alongside Sonja Sekula (1918-1963). On moving to New York from Switzerland, she became part of an artistic avant-garde which included artists Marcel Duchamp and André Breton. She was influenced by Indian folklore as well as Surrealism producing large paintings of swirling lines and abstract patterns. Her work was rarely shown in Europe though she frequently exhibited alongside abstract expressionists in New York.

Illusion of Solidity, Janet Sobel, 1945

Hedwig Thun (1892-1969) studied under Wassily Kandinsky at the Bauhaus but only around eighty of her paintings and some of her writing survives. In this gallery the wall text reads ‘some artists used window-scaled canvas as a nod to domestic interiors’, though I am not so convinced. I suspect as the wall text continues it was more a case of the limitations of being a woman in a man’s world. Expectations and financial constraints limiting the time for and size of their work. Martha Edelheit (b. 1931) now living in Sweden is quoted beside her work as saying ‘It didn’t really occur to me that I could be an artist. All the artists in the museums were men’. 

The exhibition is intense, with such visceral work often created in response to the aftermath of the Second World War. Emiko Nakano (1925-1990) and her family were put in an American internment camp in California, and many of the artists represented were working in exile, others under dictatorship; Juana Frances (1924 – 1990) painted in Madrid under Franco, producing large scale canvases which, from a distance, look like aerial photos of battlegrounds, sand and paint is built into a terrain scarred with craters, a battlefield devoid of life. The range of work covered is extensive including several different approaches to painting, which explore paint itself as a medium and the method of applying it to the canvas. Each room shows us a slightly different way of portraying the outside and inner world. 

Bald Eagle, Lee Krasner, 1955

Some works such as Lee Krasner’s Bald Eagle (1955) return to the gallery, others such as those by Korean artist Wook-kyung Choi (1940-1985) and Israeli artist Lea Nikel (1918-2005) are exhibited in the UK for the first time. The catalogue will surely be an invaluable book to those wanting to uncover women’s contribution to changing aesthetics, poetry, philosophy and even politics. 

Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction and its accompanying exhibition Action, Gesture, Performance: Feminism, the Body and Abstraction are showing at The Whitechapel Gallery until 7th of May 2023.

Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!

Alfie Portman
15/02/2023
Reviews
Alfie Portman
Action, Gesture, Paint: Whitechapel Gallery's explosion of colour
Written by
Alfie Portman
Date Published
15/02/2023
Whitechapel Gallery
Elaine De Kooning
Janet Sobel
Lee Krasner
Featuring over 150 paintings, we take a look at Whitechapel Gallery's new all-women exhibition...

Action, Gesture, Paint: Woman artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 is an explosive survey of abstract expressionism. The title “Action, gesture, paint” calls to mind “lights, camera, action” or “ready, set, go” and after seeing over 150 paintings spanning a generation of 80 women artists you do feel like you’ve just finished a marathon. The play on words may not have been intended but is apt for this tour de force which immediately proclaims itself in a riot of colour that goes on to fill five rooms at the Whitechapel Gallery.

Promenade for a Bachelor, Pat Passlof, 1958

While there I overheard a woman saying there was too much on the walls. ‘Each painting deserves their own wall’ she said, ‘and why are all women pushed into one exhibition they should be having solo shows’. The lady was right, the walls are crammed but it’s brilliant. The exhibition acts as an encyclopaedia of work for anyone interested in the women artists all too often overlooked when we think of Abstract Expressionism. It’s refreshing to have such a dense variety of women’s work in one place.

April Mood, Helen Frankenthaler, 1974

Women artists from around the world and different eras are united under one roof. The extravagance of Gillian Ayres (1930-2018) across the wall from Audrey Flack (b. 1931) next to Sandra Blow (1925-2006) and Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) makes for an engulfing start; these paintings mark the first room with rich moments of titillating colour contrasted with the coarse darkness of Marta Minujín’s (b. 1943) sand and lacquer compositions and minimalist elegance of Bice Lazzari’s (1900 – 1981) work. 

The Bull, Elaine De Kooning, 1959

Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning come to mind when we think of Abstract Expressionism. But how familiar are we with the work of their partners Lee Krasner (1908-1984) and Elaine de Kooning (1918-1989)? While Krasner’s retrospective ‘Lee Krasner: Living With Colour’ at the Barbican back in 2019 was an incredible insight into the life and work of a woman overshadowed by her husband, seeing her work within the context of other female artists is an entirely different affair, uncovering a parallel narrative hiding in plain sight. The exhibition also sheds light on artists working outside of the mid-century modern movement in the United States, representing artists from the Middle East, East Asia and Central and South America.

Untitled, Behjat Sadr, 1956

We are offered a great opportunity to hear about the names of women whose contribution has not been well acknowledged - Janet Sobel (1893 – 1968) born in Ukraine, developed her own style, not attending art school herself she discovered her own technique of ‘drip painting’ by observing her son’s studies at Art School in New York. She exhibited at Sidney Janis’s gallery as well as at Peggy Guggenheim’s where she was seen by Pollock and the art critic Clement Greenberg, yet her contribution to ‘all-over’ and ‘drip painting’ is only now being recognised.

Untitled, Janet Sobel

Parallels are made by presenting Sobel alongside Sonja Sekula (1918-1963). On moving to New York from Switzerland, she became part of an artistic avant-garde which included artists Marcel Duchamp and André Breton. She was influenced by Indian folklore as well as Surrealism producing large paintings of swirling lines and abstract patterns. Her work was rarely shown in Europe though she frequently exhibited alongside abstract expressionists in New York.

Illusion of Solidity, Janet Sobel, 1945

Hedwig Thun (1892-1969) studied under Wassily Kandinsky at the Bauhaus but only around eighty of her paintings and some of her writing survives. In this gallery the wall text reads ‘some artists used window-scaled canvas as a nod to domestic interiors’, though I am not so convinced. I suspect as the wall text continues it was more a case of the limitations of being a woman in a man’s world. Expectations and financial constraints limiting the time for and size of their work. Martha Edelheit (b. 1931) now living in Sweden is quoted beside her work as saying ‘It didn’t really occur to me that I could be an artist. All the artists in the museums were men’. 

The exhibition is intense, with such visceral work often created in response to the aftermath of the Second World War. Emiko Nakano (1925-1990) and her family were put in an American internment camp in California, and many of the artists represented were working in exile, others under dictatorship; Juana Frances (1924 – 1990) painted in Madrid under Franco, producing large scale canvases which, from a distance, look like aerial photos of battlegrounds, sand and paint is built into a terrain scarred with craters, a battlefield devoid of life. The range of work covered is extensive including several different approaches to painting, which explore paint itself as a medium and the method of applying it to the canvas. Each room shows us a slightly different way of portraying the outside and inner world. 

Bald Eagle, Lee Krasner, 1955

Some works such as Lee Krasner’s Bald Eagle (1955) return to the gallery, others such as those by Korean artist Wook-kyung Choi (1940-1985) and Israeli artist Lea Nikel (1918-2005) are exhibited in the UK for the first time. The catalogue will surely be an invaluable book to those wanting to uncover women’s contribution to changing aesthetics, poetry, philosophy and even politics. 

Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction and its accompanying exhibition Action, Gesture, Performance: Feminism, the Body and Abstraction are showing at The Whitechapel Gallery until 7th of May 2023.

Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!

Thanks for reading
Collect your 5 yamos below
REDEEM YAMOS
Action, Gesture, Paint: Whitechapel Gallery's explosion of colour
Reviews
Alfie Portman
Written by
Alfie Portman
Date Published
15/02/2023
Whitechapel Gallery
Elaine De Kooning
Janet Sobel
Lee Krasner
Featuring over 150 paintings, we take a look at Whitechapel Gallery's new all-women exhibition...

Action, Gesture, Paint: Woman artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 is an explosive survey of abstract expressionism. The title “Action, gesture, paint” calls to mind “lights, camera, action” or “ready, set, go” and after seeing over 150 paintings spanning a generation of 80 women artists you do feel like you’ve just finished a marathon. The play on words may not have been intended but is apt for this tour de force which immediately proclaims itself in a riot of colour that goes on to fill five rooms at the Whitechapel Gallery.

Promenade for a Bachelor, Pat Passlof, 1958

While there I overheard a woman saying there was too much on the walls. ‘Each painting deserves their own wall’ she said, ‘and why are all women pushed into one exhibition they should be having solo shows’. The lady was right, the walls are crammed but it’s brilliant. The exhibition acts as an encyclopaedia of work for anyone interested in the women artists all too often overlooked when we think of Abstract Expressionism. It’s refreshing to have such a dense variety of women’s work in one place.

April Mood, Helen Frankenthaler, 1974

Women artists from around the world and different eras are united under one roof. The extravagance of Gillian Ayres (1930-2018) across the wall from Audrey Flack (b. 1931) next to Sandra Blow (1925-2006) and Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) makes for an engulfing start; these paintings mark the first room with rich moments of titillating colour contrasted with the coarse darkness of Marta Minujín’s (b. 1943) sand and lacquer compositions and minimalist elegance of Bice Lazzari’s (1900 – 1981) work. 

The Bull, Elaine De Kooning, 1959

Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning come to mind when we think of Abstract Expressionism. But how familiar are we with the work of their partners Lee Krasner (1908-1984) and Elaine de Kooning (1918-1989)? While Krasner’s retrospective ‘Lee Krasner: Living With Colour’ at the Barbican back in 2019 was an incredible insight into the life and work of a woman overshadowed by her husband, seeing her work within the context of other female artists is an entirely different affair, uncovering a parallel narrative hiding in plain sight. The exhibition also sheds light on artists working outside of the mid-century modern movement in the United States, representing artists from the Middle East, East Asia and Central and South America.

Untitled, Behjat Sadr, 1956

We are offered a great opportunity to hear about the names of women whose contribution has not been well acknowledged - Janet Sobel (1893 – 1968) born in Ukraine, developed her own style, not attending art school herself she discovered her own technique of ‘drip painting’ by observing her son’s studies at Art School in New York. She exhibited at Sidney Janis’s gallery as well as at Peggy Guggenheim’s where she was seen by Pollock and the art critic Clement Greenberg, yet her contribution to ‘all-over’ and ‘drip painting’ is only now being recognised.

Untitled, Janet Sobel

Parallels are made by presenting Sobel alongside Sonja Sekula (1918-1963). On moving to New York from Switzerland, she became part of an artistic avant-garde which included artists Marcel Duchamp and André Breton. She was influenced by Indian folklore as well as Surrealism producing large paintings of swirling lines and abstract patterns. Her work was rarely shown in Europe though she frequently exhibited alongside abstract expressionists in New York.

Illusion of Solidity, Janet Sobel, 1945

Hedwig Thun (1892-1969) studied under Wassily Kandinsky at the Bauhaus but only around eighty of her paintings and some of her writing survives. In this gallery the wall text reads ‘some artists used window-scaled canvas as a nod to domestic interiors’, though I am not so convinced. I suspect as the wall text continues it was more a case of the limitations of being a woman in a man’s world. Expectations and financial constraints limiting the time for and size of their work. Martha Edelheit (b. 1931) now living in Sweden is quoted beside her work as saying ‘It didn’t really occur to me that I could be an artist. All the artists in the museums were men’. 

The exhibition is intense, with such visceral work often created in response to the aftermath of the Second World War. Emiko Nakano (1925-1990) and her family were put in an American internment camp in California, and many of the artists represented were working in exile, others under dictatorship; Juana Frances (1924 – 1990) painted in Madrid under Franco, producing large scale canvases which, from a distance, look like aerial photos of battlegrounds, sand and paint is built into a terrain scarred with craters, a battlefield devoid of life. The range of work covered is extensive including several different approaches to painting, which explore paint itself as a medium and the method of applying it to the canvas. Each room shows us a slightly different way of portraying the outside and inner world. 

Bald Eagle, Lee Krasner, 1955

Some works such as Lee Krasner’s Bald Eagle (1955) return to the gallery, others such as those by Korean artist Wook-kyung Choi (1940-1985) and Israeli artist Lea Nikel (1918-2005) are exhibited in the UK for the first time. The catalogue will surely be an invaluable book to those wanting to uncover women’s contribution to changing aesthetics, poetry, philosophy and even politics. 

Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction and its accompanying exhibition Action, Gesture, Performance: Feminism, the Body and Abstraction are showing at The Whitechapel Gallery until 7th of May 2023.

Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!

Thanks for reading
Collect your 5 yamos below
REDEEM YAMOS
15/02/2023
Reviews
Alfie Portman
Action, Gesture, Paint: Whitechapel Gallery's explosion of colour
Written by
Alfie Portman
Date Published
15/02/2023
Whitechapel Gallery
Elaine De Kooning
Janet Sobel
Lee Krasner
Featuring over 150 paintings, we take a look at Whitechapel Gallery's new all-women exhibition...

Action, Gesture, Paint: Woman artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 is an explosive survey of abstract expressionism. The title “Action, gesture, paint” calls to mind “lights, camera, action” or “ready, set, go” and after seeing over 150 paintings spanning a generation of 80 women artists you do feel like you’ve just finished a marathon. The play on words may not have been intended but is apt for this tour de force which immediately proclaims itself in a riot of colour that goes on to fill five rooms at the Whitechapel Gallery.

Promenade for a Bachelor, Pat Passlof, 1958

While there I overheard a woman saying there was too much on the walls. ‘Each painting deserves their own wall’ she said, ‘and why are all women pushed into one exhibition they should be having solo shows’. The lady was right, the walls are crammed but it’s brilliant. The exhibition acts as an encyclopaedia of work for anyone interested in the women artists all too often overlooked when we think of Abstract Expressionism. It’s refreshing to have such a dense variety of women’s work in one place.

April Mood, Helen Frankenthaler, 1974

Women artists from around the world and different eras are united under one roof. The extravagance of Gillian Ayres (1930-2018) across the wall from Audrey Flack (b. 1931) next to Sandra Blow (1925-2006) and Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) makes for an engulfing start; these paintings mark the first room with rich moments of titillating colour contrasted with the coarse darkness of Marta Minujín’s (b. 1943) sand and lacquer compositions and minimalist elegance of Bice Lazzari’s (1900 – 1981) work. 

The Bull, Elaine De Kooning, 1959

Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning come to mind when we think of Abstract Expressionism. But how familiar are we with the work of their partners Lee Krasner (1908-1984) and Elaine de Kooning (1918-1989)? While Krasner’s retrospective ‘Lee Krasner: Living With Colour’ at the Barbican back in 2019 was an incredible insight into the life and work of a woman overshadowed by her husband, seeing her work within the context of other female artists is an entirely different affair, uncovering a parallel narrative hiding in plain sight. The exhibition also sheds light on artists working outside of the mid-century modern movement in the United States, representing artists from the Middle East, East Asia and Central and South America.

Untitled, Behjat Sadr, 1956

We are offered a great opportunity to hear about the names of women whose contribution has not been well acknowledged - Janet Sobel (1893 – 1968) born in Ukraine, developed her own style, not attending art school herself she discovered her own technique of ‘drip painting’ by observing her son’s studies at Art School in New York. She exhibited at Sidney Janis’s gallery as well as at Peggy Guggenheim’s where she was seen by Pollock and the art critic Clement Greenberg, yet her contribution to ‘all-over’ and ‘drip painting’ is only now being recognised.

Untitled, Janet Sobel

Parallels are made by presenting Sobel alongside Sonja Sekula (1918-1963). On moving to New York from Switzerland, she became part of an artistic avant-garde which included artists Marcel Duchamp and André Breton. She was influenced by Indian folklore as well as Surrealism producing large paintings of swirling lines and abstract patterns. Her work was rarely shown in Europe though she frequently exhibited alongside abstract expressionists in New York.

Illusion of Solidity, Janet Sobel, 1945

Hedwig Thun (1892-1969) studied under Wassily Kandinsky at the Bauhaus but only around eighty of her paintings and some of her writing survives. In this gallery the wall text reads ‘some artists used window-scaled canvas as a nod to domestic interiors’, though I am not so convinced. I suspect as the wall text continues it was more a case of the limitations of being a woman in a man’s world. Expectations and financial constraints limiting the time for and size of their work. Martha Edelheit (b. 1931) now living in Sweden is quoted beside her work as saying ‘It didn’t really occur to me that I could be an artist. All the artists in the museums were men’. 

The exhibition is intense, with such visceral work often created in response to the aftermath of the Second World War. Emiko Nakano (1925-1990) and her family were put in an American internment camp in California, and many of the artists represented were working in exile, others under dictatorship; Juana Frances (1924 – 1990) painted in Madrid under Franco, producing large scale canvases which, from a distance, look like aerial photos of battlegrounds, sand and paint is built into a terrain scarred with craters, a battlefield devoid of life. The range of work covered is extensive including several different approaches to painting, which explore paint itself as a medium and the method of applying it to the canvas. Each room shows us a slightly different way of portraying the outside and inner world. 

Bald Eagle, Lee Krasner, 1955

Some works such as Lee Krasner’s Bald Eagle (1955) return to the gallery, others such as those by Korean artist Wook-kyung Choi (1940-1985) and Israeli artist Lea Nikel (1918-2005) are exhibited in the UK for the first time. The catalogue will surely be an invaluable book to those wanting to uncover women’s contribution to changing aesthetics, poetry, philosophy and even politics. 

Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction and its accompanying exhibition Action, Gesture, Performance: Feminism, the Body and Abstraction are showing at The Whitechapel Gallery until 7th of May 2023.

Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!

Thanks for reading
Collect your 5 yamos below
REDEEM YAMOS
15/02/2023
Reviews
Alfie Portman
Action, Gesture, Paint: Whitechapel Gallery's explosion of colour
Written by
Alfie Portman
Date Published
15/02/2023
Whitechapel Gallery
Elaine De Kooning
Janet Sobel
Lee Krasner
Featuring over 150 paintings, we take a look at Whitechapel Gallery's new all-women exhibition...

Action, Gesture, Paint: Woman artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 is an explosive survey of abstract expressionism. The title “Action, gesture, paint” calls to mind “lights, camera, action” or “ready, set, go” and after seeing over 150 paintings spanning a generation of 80 women artists you do feel like you’ve just finished a marathon. The play on words may not have been intended but is apt for this tour de force which immediately proclaims itself in a riot of colour that goes on to fill five rooms at the Whitechapel Gallery.

Promenade for a Bachelor, Pat Passlof, 1958

While there I overheard a woman saying there was too much on the walls. ‘Each painting deserves their own wall’ she said, ‘and why are all women pushed into one exhibition they should be having solo shows’. The lady was right, the walls are crammed but it’s brilliant. The exhibition acts as an encyclopaedia of work for anyone interested in the women artists all too often overlooked when we think of Abstract Expressionism. It’s refreshing to have such a dense variety of women’s work in one place.

April Mood, Helen Frankenthaler, 1974

Women artists from around the world and different eras are united under one roof. The extravagance of Gillian Ayres (1930-2018) across the wall from Audrey Flack (b. 1931) next to Sandra Blow (1925-2006) and Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) makes for an engulfing start; these paintings mark the first room with rich moments of titillating colour contrasted with the coarse darkness of Marta Minujín’s (b. 1943) sand and lacquer compositions and minimalist elegance of Bice Lazzari’s (1900 – 1981) work. 

The Bull, Elaine De Kooning, 1959

Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning come to mind when we think of Abstract Expressionism. But how familiar are we with the work of their partners Lee Krasner (1908-1984) and Elaine de Kooning (1918-1989)? While Krasner’s retrospective ‘Lee Krasner: Living With Colour’ at the Barbican back in 2019 was an incredible insight into the life and work of a woman overshadowed by her husband, seeing her work within the context of other female artists is an entirely different affair, uncovering a parallel narrative hiding in plain sight. The exhibition also sheds light on artists working outside of the mid-century modern movement in the United States, representing artists from the Middle East, East Asia and Central and South America.

Untitled, Behjat Sadr, 1956

We are offered a great opportunity to hear about the names of women whose contribution has not been well acknowledged - Janet Sobel (1893 – 1968) born in Ukraine, developed her own style, not attending art school herself she discovered her own technique of ‘drip painting’ by observing her son’s studies at Art School in New York. She exhibited at Sidney Janis’s gallery as well as at Peggy Guggenheim’s where she was seen by Pollock and the art critic Clement Greenberg, yet her contribution to ‘all-over’ and ‘drip painting’ is only now being recognised.

Untitled, Janet Sobel

Parallels are made by presenting Sobel alongside Sonja Sekula (1918-1963). On moving to New York from Switzerland, she became part of an artistic avant-garde which included artists Marcel Duchamp and André Breton. She was influenced by Indian folklore as well as Surrealism producing large paintings of swirling lines and abstract patterns. Her work was rarely shown in Europe though she frequently exhibited alongside abstract expressionists in New York.

Illusion of Solidity, Janet Sobel, 1945

Hedwig Thun (1892-1969) studied under Wassily Kandinsky at the Bauhaus but only around eighty of her paintings and some of her writing survives. In this gallery the wall text reads ‘some artists used window-scaled canvas as a nod to domestic interiors’, though I am not so convinced. I suspect as the wall text continues it was more a case of the limitations of being a woman in a man’s world. Expectations and financial constraints limiting the time for and size of their work. Martha Edelheit (b. 1931) now living in Sweden is quoted beside her work as saying ‘It didn’t really occur to me that I could be an artist. All the artists in the museums were men’. 

The exhibition is intense, with such visceral work often created in response to the aftermath of the Second World War. Emiko Nakano (1925-1990) and her family were put in an American internment camp in California, and many of the artists represented were working in exile, others under dictatorship; Juana Frances (1924 – 1990) painted in Madrid under Franco, producing large scale canvases which, from a distance, look like aerial photos of battlegrounds, sand and paint is built into a terrain scarred with craters, a battlefield devoid of life. The range of work covered is extensive including several different approaches to painting, which explore paint itself as a medium and the method of applying it to the canvas. Each room shows us a slightly different way of portraying the outside and inner world. 

Bald Eagle, Lee Krasner, 1955

Some works such as Lee Krasner’s Bald Eagle (1955) return to the gallery, others such as those by Korean artist Wook-kyung Choi (1940-1985) and Israeli artist Lea Nikel (1918-2005) are exhibited in the UK for the first time. The catalogue will surely be an invaluable book to those wanting to uncover women’s contribution to changing aesthetics, poetry, philosophy and even politics. 

Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction and its accompanying exhibition Action, Gesture, Performance: Feminism, the Body and Abstraction are showing at The Whitechapel Gallery until 7th of May 2023.

Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!

Thanks for reading
Collect your 5 yamos below
REDEEM YAMOS
15/02/2023
Reviews
Alfie Portman
Action, Gesture, Paint: Whitechapel Gallery's explosion of colour
Written by
Alfie Portman
Date Published
15/02/2023
Whitechapel Gallery
Elaine De Kooning
Janet Sobel
Lee Krasner
Featuring over 150 paintings, we take a look at Whitechapel Gallery's new all-women exhibition...

Action, Gesture, Paint: Woman artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 is an explosive survey of abstract expressionism. The title “Action, gesture, paint” calls to mind “lights, camera, action” or “ready, set, go” and after seeing over 150 paintings spanning a generation of 80 women artists you do feel like you’ve just finished a marathon. The play on words may not have been intended but is apt for this tour de force which immediately proclaims itself in a riot of colour that goes on to fill five rooms at the Whitechapel Gallery.

Promenade for a Bachelor, Pat Passlof, 1958

While there I overheard a woman saying there was too much on the walls. ‘Each painting deserves their own wall’ she said, ‘and why are all women pushed into one exhibition they should be having solo shows’. The lady was right, the walls are crammed but it’s brilliant. The exhibition acts as an encyclopaedia of work for anyone interested in the women artists all too often overlooked when we think of Abstract Expressionism. It’s refreshing to have such a dense variety of women’s work in one place.

April Mood, Helen Frankenthaler, 1974

Women artists from around the world and different eras are united under one roof. The extravagance of Gillian Ayres (1930-2018) across the wall from Audrey Flack (b. 1931) next to Sandra Blow (1925-2006) and Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) makes for an engulfing start; these paintings mark the first room with rich moments of titillating colour contrasted with the coarse darkness of Marta Minujín’s (b. 1943) sand and lacquer compositions and minimalist elegance of Bice Lazzari’s (1900 – 1981) work. 

The Bull, Elaine De Kooning, 1959

Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning come to mind when we think of Abstract Expressionism. But how familiar are we with the work of their partners Lee Krasner (1908-1984) and Elaine de Kooning (1918-1989)? While Krasner’s retrospective ‘Lee Krasner: Living With Colour’ at the Barbican back in 2019 was an incredible insight into the life and work of a woman overshadowed by her husband, seeing her work within the context of other female artists is an entirely different affair, uncovering a parallel narrative hiding in plain sight. The exhibition also sheds light on artists working outside of the mid-century modern movement in the United States, representing artists from the Middle East, East Asia and Central and South America.

Untitled, Behjat Sadr, 1956

We are offered a great opportunity to hear about the names of women whose contribution has not been well acknowledged - Janet Sobel (1893 – 1968) born in Ukraine, developed her own style, not attending art school herself she discovered her own technique of ‘drip painting’ by observing her son’s studies at Art School in New York. She exhibited at Sidney Janis’s gallery as well as at Peggy Guggenheim’s where she was seen by Pollock and the art critic Clement Greenberg, yet her contribution to ‘all-over’ and ‘drip painting’ is only now being recognised.

Untitled, Janet Sobel

Parallels are made by presenting Sobel alongside Sonja Sekula (1918-1963). On moving to New York from Switzerland, she became part of an artistic avant-garde which included artists Marcel Duchamp and André Breton. She was influenced by Indian folklore as well as Surrealism producing large paintings of swirling lines and abstract patterns. Her work was rarely shown in Europe though she frequently exhibited alongside abstract expressionists in New York.

Illusion of Solidity, Janet Sobel, 1945

Hedwig Thun (1892-1969) studied under Wassily Kandinsky at the Bauhaus but only around eighty of her paintings and some of her writing survives. In this gallery the wall text reads ‘some artists used window-scaled canvas as a nod to domestic interiors’, though I am not so convinced. I suspect as the wall text continues it was more a case of the limitations of being a woman in a man’s world. Expectations and financial constraints limiting the time for and size of their work. Martha Edelheit (b. 1931) now living in Sweden is quoted beside her work as saying ‘It didn’t really occur to me that I could be an artist. All the artists in the museums were men’. 

The exhibition is intense, with such visceral work often created in response to the aftermath of the Second World War. Emiko Nakano (1925-1990) and her family were put in an American internment camp in California, and many of the artists represented were working in exile, others under dictatorship; Juana Frances (1924 – 1990) painted in Madrid under Franco, producing large scale canvases which, from a distance, look like aerial photos of battlegrounds, sand and paint is built into a terrain scarred with craters, a battlefield devoid of life. The range of work covered is extensive including several different approaches to painting, which explore paint itself as a medium and the method of applying it to the canvas. Each room shows us a slightly different way of portraying the outside and inner world. 

Bald Eagle, Lee Krasner, 1955

Some works such as Lee Krasner’s Bald Eagle (1955) return to the gallery, others such as those by Korean artist Wook-kyung Choi (1940-1985) and Israeli artist Lea Nikel (1918-2005) are exhibited in the UK for the first time. The catalogue will surely be an invaluable book to those wanting to uncover women’s contribution to changing aesthetics, poetry, philosophy and even politics. 

Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction and its accompanying exhibition Action, Gesture, Performance: Feminism, the Body and Abstraction are showing at The Whitechapel Gallery until 7th of May 2023.

Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!

Thanks for reading
Collect your 5 yamos below
REDEEM YAMOS
Written by
Alfie Portman
Date Published
15/02/2023
Whitechapel Gallery
Elaine De Kooning
Janet Sobel
Lee Krasner
15/02/2023
Reviews
Alfie Portman
Action, Gesture, Paint: Whitechapel Gallery's explosion of colour

Action, Gesture, Paint: Woman artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 is an explosive survey of abstract expressionism. The title “Action, gesture, paint” calls to mind “lights, camera, action” or “ready, set, go” and after seeing over 150 paintings spanning a generation of 80 women artists you do feel like you’ve just finished a marathon. The play on words may not have been intended but is apt for this tour de force which immediately proclaims itself in a riot of colour that goes on to fill five rooms at the Whitechapel Gallery.

Promenade for a Bachelor, Pat Passlof, 1958

While there I overheard a woman saying there was too much on the walls. ‘Each painting deserves their own wall’ she said, ‘and why are all women pushed into one exhibition they should be having solo shows’. The lady was right, the walls are crammed but it’s brilliant. The exhibition acts as an encyclopaedia of work for anyone interested in the women artists all too often overlooked when we think of Abstract Expressionism. It’s refreshing to have such a dense variety of women’s work in one place.

April Mood, Helen Frankenthaler, 1974

Women artists from around the world and different eras are united under one roof. The extravagance of Gillian Ayres (1930-2018) across the wall from Audrey Flack (b. 1931) next to Sandra Blow (1925-2006) and Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) makes for an engulfing start; these paintings mark the first room with rich moments of titillating colour contrasted with the coarse darkness of Marta Minujín’s (b. 1943) sand and lacquer compositions and minimalist elegance of Bice Lazzari’s (1900 – 1981) work. 

The Bull, Elaine De Kooning, 1959

Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning come to mind when we think of Abstract Expressionism. But how familiar are we with the work of their partners Lee Krasner (1908-1984) and Elaine de Kooning (1918-1989)? While Krasner’s retrospective ‘Lee Krasner: Living With Colour’ at the Barbican back in 2019 was an incredible insight into the life and work of a woman overshadowed by her husband, seeing her work within the context of other female artists is an entirely different affair, uncovering a parallel narrative hiding in plain sight. The exhibition also sheds light on artists working outside of the mid-century modern movement in the United States, representing artists from the Middle East, East Asia and Central and South America.

Untitled, Behjat Sadr, 1956

We are offered a great opportunity to hear about the names of women whose contribution has not been well acknowledged - Janet Sobel (1893 – 1968) born in Ukraine, developed her own style, not attending art school herself she discovered her own technique of ‘drip painting’ by observing her son’s studies at Art School in New York. She exhibited at Sidney Janis’s gallery as well as at Peggy Guggenheim’s where she was seen by Pollock and the art critic Clement Greenberg, yet her contribution to ‘all-over’ and ‘drip painting’ is only now being recognised.

Untitled, Janet Sobel

Parallels are made by presenting Sobel alongside Sonja Sekula (1918-1963). On moving to New York from Switzerland, she became part of an artistic avant-garde which included artists Marcel Duchamp and André Breton. She was influenced by Indian folklore as well as Surrealism producing large paintings of swirling lines and abstract patterns. Her work was rarely shown in Europe though she frequently exhibited alongside abstract expressionists in New York.

Illusion of Solidity, Janet Sobel, 1945

Hedwig Thun (1892-1969) studied under Wassily Kandinsky at the Bauhaus but only around eighty of her paintings and some of her writing survives. In this gallery the wall text reads ‘some artists used window-scaled canvas as a nod to domestic interiors’, though I am not so convinced. I suspect as the wall text continues it was more a case of the limitations of being a woman in a man’s world. Expectations and financial constraints limiting the time for and size of their work. Martha Edelheit (b. 1931) now living in Sweden is quoted beside her work as saying ‘It didn’t really occur to me that I could be an artist. All the artists in the museums were men’. 

The exhibition is intense, with such visceral work often created in response to the aftermath of the Second World War. Emiko Nakano (1925-1990) and her family were put in an American internment camp in California, and many of the artists represented were working in exile, others under dictatorship; Juana Frances (1924 – 1990) painted in Madrid under Franco, producing large scale canvases which, from a distance, look like aerial photos of battlegrounds, sand and paint is built into a terrain scarred with craters, a battlefield devoid of life. The range of work covered is extensive including several different approaches to painting, which explore paint itself as a medium and the method of applying it to the canvas. Each room shows us a slightly different way of portraying the outside and inner world. 

Bald Eagle, Lee Krasner, 1955

Some works such as Lee Krasner’s Bald Eagle (1955) return to the gallery, others such as those by Korean artist Wook-kyung Choi (1940-1985) and Israeli artist Lea Nikel (1918-2005) are exhibited in the UK for the first time. The catalogue will surely be an invaluable book to those wanting to uncover women’s contribution to changing aesthetics, poetry, philosophy and even politics. 

Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction and its accompanying exhibition Action, Gesture, Performance: Feminism, the Body and Abstraction are showing at The Whitechapel Gallery until 7th of May 2023.

Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!

Thanks for reading
Collect your 5 yamos below
REDEEM YAMOS
Action, Gesture, Paint: Whitechapel Gallery's explosion of colour
15/02/2023
Reviews
Alfie Portman
Written by
Alfie Portman
Date Published
15/02/2023
Whitechapel Gallery
Elaine De Kooning
Janet Sobel
Lee Krasner
Featuring over 150 paintings, we take a look at Whitechapel Gallery's new all-women exhibition...

Action, Gesture, Paint: Woman artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 is an explosive survey of abstract expressionism. The title “Action, gesture, paint” calls to mind “lights, camera, action” or “ready, set, go” and after seeing over 150 paintings spanning a generation of 80 women artists you do feel like you’ve just finished a marathon. The play on words may not have been intended but is apt for this tour de force which immediately proclaims itself in a riot of colour that goes on to fill five rooms at the Whitechapel Gallery.

Promenade for a Bachelor, Pat Passlof, 1958

While there I overheard a woman saying there was too much on the walls. ‘Each painting deserves their own wall’ she said, ‘and why are all women pushed into one exhibition they should be having solo shows’. The lady was right, the walls are crammed but it’s brilliant. The exhibition acts as an encyclopaedia of work for anyone interested in the women artists all too often overlooked when we think of Abstract Expressionism. It’s refreshing to have such a dense variety of women’s work in one place.

April Mood, Helen Frankenthaler, 1974

Women artists from around the world and different eras are united under one roof. The extravagance of Gillian Ayres (1930-2018) across the wall from Audrey Flack (b. 1931) next to Sandra Blow (1925-2006) and Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) makes for an engulfing start; these paintings mark the first room with rich moments of titillating colour contrasted with the coarse darkness of Marta Minujín’s (b. 1943) sand and lacquer compositions and minimalist elegance of Bice Lazzari’s (1900 – 1981) work. 

The Bull, Elaine De Kooning, 1959

Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning come to mind when we think of Abstract Expressionism. But how familiar are we with the work of their partners Lee Krasner (1908-1984) and Elaine de Kooning (1918-1989)? While Krasner’s retrospective ‘Lee Krasner: Living With Colour’ at the Barbican back in 2019 was an incredible insight into the life and work of a woman overshadowed by her husband, seeing her work within the context of other female artists is an entirely different affair, uncovering a parallel narrative hiding in plain sight. The exhibition also sheds light on artists working outside of the mid-century modern movement in the United States, representing artists from the Middle East, East Asia and Central and South America.

Untitled, Behjat Sadr, 1956

We are offered a great opportunity to hear about the names of women whose contribution has not been well acknowledged - Janet Sobel (1893 – 1968) born in Ukraine, developed her own style, not attending art school herself she discovered her own technique of ‘drip painting’ by observing her son’s studies at Art School in New York. She exhibited at Sidney Janis’s gallery as well as at Peggy Guggenheim’s where she was seen by Pollock and the art critic Clement Greenberg, yet her contribution to ‘all-over’ and ‘drip painting’ is only now being recognised.

Untitled, Janet Sobel

Parallels are made by presenting Sobel alongside Sonja Sekula (1918-1963). On moving to New York from Switzerland, she became part of an artistic avant-garde which included artists Marcel Duchamp and André Breton. She was influenced by Indian folklore as well as Surrealism producing large paintings of swirling lines and abstract patterns. Her work was rarely shown in Europe though she frequently exhibited alongside abstract expressionists in New York.

Illusion of Solidity, Janet Sobel, 1945

Hedwig Thun (1892-1969) studied under Wassily Kandinsky at the Bauhaus but only around eighty of her paintings and some of her writing survives. In this gallery the wall text reads ‘some artists used window-scaled canvas as a nod to domestic interiors’, though I am not so convinced. I suspect as the wall text continues it was more a case of the limitations of being a woman in a man’s world. Expectations and financial constraints limiting the time for and size of their work. Martha Edelheit (b. 1931) now living in Sweden is quoted beside her work as saying ‘It didn’t really occur to me that I could be an artist. All the artists in the museums were men’. 

The exhibition is intense, with such visceral work often created in response to the aftermath of the Second World War. Emiko Nakano (1925-1990) and her family were put in an American internment camp in California, and many of the artists represented were working in exile, others under dictatorship; Juana Frances (1924 – 1990) painted in Madrid under Franco, producing large scale canvases which, from a distance, look like aerial photos of battlegrounds, sand and paint is built into a terrain scarred with craters, a battlefield devoid of life. The range of work covered is extensive including several different approaches to painting, which explore paint itself as a medium and the method of applying it to the canvas. Each room shows us a slightly different way of portraying the outside and inner world. 

Bald Eagle, Lee Krasner, 1955

Some works such as Lee Krasner’s Bald Eagle (1955) return to the gallery, others such as those by Korean artist Wook-kyung Choi (1940-1985) and Israeli artist Lea Nikel (1918-2005) are exhibited in the UK for the first time. The catalogue will surely be an invaluable book to those wanting to uncover women’s contribution to changing aesthetics, poetry, philosophy and even politics. 

Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction and its accompanying exhibition Action, Gesture, Performance: Feminism, the Body and Abstraction are showing at The Whitechapel Gallery until 7th of May 2023.

Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!

Thanks for reading
Collect your 5 yamos below
REDEEM YAMOS
Action, Gesture, Paint: Whitechapel Gallery's explosion of colour
Written by
Alfie Portman
Date Published
15/02/2023
Featuring over 150 paintings, we take a look at Whitechapel Gallery's new all-women exhibition...
15/02/2023
Reviews
Alfie Portman

Action, Gesture, Paint: Woman artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 is an explosive survey of abstract expressionism. The title “Action, gesture, paint” calls to mind “lights, camera, action” or “ready, set, go” and after seeing over 150 paintings spanning a generation of 80 women artists you do feel like you’ve just finished a marathon. The play on words may not have been intended but is apt for this tour de force which immediately proclaims itself in a riot of colour that goes on to fill five rooms at the Whitechapel Gallery.

Promenade for a Bachelor, Pat Passlof, 1958

While there I overheard a woman saying there was too much on the walls. ‘Each painting deserves their own wall’ she said, ‘and why are all women pushed into one exhibition they should be having solo shows’. The lady was right, the walls are crammed but it’s brilliant. The exhibition acts as an encyclopaedia of work for anyone interested in the women artists all too often overlooked when we think of Abstract Expressionism. It’s refreshing to have such a dense variety of women’s work in one place.

April Mood, Helen Frankenthaler, 1974

Women artists from around the world and different eras are united under one roof. The extravagance of Gillian Ayres (1930-2018) across the wall from Audrey Flack (b. 1931) next to Sandra Blow (1925-2006) and Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) makes for an engulfing start; these paintings mark the first room with rich moments of titillating colour contrasted with the coarse darkness of Marta Minujín’s (b. 1943) sand and lacquer compositions and minimalist elegance of Bice Lazzari’s (1900 – 1981) work. 

The Bull, Elaine De Kooning, 1959

Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning come to mind when we think of Abstract Expressionism. But how familiar are we with the work of their partners Lee Krasner (1908-1984) and Elaine de Kooning (1918-1989)? While Krasner’s retrospective ‘Lee Krasner: Living With Colour’ at the Barbican back in 2019 was an incredible insight into the life and work of a woman overshadowed by her husband, seeing her work within the context of other female artists is an entirely different affair, uncovering a parallel narrative hiding in plain sight. The exhibition also sheds light on artists working outside of the mid-century modern movement in the United States, representing artists from the Middle East, East Asia and Central and South America.

Untitled, Behjat Sadr, 1956

We are offered a great opportunity to hear about the names of women whose contribution has not been well acknowledged - Janet Sobel (1893 – 1968) born in Ukraine, developed her own style, not attending art school herself she discovered her own technique of ‘drip painting’ by observing her son’s studies at Art School in New York. She exhibited at Sidney Janis’s gallery as well as at Peggy Guggenheim’s where she was seen by Pollock and the art critic Clement Greenberg, yet her contribution to ‘all-over’ and ‘drip painting’ is only now being recognised.

Untitled, Janet Sobel

Parallels are made by presenting Sobel alongside Sonja Sekula (1918-1963). On moving to New York from Switzerland, she became part of an artistic avant-garde which included artists Marcel Duchamp and André Breton. She was influenced by Indian folklore as well as Surrealism producing large paintings of swirling lines and abstract patterns. Her work was rarely shown in Europe though she frequently exhibited alongside abstract expressionists in New York.

Illusion of Solidity, Janet Sobel, 1945

Hedwig Thun (1892-1969) studied under Wassily Kandinsky at the Bauhaus but only around eighty of her paintings and some of her writing survives. In this gallery the wall text reads ‘some artists used window-scaled canvas as a nod to domestic interiors’, though I am not so convinced. I suspect as the wall text continues it was more a case of the limitations of being a woman in a man’s world. Expectations and financial constraints limiting the time for and size of their work. Martha Edelheit (b. 1931) now living in Sweden is quoted beside her work as saying ‘It didn’t really occur to me that I could be an artist. All the artists in the museums were men’. 

The exhibition is intense, with such visceral work often created in response to the aftermath of the Second World War. Emiko Nakano (1925-1990) and her family were put in an American internment camp in California, and many of the artists represented were working in exile, others under dictatorship; Juana Frances (1924 – 1990) painted in Madrid under Franco, producing large scale canvases which, from a distance, look like aerial photos of battlegrounds, sand and paint is built into a terrain scarred with craters, a battlefield devoid of life. The range of work covered is extensive including several different approaches to painting, which explore paint itself as a medium and the method of applying it to the canvas. Each room shows us a slightly different way of portraying the outside and inner world. 

Bald Eagle, Lee Krasner, 1955

Some works such as Lee Krasner’s Bald Eagle (1955) return to the gallery, others such as those by Korean artist Wook-kyung Choi (1940-1985) and Israeli artist Lea Nikel (1918-2005) are exhibited in the UK for the first time. The catalogue will surely be an invaluable book to those wanting to uncover women’s contribution to changing aesthetics, poetry, philosophy and even politics. 

Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction and its accompanying exhibition Action, Gesture, Performance: Feminism, the Body and Abstraction are showing at The Whitechapel Gallery until 7th of May 2023.

Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!

Thanks for reading
Collect your 5 yamos below
REDEEM YAMOS
Action, Gesture, Paint: Whitechapel Gallery's explosion of colour
Written by
Alfie Portman
Date Published
15/02/2023
Whitechapel Gallery
Elaine De Kooning
Janet Sobel
Lee Krasner
15/02/2023
Reviews
Alfie Portman
Featuring over 150 paintings, we take a look at Whitechapel Gallery's new all-women exhibition...

Action, Gesture, Paint: Woman artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 is an explosive survey of abstract expressionism. The title “Action, gesture, paint” calls to mind “lights, camera, action” or “ready, set, go” and after seeing over 150 paintings spanning a generation of 80 women artists you do feel like you’ve just finished a marathon. The play on words may not have been intended but is apt for this tour de force which immediately proclaims itself in a riot of colour that goes on to fill five rooms at the Whitechapel Gallery.

Promenade for a Bachelor, Pat Passlof, 1958

While there I overheard a woman saying there was too much on the walls. ‘Each painting deserves their own wall’ she said, ‘and why are all women pushed into one exhibition they should be having solo shows’. The lady was right, the walls are crammed but it’s brilliant. The exhibition acts as an encyclopaedia of work for anyone interested in the women artists all too often overlooked when we think of Abstract Expressionism. It’s refreshing to have such a dense variety of women’s work in one place.

April Mood, Helen Frankenthaler, 1974

Women artists from around the world and different eras are united under one roof. The extravagance of Gillian Ayres (1930-2018) across the wall from Audrey Flack (b. 1931) next to Sandra Blow (1925-2006) and Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) makes for an engulfing start; these paintings mark the first room with rich moments of titillating colour contrasted with the coarse darkness of Marta Minujín’s (b. 1943) sand and lacquer compositions and minimalist elegance of Bice Lazzari’s (1900 – 1981) work. 

The Bull, Elaine De Kooning, 1959

Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning come to mind when we think of Abstract Expressionism. But how familiar are we with the work of their partners Lee Krasner (1908-1984) and Elaine de Kooning (1918-1989)? While Krasner’s retrospective ‘Lee Krasner: Living With Colour’ at the Barbican back in 2019 was an incredible insight into the life and work of a woman overshadowed by her husband, seeing her work within the context of other female artists is an entirely different affair, uncovering a parallel narrative hiding in plain sight. The exhibition also sheds light on artists working outside of the mid-century modern movement in the United States, representing artists from the Middle East, East Asia and Central and South America.

Untitled, Behjat Sadr, 1956

We are offered a great opportunity to hear about the names of women whose contribution has not been well acknowledged - Janet Sobel (1893 – 1968) born in Ukraine, developed her own style, not attending art school herself she discovered her own technique of ‘drip painting’ by observing her son’s studies at Art School in New York. She exhibited at Sidney Janis’s gallery as well as at Peggy Guggenheim’s where she was seen by Pollock and the art critic Clement Greenberg, yet her contribution to ‘all-over’ and ‘drip painting’ is only now being recognised.

Untitled, Janet Sobel

Parallels are made by presenting Sobel alongside Sonja Sekula (1918-1963). On moving to New York from Switzerland, she became part of an artistic avant-garde which included artists Marcel Duchamp and André Breton. She was influenced by Indian folklore as well as Surrealism producing large paintings of swirling lines and abstract patterns. Her work was rarely shown in Europe though she frequently exhibited alongside abstract expressionists in New York.

Illusion of Solidity, Janet Sobel, 1945

Hedwig Thun (1892-1969) studied under Wassily Kandinsky at the Bauhaus but only around eighty of her paintings and some of her writing survives. In this gallery the wall text reads ‘some artists used window-scaled canvas as a nod to domestic interiors’, though I am not so convinced. I suspect as the wall text continues it was more a case of the limitations of being a woman in a man’s world. Expectations and financial constraints limiting the time for and size of their work. Martha Edelheit (b. 1931) now living in Sweden is quoted beside her work as saying ‘It didn’t really occur to me that I could be an artist. All the artists in the museums were men’. 

The exhibition is intense, with such visceral work often created in response to the aftermath of the Second World War. Emiko Nakano (1925-1990) and her family were put in an American internment camp in California, and many of the artists represented were working in exile, others under dictatorship; Juana Frances (1924 – 1990) painted in Madrid under Franco, producing large scale canvases which, from a distance, look like aerial photos of battlegrounds, sand and paint is built into a terrain scarred with craters, a battlefield devoid of life. The range of work covered is extensive including several different approaches to painting, which explore paint itself as a medium and the method of applying it to the canvas. Each room shows us a slightly different way of portraying the outside and inner world. 

Bald Eagle, Lee Krasner, 1955

Some works such as Lee Krasner’s Bald Eagle (1955) return to the gallery, others such as those by Korean artist Wook-kyung Choi (1940-1985) and Israeli artist Lea Nikel (1918-2005) are exhibited in the UK for the first time. The catalogue will surely be an invaluable book to those wanting to uncover women’s contribution to changing aesthetics, poetry, philosophy and even politics. 

Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction and its accompanying exhibition Action, Gesture, Performance: Feminism, the Body and Abstraction are showing at The Whitechapel Gallery until 7th of May 2023.

Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!

Thanks for reading
Collect your 5 yamos below
REDEEM YAMOS
15/02/2023
Reviews
Alfie Portman
Action, Gesture, Paint: Whitechapel Gallery's explosion of colour
Featuring over 150 paintings, we take a look at Whitechapel Gallery's new all-women exhibition...

Action, Gesture, Paint: Woman artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 is an explosive survey of abstract expressionism. The title “Action, gesture, paint” calls to mind “lights, camera, action” or “ready, set, go” and after seeing over 150 paintings spanning a generation of 80 women artists you do feel like you’ve just finished a marathon. The play on words may not have been intended but is apt for this tour de force which immediately proclaims itself in a riot of colour that goes on to fill five rooms at the Whitechapel Gallery.

Promenade for a Bachelor, Pat Passlof, 1958

While there I overheard a woman saying there was too much on the walls. ‘Each painting deserves their own wall’ she said, ‘and why are all women pushed into one exhibition they should be having solo shows’. The lady was right, the walls are crammed but it’s brilliant. The exhibition acts as an encyclopaedia of work for anyone interested in the women artists all too often overlooked when we think of Abstract Expressionism. It’s refreshing to have such a dense variety of women’s work in one place.

April Mood, Helen Frankenthaler, 1974

Women artists from around the world and different eras are united under one roof. The extravagance of Gillian Ayres (1930-2018) across the wall from Audrey Flack (b. 1931) next to Sandra Blow (1925-2006) and Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) makes for an engulfing start; these paintings mark the first room with rich moments of titillating colour contrasted with the coarse darkness of Marta Minujín’s (b. 1943) sand and lacquer compositions and minimalist elegance of Bice Lazzari’s (1900 – 1981) work. 

The Bull, Elaine De Kooning, 1959

Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning come to mind when we think of Abstract Expressionism. But how familiar are we with the work of their partners Lee Krasner (1908-1984) and Elaine de Kooning (1918-1989)? While Krasner’s retrospective ‘Lee Krasner: Living With Colour’ at the Barbican back in 2019 was an incredible insight into the life and work of a woman overshadowed by her husband, seeing her work within the context of other female artists is an entirely different affair, uncovering a parallel narrative hiding in plain sight. The exhibition also sheds light on artists working outside of the mid-century modern movement in the United States, representing artists from the Middle East, East Asia and Central and South America.

Untitled, Behjat Sadr, 1956

We are offered a great opportunity to hear about the names of women whose contribution has not been well acknowledged - Janet Sobel (1893 – 1968) born in Ukraine, developed her own style, not attending art school herself she discovered her own technique of ‘drip painting’ by observing her son’s studies at Art School in New York. She exhibited at Sidney Janis’s gallery as well as at Peggy Guggenheim’s where she was seen by Pollock and the art critic Clement Greenberg, yet her contribution to ‘all-over’ and ‘drip painting’ is only now being recognised.

Untitled, Janet Sobel

Parallels are made by presenting Sobel alongside Sonja Sekula (1918-1963). On moving to New York from Switzerland, she became part of an artistic avant-garde which included artists Marcel Duchamp and André Breton. She was influenced by Indian folklore as well as Surrealism producing large paintings of swirling lines and abstract patterns. Her work was rarely shown in Europe though she frequently exhibited alongside abstract expressionists in New York.

Illusion of Solidity, Janet Sobel, 1945

Hedwig Thun (1892-1969) studied under Wassily Kandinsky at the Bauhaus but only around eighty of her paintings and some of her writing survives. In this gallery the wall text reads ‘some artists used window-scaled canvas as a nod to domestic interiors’, though I am not so convinced. I suspect as the wall text continues it was more a case of the limitations of being a woman in a man’s world. Expectations and financial constraints limiting the time for and size of their work. Martha Edelheit (b. 1931) now living in Sweden is quoted beside her work as saying ‘It didn’t really occur to me that I could be an artist. All the artists in the museums were men’. 

The exhibition is intense, with such visceral work often created in response to the aftermath of the Second World War. Emiko Nakano (1925-1990) and her family were put in an American internment camp in California, and many of the artists represented were working in exile, others under dictatorship; Juana Frances (1924 – 1990) painted in Madrid under Franco, producing large scale canvases which, from a distance, look like aerial photos of battlegrounds, sand and paint is built into a terrain scarred with craters, a battlefield devoid of life. The range of work covered is extensive including several different approaches to painting, which explore paint itself as a medium and the method of applying it to the canvas. Each room shows us a slightly different way of portraying the outside and inner world. 

Bald Eagle, Lee Krasner, 1955

Some works such as Lee Krasner’s Bald Eagle (1955) return to the gallery, others such as those by Korean artist Wook-kyung Choi (1940-1985) and Israeli artist Lea Nikel (1918-2005) are exhibited in the UK for the first time. The catalogue will surely be an invaluable book to those wanting to uncover women’s contribution to changing aesthetics, poetry, philosophy and even politics. 

Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction and its accompanying exhibition Action, Gesture, Performance: Feminism, the Body and Abstraction are showing at The Whitechapel Gallery until 7th of May 2023.

Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!

Thanks for reading
Collect your 5 yamos below
REDEEM YAMOS