Women Artists. Breaking Down Barriers, 1965-2000
Works from the collection of the Musée national des beaux-arts
du Québec
June 17 to October 10, 2010
50 women artists. 110 remarkable works produced between 1965 and 2000. During those 35 years, women were actively involved in the major art movements. They trained a critical eye on their surroundings and on themselves. They engaged, liberated and asserted themselves. They broke down barriers.
Women Artists. Breaking Down Barriers, 1965-2000. Works from the collection of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec is the sequel to the exhibition presented last summer. Gaining Space, 1900-1965 showcased works by the first women to claim professional artist status. Visitors to the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec can explore the next stage of this extraordinary saga during the summer season.
The exhibition features paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs and videos by some of the most celebrated women of the Quebec art scene, including Raymonde April, Claudie Gagnon, Betty Goodwin, Diane Landry, Francine Larivée, Jana Sterbak and Irene F. Whittome.
The works have been selected from among the some 2,600 pieces by women in the collection of Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec.
Along with the exhibition, the Musée is launching a 300-page, lavishly illustrated book on 20th-century women artists, Femmes artistes du xxe siècle. Collection du Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (in French only). It features an essay by MNBAQ Executive Director Esther Trépanier on the 1900-1965 years and another by the exhibition curator, Pierre Landry, MNBAQ Curator of Contemporary Art, on the period from 1965 to 2000. The first title in the “Arts du Québec” collection, the book also includes 101 biographies of Quebec WOMEN artists.