Abstract
The formation of artist groups was a key feature of London’s cultural landscape in the 1970s. Guy Brett identified the “growing politician consciousness which accompanied the….feminist, black, and gay movements,” as a central impetus of such groups. Historically, groups are apodictic for feminist practice. In 1978, artists Liliane Lijn, Tess Jaray, Kim Lim, Gillian Wise, and Rita Donagh curated the second Hayward Annual ’78 (HAII). They selected works of art based on their conviction that “aesthetic quality had suffered from the previously ‘exclusive’ bias toward male artists.” The cohort of exhibiting artists comprised sixteen women and seven men, thus challenging the prevailing norm in major surveys conducted in Britain which largely excluded women artists. Liliane Lijn said, “We weren’t part of a feminist group, but doing this made us one.” Through consideration of the activism leading up to the formation of the all-female jury, the exhibited artworks, and the antagonistic critical reception to show, this paper proposes that this group functioned as a foil to the parochial frame through which institutionally-sanctioned British art was prospected. Drawing on Griselda Pollock’s consideration of HAII as an intervention by women in the art establishment and Amy Tobin’s reading of feminist collaboration as an intimate and expansive mode of creating, curating, and exhibiting art, this paper examines how the curation of HAII functioned as a progressive critique of structural imbalances in contemporaneous exhibition practices thus positioning the formation of this group as a significant moment in the context of British and feminist art histories.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
The Arts in Social, Political, and Community Life
KEYWORDS
Feminism, British Art, Curatorial Practices, Women Artists, Feminist Art History
