Beyond Form: Lines of Abstraction

An amorphous lump of plaster and latex. A tangled web of enamelled aluminium loops. Hanging lengths of fibres woven into chains. Tempera, glue and sand scratched across a canvas.

A multitude of materials are here: twisted, balanced, sewn, stacked, stretched, etched and moulded into an array of sculptural forms.

In the two decades following the second World War, whilst navigating seismic cultural, social and political shifts, women artists forged new boundaries in artmaking. For these women, abstraction became a radical global language with which to confront, challenge and undermine gendered stereotypes.

Art historian and ‘Chanel Curator for the Collection’ at the National Portrait Gallery, London, Dr Flavia Frigeri deftly weaves together an extraordinary group of British and international artists to reveal the lines of abstraction which runs through their work including:
Carla Arcardi
Ruth Asawa
Mária Bartuszová
Louise Bourgeois
Sue Fuller
Barbara Hepworth
Carmen Herrera
Eva Hesse
Kim Lim
Agnes Martin
Mary Martin
Paule Vézelay
Hannah Wilke
... and many more.