Now I Saw Them.

Last Wednesday I experienced one of the most beautifully curated exhibitions I’ve had the great fortune to witness at Tate Britain. It was called, “Now You See Us’.

I usually pop a social media posting online, whenever I’ve been enriched by a cultural offering, but on this occasion, I was overwhelmed and unsure how to begin.

The exhibition examines the art of 100 women, who created work between 1520 and 1920, often struggling to carve out careers as artists - but nevertheless, they persisted!

The first woman whose work resonated with me was Esther Inglis who lived in Edinburgh in the 1570s, creating beautifully illustrated books of poetry and psalms.

Esther also created miniature self-portraits, placing herself within manuscripts that she'd crafted, these tiny etchings of her own face showed the world who the artist was.
A little further along in the gallery, I learned the story of **Gwen John** and I couldn't help but wonder if Esther had been attempting to make herself visible, just as Gwen went on to do many years later.
Perhaps it’s one of the reasons she’s the 'poster girl' for 'Now You See Us'.

In 1900, Gwen John was one of 16 women asked to participate in the ‘New English Art Club’ exhibition.

The women were asked to exhibit their work anonymously. Those exhibiting could send any painting they wished.

She wasn’t allowed to sign her own painting so Gwen chose to send a self-portrait.

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom”
- Anais Nin

These two artists, Esther and Gwen, stopped me in my tracks - the art they created was intriguing, and their bold efforts to be seen as the makers of their own art, and not anonymous women, were insistent.

My hat was high.

Of course, in an exhibition of 100 artists there were many of them who’s work grabbed my imagination, but for the purposes of not making this posting as long as the internet itself I’ll limit myself to mentioning another three.

And the first is Elinor Proby Adams. She was one of the earliest cohorts of women to attend The Slade School of Fine Art. One of her paintings was a nude, entitled ‘Female Seated Figure’. This offering was unusual for the time - bizarrely women sitting and painting in still life classes was deeply frowned upon.

Imagine not being trusted to draw women’s bodies as a female artist.

**Elinor Proby Adams** - *‘Female Seated Figure’*

“When we exclude half of humanity from the production of knowledge, we lose out on potentially transformational insights”

Caroline Criado Perez

**Slade Art School** - Class Photograph 1905

From the 1850s onwards, women would begin to put their feet to the streets in our struggle for equal rights.

During the first two decades of the 20th century, a brave new world was beginning to evolve.

But it didn’t happen overnight or without a fight.

So, in September 2024, as I stood in front of this photo, in an exhibition at Tate Britain I found it difficult to compose myself.

Just look at them.

The world was beginning to change and Slade Art School was at the vanguard of those changes with a cohort of groundbreaking world-class artists!

And not too far from this photograph hung the work of Ethel Wright.

Her painting ‘The Music Room’, showed the women’s rights activist, Una Dugdale Duval resplendent in suffrage colours, created during the same year the national press got themselves in a flap over Una’s controversial pamphlet ‘Love & Honour but NOT Obey’.

It was the final painting in the exhibition.

By 1912, the women of art were boldly sticking two stiff fingers directly up at any who’d held them back for so long - these artists not only joined the struggle, they often led the way. Their work certainly influenced how the public viewed the suffrage movement and, in fact, how the women of the movement saw themselves.

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