An exhibition of one's own: the first all-women shows in Argentina (1920-1940)

GLUZMAN, GEORGINA

París

Simposio; WAS / Women Artists Shows · Salons · Societies: Expositions Collectives de Femmes Artistes 1876-1976; 2017

Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions y Artl@s

The list of women painters of true achievement that are exhibiting their works in Paris nowadays is indeed long. Every newspaper arriving from Paris expresses that the display of woman?s nature and value is widely admired, even by her most bitter enemies. Argentine feminist writer Carmen de Pandolfini, writing in her weekly column at one of Buenos Aires? most read magazines in 1911, was not trying to hide her admiration. The sense of achievement she felt when writing about French women artists was only matched by the effect this kind of news must have had on Argentine women artists. The regular exhibitions of the Union des femmes peintres et sculpteurs, the occasional solo exhibitions of artists like Madeleine Lemaire, and the fascination provoked by Parisian art academies exerted a lasting impression on the Argentine cultural elite. However, between 1890 (when female artists began to gain visibility in the local scene) and 1920 female artists in the city of Buenos Aires did not develop exclusively female salons on a regular basis. With a few exception, the women-only art exhibitions were not a valid option for these artists, who seemed to have risked their recently-achieved and moderately-recognized positions. However, during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s Buenos Aires witnessed the emergence of exhibition spaces of a separatist character. In spite of their importance, these regular shows have not received attention from art historical literature. Their vast development, the extensive coverage by the press, and their links feminist institutions have gone unnoticed. The purpose of this proposal is to reconstruct the organization of these events, to examine their reception, and to analyze the trajectories of some of the participating woman artists, aiming to specify both their submissions to these exhibitions and their insertion in other exhibition spaces. These exhibitions offer a new perspective of analysis of this moment, characterized by an intense feminine artistic activity. Based upon a meticulous reconstruction of these neglected artistic careers, this essay aims to make visible an obliterated manifestation of feminine artistic culture, questioning the heroic stories of the 1920s and 1930s. From the hypothesis of the emergence of an Identity as a women artists, in the sense of claiming a feminine difference, we will explore the various initiatives aimed at creating a separatist space, a circuit of self-validation capable of bringing together Argentine women artists. We will analyze a group of halls, among which are those organized by the Club Argentino de Mujeres and the Nordiska Kompaniet.