Virginia Woolf: An Exhibition inspired by her writings at Tate St Ives from 10 February – 29 April 2018
Discover art from 1850 to the present, inspired by the writing of this celebrated author.
Author of classic texts including To the Lighthouse and the pioneering feminist text A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf spent much of her childhood in St Ives where this exhibition was first shown. It then toured to the Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, 26 May – 16 September and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 2 October – 9 December 2018.
“Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) had strong ties to the women’s suffrage movement in the UK, and it is significant that this exhibition is presented in the year that marks the 100th anniversary of the Representation of the People Act 1918, which gave some women the right to vote for the first time. Woolf’s exploration of equality and independence in her writings is pertinent to the ways in which artists in this exhibition investigate timely questions around identity, gender and the representation of the self.” Anne Barlow – Tate St Ives
This exhibition is led by her writing, which will act as a prism through which to explore feminist perspectives on landscape, domesticity and identity in modern and contemporary art – with over 250 works by over 80 artists, including Laura Knight, Vanessa Bell, Gwen John, Barabara Hepworth, Romaine Brooks, Georgiana Houghton, Edith Rimmington, Sandra Blow, Ithell Colquhoun, Toyen, Mary Bligh Bond, Ethel Annie Weir, Claude Cahun, Winnifred Nicholson, Gluck, Rebbecca Warren, Frances Hodgkins, Agnes Martin, Prunella Clough, Nina Hamnett, Louise Bourgeois, Eileen Agar, Wilhelmina Barnes-Graham, Julia Margaret Cameron, Emmy Bridgwater, Mary Kelly, Louise Jopling, Joan Jonas, Linder, Sheila Legge, Patricia Johanson, Grace Pailthorpe, Dod Proctor, Penny Slinger and Dora Carrington.
Virginia Woolf: An Exhibition inspired by her writings was curated by Laura Smith and made possible with a Jonathan Ruffer Curatorial Research Grant from the Art Fund. The accompanying catalogue has essays by Maggie Humm, Hana Leaper, Jean Mills, Bonnie Kime Scott, Laura Smith and Claudia Tobin. It was edited by Laura Smith and Enrico Tassi with Eloise Bennett.
A review of the exhibition can be read at The London Magazine.