OXFORD-based art historian Alice Foster was the guest speaker at ArtsNational Coffs Coast in May, sharing how art reflects the social, political and economic forces of the time.
Ms Foster’s presentation “Women at Work”, described how art is a rich historical record of the evolving roles of women.
“Alice Foster used her knowledge and storytelling skills to help our ArtsNational audience see even well-known art works in new ways,” said ArtsNational Coffs Coast Chair Annie Talvé.
“Her discussion of little known and forgotten women artists was revelatory.”
The origin story of “spinster” was fascinating, as it showed how domestic roles become embedded in language.
“The youngest daughter in a household was given the boring task of watching over and maintaining the fire [so] she took up spinning to pass the time – hence ‘spinster’ transforms from practical necessity to [the] social designation of a young, unmarried woman,” Ms Foster explained.
Also surprising was how women dominated ale production and pub ownership in the 16th century, before mechanisation displaced them from positions of economic influence.
The painting “Work” (1865) by Ford Maddox Brown, provided a lens for examining how Pre-Raphaelite artists documented the rigid Victorian social hierarchy.
It shows a bustling city scene featuring an orphan girl forced to care for younger siblings, women labourers laying water pipes, wealthy industrialists issuing orders and bourgeois women in their finery.
Late 19th century artists Eduart Manet and Edgar Degas used composition and light not just for aesthetic purposes, but to illuminate the harsh realities and limited choices working-class women faced.
Manet’s “A Bar at the Folies Bergere” (1882) shows a sad-eyed waitress facing a customer who can only be seen in the mirror behind her.
“It could be her pimp, who knows? But whatever the case, things are not what they seem.”
Ms Foster juxtaposed the piece with mid-20th century Australian artist John Brack’s work “The Bar” (1954), which references Manet’s work.
Degas, known for his endless works of Parisian dancers, also depicted mundane women’s work like laundering and ironing.
However, Ms Foster’s most original insights were reserved for women as artists and writers.
Previously forgotten female painters and tapestry makers, who are now celebrated, show that women have been making art for millennia.
Christine de Pizan’s “Book of the City of Ladies” (1405)for instance, describes and depicts women as builders and scholars – a medieval feminist vision that predates women’s rights movements.
After the Battle of Britain in 1940, many artists turned their attention to the depiction of women during WWII.
Laura Knight’s celebrated portrait “Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech Ring” (1943), captures the technical mastery women achieved in wartime industries and Knight’s own artistic evolution from circus and dance subjects to industrial settings.
ArtsNational Coffs Coast’s next talk on Monday 21 July is “The Golden Road to Samarkand – The Architecture, Art and Textiles of Uzbekistan”.
By Andrea FERRARI
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