Close
Elinor Mary Monsell (1879-1954),听Female Nude Standing,听1898, 果冻影院 Art Museum LDUCS-6524r. Figure Drawing Prize, First Prize Equal, 1898
Dora Carrington (1893-1932),听Female Figure Standing,听1913, 果冻影院 Art Museum LDUCS-5206. Figure Painting Prize, First Prize Equal, 1913
Paula Rego, Under Milkwood, 1954, 果冻影院 Art Museum LDUCS-5581. Summer Composition Prize, First Prize Equal, 1954
Ana-Maria听Pacheco (born 1943), Untitled, 1992, 果冻影院 Art Museum LDUCS-7907
Marianna Simnett, Dog, 2013. Video still听漏 Marianna Simnett. William Coldstream Prize 2013
Installation view of Anja Olofg枚rs Slade Degree Show 2015, Social Constructs, 2015听漏 Anja Olofg枚rs.听William Coldstream Prize 2015
Lily Johnson,听Recorders,听2016听漏 Lily Johnson. William Coldstream Prize 2016
Yvonne Feng,听Unreachable Sky, 2017, 果冻影院 Art Museum LDUCS-5753听漏 Yvonne Feng. William Coldstream Prize 2017
Sofia Mitsola,听Siren, 2018听漏 Sofia Mitsola. William Coldstream Prize 2018
果冻影院 Art Museum鈥檚 Slade Collections (since 1897, c.3000 works):听45% work by women artists
听
About Curating Equality
Curating Equality* is a research hub and virtual platform for interdisciplinary and collaborative research, which uncovers hidden histories in 果冻影院鈥檚 collections and addresses听their contemporary relevance. Projects undertaken to date have听brought forgotten artists into the limelight, many of them women. Significantly, these projects address currencies of esteem and have uncovered women artists' relationships with peers across disciplines, as well as听the conditions that made it possible for these听artists听to thrive. Exploration of the patterns and systems that underpin visibility听and the impact of new听technologies听continue听to inform directions for new research. 果冻影院 is well suited to exploring the visibility of women within institutional narratives and British history more widely. The university paved the way to advancements in gender equality in education and research, and was at the vanguard of co-education in art.
*The term Curating Equality was coined by Nina Pearlman and is also the title of her current research.
Curating Equality projects
The suite of Curating Equality projects led by 果冻影院 Art Museum include听Prize & Prejudice听(2018), Instruction and Access: Women in art education听(2018),听The Magic Fruit Garden听(2018),听Disrupters and Innovators: Journeys in gender equality at 果冻影院听(2018-19),听Passing In: Access and influence in higher education听(2018),听听听(2019) and听Redress听(2018).听These projects draw on听the models and methodologies of earlier initiatives focusing on diversity and inclusion, such as 果冻影院 Art Museum鈥檚听Spotlight on the Slade Collections听- a听curatorial research project funded by Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art (2015-2018) - as well as the interdisciplinary project and exhibition, (2012-13).
Further examples of Curating Equality听research by 果冻影院 staff and students:
- Curating Equality: a case study for applying predictive technologies to art collections (2002), conference paper, Dr Nina Pearlman, Head of 果冻影院 Art Collections听and Professor Julianne Nyhan,听Professor of Humanities Data Science and Methodology, TU听Darmstadt; Professor of Digital Humanities, 果冻影院, presented at the听.听
- Curating Equality: applying systems thinking to achieve gender balance in the arts听(2021), collaborative project led by Dr Nina Pearlman, Head of 果冻影院 Art Collections and Professor听Julianne Nyhan Director 果冻影院 Centre for Digital Humanities with research assistant Magdalena Araus Sieber, graduate of 果冻影院 Digital Humanities and currently Digital Curator British Museum. This was supported by a 果冻影院 Research award to foster interdisciplinary research.听
- Unseen Women: reframing women artists and听cultural agents within the Slade Archive and 果冻影院 Art Museum Collection (2021-present)), practice-led PhD project by visual artist , Slade School of Fine Art, 果冻影院. Holly is听discovering further details about the lives of Slade prize-winning women artists in the 果冻影院 Art Museum collection through research in 果冻影院 Special Collections and the Slade Archive.听She is producing digital drawings and text-based artworks in response that raise the visibility of women artists within collections and archival spaces.
- 听(2021), Sabrina Harverson-Hill and Tianyu Zhang, 果冻影院 History of Art with Material Studies (HAMS).
- 听(2019), Sarah Waite, Lok Hei Wong, Patricia Roberts and Yiting Fu,听果冻影院 Museum Studies, Collections Curatorship course.
Some statistics to date: twenty-six听women artists, eleven women from听other fields and six听living artists are featured across this suite of Curating Equality projects, which incorporate听research from ten听academics, ten students (BA/MA/PhD) and ten collections and archives.
Affiliated projects
The Curating Equality research hub has also听supported听peers across the university and wider sector in various affiliated projects, including the 果冻影院 Rightsholder Clearance Project and Professor Liz Rideal鈥檚 , both commissioned as part of the Slade 150 anniversary.
- Women Artists at 果冻影院 Art Museum
果冻影院 Art Museum听is a valuable resource for exploring gender imbalance in the arts.听Its Slade Collections span听150 years and reflect the history of art education at the first art school to admit women on the same terms as men.听Slade Prizes were awarded from 1871 and retained from 1897. In the first year that prizes were awarded, three of the five winners were women and women consistently won prizes at the Slade thereafter.听
The museum has helped restore reputations of artists听lost in the gaps of history through ongoing research, loans and exhibitions working with cultural听sector partners as well as students and academics. For instance,听果冻影院 Art Museum was the major lender to the first major retrospective of 听at Dulwich Picture Gallery in 2016.
Curating Equality projects have enabled us to establish that 45% of the museum's Slade Collections holdings comprise of work by women artists and connect contemporary artistic practice to research in other disciplines.
What can we learn from these collections?
These collections are a valuable resource for understanding currencies of esteem and the career paths of women artists of the past, and that which connects them with their contemporary counterparts. For example, interdisciplinarity, collaboration, education, social and political activism, and public engagement 鈥� all now at the forefront of contemporary art practice 鈥撎齝haracterised the careers of many nineteenth and twentieth century women artists. And yet, the contributions of so many of these artists remain invisible, having failed to be mapped along with their influence and legacies by the generations that followed. Being able to consider the conditions that impacted the professional advancement of women artists who demonstrably out peformed their male peers in art school when the playing field was level sheds light on conditions that perpetuate gender imbalance in the arts today.
The prize-winning drawing by Elinor Monsell (see above slide) would have been one of the first to enter the museum collection in 1898 while recent additions to the collections through the prize system and other methods听include work by twenty-first-century award-winning artists听,听, , , Anya Olofg枚rs and . These acquisitions听sit alongside works by key twentieth-century figures such as , 听and听.听
The 果冻影院 Art Museum听collections听offer听a unique record of the theory and practice of art education at the Slade from 1897 to the present day.听No other art school collected in this way.听Unlike other public collections, the Slade Collection was built up through the prize system and thus, the museum holds examples of work by artists before they began their professional careers 鈥� with no foreknowledge of their future position within the art world.听To read more about the history of the Slade and the prize system see the exhibition page for听Prize and Prejudice.
- A short story about Elinor Monsell: the earliest prize-winner in 1898
Elinor Monsell (1879-1954)
Elinor Monsell鈥檚 prize-winning drawing entered the collections in 1898 together with a drawing by . Competing under the same conditions and drawing the same model, both artists shared the first prize that year. We know a lot about Orpen, but at the time of our Spotlight on the Slade research project very little听information about Elinor Monsell was available. Research conducted as part of this project revealed that as well as the prize for this work, Monsell was awarded the Slade Scholarship in 1898 and the following year, she听was awarded 3rd prize equal for Figure Painting and another certificate for Figure Drawing.
Monsell returned to Ireland after leaving the Slade.听She produced the first press mark for 鈥� the organisation founded by Elizabeth Yeats, and she produced a woodcut of Queen Maeve for the , which was used on the programme cover in 1904. Over a century later, this design听still exists today as the theatre鈥檚 logo.听 Monsell also made illustrations for children鈥檚 books written by her husband 鈥� amateur golfer, golf writer and Charles Darwin鈥檚 grandson .听Significantly, Monsell taught wood engraving to her husband鈥檚 cousin,听, also a Slade student, who went on to become the only female founder member of the Society of Wood Engravers.
What does Monsell鈥檚 story tell us and how is it still relevant?
Monsell's story demonstrates the importance of women鈥檚 access to the life model and听exemplifies the teaching method at the Slade, where the life room was used to explore form, placing emphasis on understanding the figure, rather than producing a finished drawing (as evidenced by the corrections and sketches on the same sheet). Viewed alongside William Orpen's work, Monsell鈥檚 drawing tells us about the prize system. Only by studying听the two drawings together are we able to determine that the two artists drew the same model. An article by a female student in 1883 states that male and female students听鈥榗ompete under precisely the same conditions鈥� using the same casts and models for the competition subjects.
Questions that arise from this research:
- To what extent was Monsell鈥檚 career affected by her marriage to Bernard Darwin?
- To what extent has her name change from Monsell to Darwin challenged researchers in mapping her legacy?
- To what extent did Monsell's interdisciplinarity contribute to, or detract from, opportunities to show her work and establish herself听as an artist?
- Where is her work today?听A number of drawings have been noted to have surfaced in recent sales however none of her work resides in other public collections.
