Six decades of women artists to be celebrated in single show at Tate Britain

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Robert Dex @RobDexES18 December 2018

Tate Britain will celebrate six decades of Britain’s women artists with a new display of more than 60 works.

Well-known names involved include Bridget Riley and Turner Prize winner Rachel Whiteread, with paintings, ­photography, sculpture and films all going on show.

Gallery director Alex Farquharson said: “The recent histories of the Turner Prize, Tate’s exhibition programme and contemporary acquisitions reflect the critical role of women in the history of British art over the last 60 years.

“This presentation, Sixty Years, will offer a significant moment to recognise and celebrate a selection of Britain’s most important artists working from the Sixties to the present day.”

Among the works going on show are Susan Hiller’s multimedia installation Belshazzar’s Feast, the Writing on Your Wall 1983-84, which recreates a traditional sitting room complete with a sofa, television, plants and a rug.

Artist Monster Chetwynd, who recently created two huge illuminated slugs for the outside of the building, will also contribute two new works for the display, which opens next April.

It is the latest move by Tate to promote women artists. Last year Annie Swynnerton’s portrait of leading suffragist Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett went on display at Tate Britain, and it launched LDN WMN, a display of 20 public artworks across the capital by emerging artists highlighting women who played a crucial role in London’s history.

A study by the US-based National Museum of Women in the Arts found that more than half of all visual artists working today are women but their work is often marginalised. In London more than three-quarters of commercial galleries represent more men than women.

Tate is not the only major institution attempting to redress the balance — a planned new show at the National Portrait Gallery will focus on the forgotten women behind the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Its Pre-Raphaelite Sisters ­exhibition will look at the women who worked as models, gallery assistants and artists in their own right.

The best London exhibitions of 2018

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