FEMALE MINIMAL: ABSTRACTION IN THE EXPANDED FIELD

Pioneers of Neoplasticism, Concretism, (post)Minimal and Land Art previously written out of art history due to gender inequalities and the politics of their time:

Rosemarie Castoro | Maria Lai | Verena Loewensberg | Mary Miss Lucia Moholy | Vera Molnár | Marlow Moss | Lydia Okumura | Ana Sacerdote Loló Soldevilla | Magdalena Więcek | Shizuko Yoshikawa

Featuring rarely seen works and pieces never previously exhibited in the UK

Curated by Anke Kempkes & Pierre-Henri Foulon Female artists of the 20th century avant-garde pushing the boundaries of geometric abstraction and spanning Europe and the Americas over six decades

Some of the earliest examples of Algorithmic and Kinetic Art re-presented in the context of contemporary digitisation

Including key pre-war figures Marlow Moss, who abandoned her birth name of Marjorie and adopted a dandified, masculine appearance, and Lucia Moholy, whose career was overshadowed by that of her husband, László Moholy-Nagy and later omitted from the Bauhaus archives by Walter Gropius

OPENING THURSDAY 29 OCTOBER
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac London
37 Dover St W1S 4NJ

Female Minimal brings together pioneering female artists from Europe and the Americas, who each contributed in their original and uncompromising way to expanding the scope of the minimal aesthetic beyond the orthodox category of Minimal Art, but many of whom have been omitted from the canon of art history as a result of gender inequalities or the politics of their time.

The upcoming exhibition will spotlight these artists' centrality amongst period-defining artists' groups such as Zurich Concrete in Switzerland, Abstraction-Création in Paris and Los Diez Pintores Concretos in Cuba.

Through a large selection of sculptures, paintings and works on paper dating from the 1920s to the early 1980s – including a number of works that have never previously been exhibited in the UK – this exhibition explores new perspectives and genealogies in the field of geometric abstraction, highlighting the complex and often subtle relationships between formalism and identity politics and expresses the emancipatory desire to disrupt and expand the canon forged by the male-dominated avant-garde movements.

The personal trajectories of the artists presented demonstrate how varied backgrounds and experiences have been a consistent driver of innovation and creativity. The history of geometric abstraction is also a history of global turmoil, migration, transnational exchange and shared values.