Unforgettable x 2

Unforgettable I & II: Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam
at the MSK (Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent) 
from 7 March – 31 May 2026
Mondays, 3 & 17 August at 6pm

In Spring this year the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent staged the most comprehensive exhibition about women in the visual arts I have yet seen. Drawing together the extensive research that has taken place over the past few decades, it presented a more thoroughly grounded way of looking at the artists: who they were, how they organised their careers, and how they managed to have careers in the first place. Far rather than being ‘freak’ phenomena, women worked regularly in the arts, and were often hugely successful. Although the exhibition has been and gone, it is well worth looking back at the remarkable wealth of material it managed to bring together – so much, indeed, that I have decided to dedicate two talks to it. You can book for either separately, or, on this link, both together at a reduced price.

Focussing on artists in the ‘Greater Netherlands’ (my term – what we now call The Netherlands and Belgium), the exhibition was arranged into themes. Individual artists reappear as consistent threads drawing together the themes, and filling out our understanding of their careers and places within the artistic community. This, far more than monographic rooms dedicated to single artists, helps to show how much they were part of the different communities to which they belonged, rather than being isolated from their male colleagues as curiosities and wonders.

Please remember, I do not record my talks.