Negative Spaces 1: Mary Beale and Sybil Andrews - Two Women from Bury St Edmunds

I visited Moyses Hall Museum in Bury St Edmunds recently to see their collection of paintings by Mary Beale, a remarkable British portraitist from the 17th Century. They held an exhibition of her work at the end of last year, but I only heard about it after it had finished, which was very frustrating! However, some of her paintings are still on display, and they have just, this month, published a catalogue of their collection - so I thought I'd give a talk to introduce her work, given that most people have never heard of her. Despite missing the exhibition, I was delighted to see a different, temporary display of the work of another Bury-based artist, Sybil Andrews, whose work I first encountered at the London Print Fair about 3 or 4 years ago. I became particularly interested in her fascination with negative space - the areas between the shapes which form the subject of the image, but which are also an essential part of the composition - and when I saw that Mary Beale uses negative space in an equivalent way in one of her best works, I realised it might be a new way to look at the two artists, and to bring them together. It also struck me that 'Negative Spaces' would be a good way of thinking about women artists throughout history: their contribution was important, but, after their deaths, rarely seen... This talk will, as I hope this text suggests, introduce the work of both artists, and consider what their impact was, or could have been.