Prunella Clough & others @ Annely Juda Fine Art

Art in Britain in the aftermath of WWII was a space of contradictions. On the one hand, artists had to make sense of an entirely altered world, one which required a new visual lexicon. On the other, a generation scarred by the war years sought comfort in the familiar, with traditional mindsets persisting that placed value in figuration and classicism. This will have been most keenly felt by women practitioners, whose place in the art world was already liminal. At art schools, women artists were encouraged towards ‘feminine pursuits’, such as needlework.

Women in the Abstract highlights the essential and refined work of women, offering a fresh perspective on a genre that continues to navigate a gender imbalance writ large in art history.