Women artists take center stage at the Art Gallery of Ontario

From March 27 to July 1, 2024, the Art Gallery of Ontario hosts the exhibition “Making Her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe, 1400-1800”

Source: Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) / Art Gallery of Ontario · Image: Judith Leyster. “Self-portrait”. c. 1633. National Gallery of Art: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss. 1949.6.1

Featuring artists like Artemisia Gentileschi, Sofonisba Anguissola, Rosalba Carriera, Judith Leyster, Luisa Roldán, Rachel Ruysch, and Elisabeth Vigée-LeBrun; “Making Her Mark” includes more than 230 artworks that, according to the Art Gallery of Ontario, “demonstrate the many ways women contributed to the visual arts of Europe.”

“Making Her Mark” was on view at the Baltimore Museum of Art from October 1, 2023, to January 7, 2024. In the exhibition website, the Baltimore Museum indicated that “for centuries, women artists in Europe were considered rare and less talented compared to their male counterparts. Women who achieved professional artistic careers were deemed anomalous or exceptional, while those who engaged in creative pursuits in the home were dismissed as amateurs. ‘Making Her Mark’ aims to correct these commonly held beliefs by examining the different ways in which women contributed to the evolution of art and to the proliferation of cultural trends and commercial successes. Their roles as artists, designers, laborers, and business professionals are given life through a variety of objects and through narratives seldom, if ever, told. In this way, the exhibition not only expands our understanding of women’s contributions but of art history more broadly, encompassing making well beyond the established dominance of painting and sculpture.”

“The exhibition explores women’s essential work in the development of new ideas, aesthetics, creative movements, and commerce of the time. By recontextualizing this period in history and offering these women artists the attention they deserve, we hope to inspire our community to reimagine what they have previously held to be true about both art and history, and to contribute to the critical work of rectifying centuries of omissions,” said Asma Naeem, the BMA’s Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director.