The Fine Art Societyc o n t e m p o r a r y

148 New Bond Street | London | W1S 2JTwww.faslondon.com

WOMEN AND THE HISTORY OF ARTANNIE KEVANS

13 MAY - 6 JUNE 2014

The Fine Art Society is proud to announce an exhibition of new work by Annie Kevans - Women and the History of Art. Kevans’ work has always reflected an interest in the relation between power and identity and in every new series the British painter investigates in-herited belief systems. This exhibition centres on women in art history who were once part of the art world and whose history and signif-icance have been gradually eroded.

Kevans has long examined the duality of truth and falsehood throughout her work, which she does by creating ‘portraits’ which may or may not be based on real documentation. For this exhibition Kevans presents over thirty new paintings that depict successful women artists, opening up a dialogue about their im-portance and significance. Although many have been championed in the last decades having been ‘rediscovered’ by later art his-torians, these women still remain ‘separate’ from art history.

Kevans shines a light on artists such as So-fonisba Anguissola who was the first Italian woman to become an international known artist in her own time. Other artists are known for their personal lives but their works remain invisible. Despite being the first woman paint-er admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux -Arts, Suzanne Valadon is more famous for her personal relationships with Renoir, Erik Satie and Degas. Like many of her female contemporaries, her name means nothing to the general public or to many female art-ists working today.

Throughout her many series, which always show an affinity for the marginalised, Kevans has always found a new way of perceiving figures from the past. Whether child stars, dic-tators or the insane, Kevans always captures a piercing insight and imbues her subjects with a tangible humanity and sensuality. She believes that a person’s identity is not preset but is a shifting temporary construction and her work questions our verdicts on history and perceptions of intellectual solidity.

WORKS2014 | oil on canvas | 40 x 30 cm (framed 47 x 37 cm)

£7,500 + VAT

The Fine Art Societyc o n t e m p o r a r y

“Her work’s way of quietly digging out unsettling truths about society has held the art world in thrall...Kevans’ work is approachable, unpretentious, and unexpectedly pro-found. These naively rendered, pastel-coloured paintings are like little warnings of just how easily our civilized veneer could crumble away.”

Nisha Lilia Diu, Stella Magazine,Telegraph

“Don’t be fooled by her wide-eyed adolescents: dark themes hide behind those soft brush strokes.”

Claire Sacre, Elle UK

“Annie Kevans has an eye for what makes an eye-catching portrait. Her oil-on-paper likenesses look simple, almost childlike, but they come with a sting in the tail... The works sound sensationalist, but Kevans’ use of thinned oil paints on canvas paper gives her subjects a melancholic, dreamlike feel – all eerie wide eyes, drippy hair and smeary lips.”

Alice Jones, Independent

“The ghost-like quality of her pieces is achieved through the thoughtful use of oils on pa-per with the lightest of brush strokes in translucent tones. Giving us an impression rather than something complete – we are getting a glimpse into the unknown.“

Nico Kos Earle, Glass Magazine

SOFONISBA ANGUISSOLA

Sofonisba Anguissola (1532/5-1625) was an internationally celebrated painter, who at just 26 had become official court painter to the king Philip II of Spain. Both Michel-angelo and art historian Giorgio Vasari recognised her talents and her work is fine example of late Renaissance portraiture. Visited by many colleagues, she was last portrayed by Sir Anthony van Dyck when she was 92.

CECILIABEAUX

Cecilia Beaux (1855-1942) was an American painter raised in Philadelphia. After exten-sive travelling in Europe she became by 1900 a leading portraitist in New York and was commissioned to paint, among others, Mrs Theodore Roosevelt. In 1933 she was declared by the New York Times “the greatest woman painter of America” but was quickly forgot-ten after her death in 1942.

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MARIE-GUILLEMINEBENOIST

Marie-Guillemine Benoist (1768-1826), a pupil of Vigée Le Brun, was part of Jacques-Louis David’s studio along with her sister. Like her master, she painted in a neoclassical style and after first showing at the Salon paintings of mythological themes, she later turned her attention toward history paintings. Thanks to substantial commissions and a government sponsored allowance she was able to open a studio for the artistic training of women.

MARIEBRACQUEMOND

Marie Bracquemond (1840-1916) was a French painter, printmaker and designer. After exhibiting at the Salon in 1874 and 1875 and being praised by Degas for her work, she adapted a clearly Impressionist style. She consequently exhibited in the Impressionist ex-hibitions despite her husband’s efforts to thwart her career. Alongside Morisot and Cas-satt, she is considered one of “les trois grandes dames” of Impressionism.

ELIZABETHBUTLER

Elizabeth Butler (1846-1933) was a prolific and famous painter of history paintings, spe-cialising in military battles scenes. Her most renowned works depict the Napoleonic wars and she represented most of the 19th century wars. Despite the inclusion of painters like Angelica Kauffman in the original foundation of the Royal Academy, she was not made a member since it was stated that the election of female was not provided for.

GABRIELLECAPET

Gabrielle Capet (1761-1818) was born in a family of servants and soon managed to leave the province to move to Paris where she became a student of Adelaide Labille-Guiard. She became one of the most popular miniature portraitists of her time with famous royal commissions and exhibited her works in the Salon for many years.

ROSALBACARRIERA

Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757) was a greatly admired portrait artist of Venetian Rococo painting. Starting her career with miniatures, she later developed portrait paintings mak-ing exclusive use of pastel and was renowned for her highly representational textures and patterns. She was enthusiastically received by rulers and courts all over Europe and was elected member of the prestigious French Academy.

MARYCASSATT

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) is considered one of “les trois grandes dames” of Impressionism alongside Morisot and Bracquemond. Born in an upper-middle class American family that objected to her artistic inclination, she studied art intensively and mostly on her own. After moving to Paris she exhibited many times in the Salon and was then mentored by Degas and Pissarro, regularly exhibiting with the impressionists.

SONIADELAUNAY

Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979) was a Jewish French artist who co-founded, with her hus-band Robert Delaunay, Orphist art. Alongside her geometric and colourful paintings, she designed hand-printed fabrics and tapestries which established her as a leading designer in Paris. In 1964 she became the first living female artist to have a retrospective exhibition at the Louvre.

LAVINIA FONTANA

Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614) was daughter of Prospero Fontana, one of the leading painters of the School of Bologna. She successfully worked in a variety of genres both for public and private commissions and her altarpieces and portraits were said to cost ‘astronomical sums’. With over 100 documented works she has the largest oeuvre for any female artist prior 1700, with many of her works wrongly attributed to Guido Reni.

ARTEMISIAGENTILESCHI

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1656) was introduced to painting by her father and by the age of 22 was a very well known artist employed on major projects in Florence. Her paint-ings show the clear influence of Caravaggio’s style, often depicting female heroines form biblical and mythological stories like Judith slaying Holofernes. Her achievements have often been overshadowed by Agostino Tassi’s infamous rape and prosecution story.

MARGUERITEGERARD

Marguerite Gerard (1761-1837), daughter of a perfume producer in Grasse, was the first French woman to achieve professional success in genre painting.Mentored by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (her brother-in-law), she worked and exhibited regularly for over twenty-five years and her paintings were collected, among others, by Napoleon and Louis XVIII.

HANNAHHÖCH

Hannah Höch (1889-1978) was a German Dada artist and one of the originators of the photomontage technique. Her works were created by splicing together images taken from fashion magazines and illustrated journals and acted as a humorous and moving commentary of the contem-porary society. Keeping a low profile during the Third Reich in Berlin, she exhibited inter-nationally until her death in 1978.

GWENJOHN

Gwen John (1876-1939) was a Welsh artist who lived and worked in France for most of her career. Painting and drawing from an early age, she was encouraged by her parents and her brother Augusts, whose reputation often overshadowed hers. The subjects of her paintings were mainly anonymous female sitters that were rendered in a range of closely related tones.

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ANGELICAKAUFFMAN (I)

Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807) was a child prodigy who was carrying out commissions by the age of 15. She was a successful history painter and had international acclaim as well as important patrons. After moving to London in 1766 she become on of the city’s leading artists and founder member of the Royal Academy. When she died in Rome cer-emonies were held where her paintings were carried in a procession.

ANGELICAKAUFFMAN (II)

KÄTHEKOLLWITZ

Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) was a political and social artist best known for her drawings and prints. A master of etching, lithography and woodcut, she chronicled the lives of the proletarians. Her works were influenced by Expressionist art and she was the first woman member of the Prussian Academy of Arts. During the Nazi regime, she was banned from exhibiting and her work was removed from all German museums.

ADELAIDELABILLE-GUIARD

Adelaide Labille-Guiard (1741-1807) was among one of the first four women to be admit-ted to the Academie Royal in Paris, alongside her artistic rival Vigée Le Brun. Recognized as a major portrait painter of the 1780s in Paris, she actively campaigned to extend her privileges and advantages for her fellow women artists and tutored many female pupils herself.

GIULIALAMA

Giulia Lama (1681-1753) was a gifted painter, lace maker, mathematician, poetess and inventor. She created altarpieces as well as public figure paintings, showing dramatic lighting and shading influenced by the painter Giovanni Battista Piazzetta. She seems to be the first woman able to study from nudes when it was widely forbidden, and there are over 200 extant drawings showing her studies of both male and female nudes.

LILLYMARTIN SPENCER

Lilly Martin Spencer (1822 – 1902) was an American genre painter and described by a contemporary writer as a “feminist without politics”. She painted portraits of two feminist activists, Ella Wheeler Wilcox and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Her husband, Mr Spencer, was a hugely supportive figure who devoted himself to the domestic sphere. They had a happy and busy marriage, they are said to have had over thirteen children despite the fi-nancial difficulties that plagued them as a result of their rare household division of labour.

VICTORINEMEURENT

Victorine Meurent (1844 –1927) was the model for two of the most famous paintings in the nineteenth century, Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe and Olympia but was also herself an accomplished artist. Because of the highly contentious act to pose naked, history has rel-egated her to the realms of the fallen woman, a muse at best. But it was recently discov-ered that not only did she most probably not have a sexual relationship with Manet, she also fulfilled her painting ambitions by exhibiting at the 1876 salon, the year that Manet was rejected.

BERTHE MORISOT (I)

Berthe Morisot (1841 – 1895) was a French Impressionist painter. Along with Mary Cassatt she has the distinction of being one of the first women to challenge the art establishment and to achieve renown outside the officially approved circles. She worked earnestly and loyally as a member of the Impressionist group, exhibiting in all the group shows except that of 1879, when she was pregnant. After Manet’s death in 1883 she was active in ar-ranging a major retrospective and sale of his work. Major retrospectives of her work have been held in Paris in 1941, the UK in 1950 and the US and Canada in 1952.

BERTHE MORISOT (II)SOLD

BERTHE MORISOT (III)

SUSAN PENELOPEROSSE

Susan Penelope Rosse (C. 1652 – 1700) was a British portrait painter who painted Charles II’s mistresses and many other women in miniature format. Her father Richard Gibson was a miniaturist from whom Penelope received her training. Portrait miniature was popular in England in the seventeenth century, and Susan Penelope Ross became one of the best known artists of this genre. Her works were generally very small--some no large than an inch in length.

RACHEL RUYSCH

Rachel Ruysch (1664 – 1750) was a still life painter from the Northern Netherlands who achieved international fame in her lifetime and whose work, unusually, still remains ex-pensive. Ruysch married a portrait painter and they had ten children together. Both artists entered The Hague painters’ guild and she was court painter to the Elector Pala-tine, Johann Wilhelm von Pfalz, for many years. She continued to paint into her eighties, enjoying a career of seventy years.

DOROTHEATANNING

Dorothea Tanning (1910 – 2012) was an American painter, sculptor, writer and poet. She was born in Illinois and moved to New York where she worked as a commercial artist and taught herself how to paint. Her early paintings were inspired by childhood dreams, fantasies and nightmares. In 1942 Tanning met the painter Max Ernst who introduced her to the Surrealists and she became a member of the group. She had her first solo show in 1944 and later married Ernst and continued to practice in France after the couple moved there in 1946. Her work has been widely exhibited in museums such as the Centre Pompidou and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

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MARIETTATINTORETTO

Marietta Tintoretto (1560 – 1590) was the daughter of the famous Venetian artist Tintoret-to. She worked in her father’s studio and her fame spread to the courts of Spain and Austria. The Emperor Maximilian and Philip II both asked her father if she might come to work in their courts, but he refused. Instead, he found her a husband who accepted the condition that Marietta should not leave his household in his lifetime. Modern scholars at-tribute none of the work of the Tintoretto bottega to her, although she worked there more or less full time for fifteen years. In the last years of her life, she is said to have portrayed all her husband’s colleagues for the silversmiths’ guild which have likely been attributed to her father.

SUZANNE VALADON (II)

Suzanne Valadon (1865 – 1938) was a French painter and best known for being the muse for artists such as Toulouse Latrec and Renior and for being the mother of the painter Maurice Utrillo, whom she taught to paint. Valadon began painting in her twenties and her painting of the composer, Erik Satie, her lover at the time, is one of her earliest known paintings. She used Degas’ studio to make prints and in 1894, still in her twenties, she ex-hibited at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Her work was popular with both critics and collectors and she enjoyed wide acclaim and financial success until her death.

CATERINAVAN HEMESSEN

Caterina van Hemessen (1528 – after 1587) was a successful Flemish portrait painter. She was the daughter of Jan Sanders van Hemessen, a Flemish painter and achieved rec-ognition In her own right, as testified to by the fact that she held a position in the Guild of St. Luke and the fact that Maria of Austria, who served as regent of the Low Countries for her brother Charles V, became Caterina’s patron in the 1540s. In 1556, Maria resigned her post and returned to Spain and invited Caterina and her husband to move with her, which they did. When Maria died two years later, she left Caterina a sizeable pension for life.

LOUISE ÉLISABETHVIGÉE LE BRUN

Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755 – 1842) was a French portrait painter, who along with Angelica Kauffman, vies for the title of most celebrated woman artist of their time. Vigée-Lebrun was a child prodigy and a successful portraitist of the French aristocracy before she was 20 years old. She joined the ancient Parisian painters’ guild, the Académie de Saint Luc, while still in her teens and was working for Queen Marie Antoinette by the age of 25 (she painted Marie Antoinette more than 30 times). Because of her close rela-tionship with the royal family, she was forced to flee France during the French Revolution but, due to her international fame, she was welcomed warmly wherever she went.

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MARIE-GENEVIÈVEBOULIARD

Marie-Geneviève Bouliard (1763-1825) was a French portrait painter whose career last-ed over 30 years. Active during the years of the French revolution, she was famous for her highly representational textures and patterns. She is particularly renowned for her self-portrait as Aspasia, wife of Pericles and respected philosopher in an era when wom-en were almost unilaterally illiterate and denied even basic civil rights.

Oil on board50 x 40 cm

MARYBEALE

Mary Beale (1633-1699) was an English portrait painter widely considered as the first pro-fessional female English painter. Despite a tough beginning due to financial difficulties and the Great Plague of London, in 1670 she established her studio in Pall Mall, with her husband working as her assistant. She soon became successful and her circle of friends and admirers comprised poets, intellectuals, artists and religious figures of her time.

Oil on board50 x 40 cm

ANNEVALLAYER-COSTER

Anne Vallayer-Coster (1744-1818) was a versatile and productive still-life painter with more than 450 extant works recorded. Elected at the age of 26 into the Academie Royal alongside Vigée Le Brun and Labille-Guillard, she was subsequently named Painter to the Queen Marie Antoinette. During the French Revolution her career suffered because of her close association to the monarchy, however she continued exhibiting at the Salon until the year before her death.

Oil on board50 x 40 cm

VANESSABELL

Vanessa Bell (1879-1961), elder sister of the writer Virginia Woolf, was a painter and in-terior designer among the founders of the avant-garde Bloomsbury group. She studied painting at the Royal Academy and was influenced by post-Impressionism and Cubism, creating innovative works fusing fine art and decorative design. She is considered one of the major contributors to British portrait drawing and landscape art of the 20th century.

Oil on board50 x 40 cm

ANNIE KEVANSBorn 1972 , lives and works in London

EDUCATION 1999 - 04 / BA(Hons) Fine Art , Central St Martins School of Art & Design1997 - 99 / Foundation, Central St Martins School of Art & Design1997 - 99 / MA Museum & Gallery Management, City University SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2014 / The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, Barbican Centre, London2014 / All About Eve, Fifty One Too, Antwerp2013/4 / War and Trauma, Museum Dr Guislain, Gent2010 / Manumission, Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York2009 / Ship of Fools, The Fine Art Society, London2009 / All the Presidents' Girls, Volta, New York2007 / Vamps & Innocents, Antonio Ferrara, Vienna2007 / Swans', 319 Portobello Road, London2006 / Girls, Studio 1.1, London SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2014 / Politricks, Beursschouwburg, Brussels2014 / Curiouser and Curiouser, Cecilia Brunson Pro-jects, London2013 / Paper, Saatchi Gallery, London2013 / The Future Can Wait, Saatchi Gallery, London2013 / Summer Exhibition 2013, Royal Academy, London2013 / House of the Nobleman, Bankside, London2013 / A House of Many Windows, Collyer Bristow Gallery, London2012 / The Future Can Wait, Bloomsbury, London2012 / This Is London, Shizaru Gallery, London2011 / Mindful, Old Vic Tunnels, London2011 / I, Pertwee, Anderson & Gold, London2011 / Among Flesh, Alison Jacques Gallery, London2011 / Polemically Small, Torrance Art Museum, Cali-fornia2009 / Creating Identity: Portraits Today, 21c Muse-um, Louisville, Kentucky2009 / The Future Can Wait, Old Truman Brewery, London2009 / About Face, Adam Baumgold Gallery, New York2008 / Awopbopaloobop, Transition Gallery, London2008 / Remember My Name, Sartorial Contemporary

Art, London2008 / A Summer Show, Studio 1.1, London2008 / Ist Das Ein Portrait?, Galerie Karin Sachs, Munich 2008 / The Painting Room, Transition Gallery, London2007 / Hiram, Antonio Ferrara, Reggio Emilia2007 / ING Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London2007 / New British Artists, Galerie Karin Sachs, Munich2007 / New to DACS, The Kowalsky Gallery at DACS, London2007 / Avatar of Sacred Discontent, Port Eliot Castle2007 / Portrait: a fictional narrative?, Clifford Chance, London2007 / Salon 2007: New British Painting, 319 Portobello Rd, London2007 / Winter Exhibition 2007, Contemporary Art Pro-jects, London2006 / The Portrait, Ashwin Street, London2006 / Jerwood Drawing Prize, Touring group show2006 / Beyond the Grave, Sartorial Contemporary Art, London2006 / Absolute Democracy, Antonio Ferrara, Reggio Emilia2005 / Geisterfahrer, Paintworks, Bristol2005 / Radar, The Empire Gallery, London2004 / Future Map Visual Arts, Arts Gallery, University of the Arts, London2004 / -scopeCircle, -scope art fair, London2004 / Young Gods, Clapham Art Gallery, London2001 / VAMalgam, Victoria & Albert Museum, Lon-don AWARDS

2007 Women of the Future (finalist)2006 Jerwood Drawing Prize (finalist) COLLECTIONS 21c Museum, USNunzia & Vittorio Gaddi Collection, ItalyGroucho Club, UKPallant House Gallery, UKJean Pigozzi Collection, USDavid Roberts Collection, UKBeth Rudin deWoody Collection, USSaatchi Collection, UKSender Collection, USSONS Museum, BelgiumTesco PLC, UK

All works subject to availabilityPlease contact Kate Bryan

kb@faslondon.com +44(0)20 7318 1895

The Fine Art Societyc o n t e m p o r a r y

148 New Bond Street | London | W1S 2JTwww.faslondon.com