Woman in Abstraction Exhibition, Arles

I learnt today that not only were women written out of Abstract Expressionist Art, but copied...

The "drip" technique and "all-over painting" (in which the surface of a work is approached holistically from every direction), made famous by Jackson Pollock, was not his method. In 1938, Janet Sobel, a 45-year-old Ukrainian with no previous artistic training, began fiddling around with her son's painting supplies and changed the course of cultural history.

The art critic Clement Greenberg admitted in 1955 to visiting an exhibition with Pollock and that the two "noticed one or two curious paintings by a primitive painter (a housewife from Brooklyn). Pollock (and I myself) admired these pictures rather furtively… The effect – and it was the first really 'all-over' one that I had ever seen… – was strangely pleasing. Later on, Pollock admitted that these pictures had made an impression on him."

www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220307-janet-sobe…

Women have changed the world; they just haven't had recognition within the patriarchy 😡Read more