Arts and Culture

The ZIWA Arts and Culture group has travelled all over Switzerland this year to explore different themes and media in art, but the last visit of the year was just a short journey to the beautiful lakeside town of Rapperswil. Group member Sonja Schlagel entertained us at her charming small gallery in the old town with welcome refreshments, before giving us a brief introduction to women in art - a subject dear to all of our hearts.

Sonja began by mentioning that it is only in recent years that women have been credited as artists. However, hand print evidence shows that cave paintings have been done by women, and Greek women painted faces on walls and vases. The Chinese woman Madame Wei was known for her artwork in the year 272, while in medieval times, nuns illustrated manuscripts. Hildegard of Bingen was a well-known artist and intellectual from Germany, and the Bayeaux tapestry was embroidered by women. In the late 12th century, women were not allowed to study anatomy, but during the Renaissance of 1450 to 1600, the status of women improved. Many women artists were trained by their fathers, such as Sofonisba Anguissola from Cremona who was an important portrait artist in the 16th century. Later, the early baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi, who came from Rome, also achieved fame through such works as Susanna and the Elders of 1610. She showed that a nude woman could be vulnerable and not just an object of men's gaze.

In the seventeenth century, Giovanna Garzoni was an early exponent of still lifes, and the Dutch artist Judith Leyster had her own workshop and created lively scenes in her works. She was known to have influenced Vermeer. Sonja could also have mentioned Angelika Kauffmann, a Swiss artist whose birthplace in Chur we visited in October, and who painted a portrait of contemporary artist Sir Joshua Reynolds. Another Dutch still life artist was Rachel Ruysch, and Elizabeth Thomson was a British romantic artist of the latter half of the nineteenth century who was born here in Lausanne. The American Mary Cassatt travelled throughout Europe and studied at the Paris Salon; she was a friend of Dégas and was the only female artist to be exhibited at the Salon des Indépendents. Séraphine de Senlis was formerly a cleaner who was also a self-taught naive artist.

In the twentieth century, women artists achieved greater recognition such as the Mexican Frieda Kahlo (1907-54) who overcame polio and a car accident to succeed as an artist in partnership with her husband Diego Rivera. One of the most famous and prolific women artists of the last century was Georgia O'Keeffe, who broke the rules of art, and she was also an early feminist. More recently the Japanese artist and sculptor Yakoi Kusama is an exponent of abstract expressionism whose images are more well-known than her name.

Sonja then went on to mention the women artists who are currently on show at her gallery: Nicole Janssen, Anna Vidra, Nicole Laceur, Bozean Lesiak and Clare Linder. Her current display theme is abstract art, although she mentioned that she has also featured old master styles in the past. Sonja, a ZIWA member from Holland, has lived in Switzerland for 19 years and met her husband here. Three years ago she achieved her dream, to open a gallery and run it as her own business. She currently has twenty artists on her books and she often turns to her mentor in Holland for advice.
You can find out about the latest exhibition at this link: www.sonjartevents.com

This led us to think about all the artists, some professional and others amateurs, who exhibited at the ZIWA art show last June. Since then a number of those women whose work was on display have gained the confidence to launch their own exhibitions in the second half of 2009, and others have set up their own websites to market their products.

After these interesting insights into the world of art, Sonja offered the thirteen ladies present a very welcome and delicious apéro to round off the art year in a convivial and very pleasant manner. Thanks to chairladies Anne and Francesca for a truly fascinating year of arts events and we look forward to the first event of 2010, a visit to the recent 'Collections' exhibition at the Landesmuseum Zürich as a follow-up to the Discovering Zürich visit in November.

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