Women Artists and Abstract Art in Postwar Rome: Connected by Travel (Routledge Research in Gender and Art)

This is a comprehensive collection of essays about women artists working with abstraction in postwar Rome, from the late 1940s through the 1970s.

A diverse range of contributors from around the world analyse the individual artistic trajectories of more than 15 women artists and critics, bringing their work together for the first time in a distinct contribution to the continuous rethinking of abstract art’s narrative in the wake of feminist as well as postcolonial theories. The book takes an international outlook with the women artists covered coming from places such as the USA and the UK, Turkey, Iran, and Brazil, and considers how travel framed their work. As the book reveals, Rome’s unique cultural landscape was immensely important to these women, who worked across painting, sculpture, and printmaking, and it had a lasting impact on both the material and formal properties of their practices. As a transnational contact zone and a point of convergence for the exchange of ideas and working methodologies of a global artistic network, it enabled a dialogue between women abstract artists extending across the Mediterranean and beyond.

This book is ideal for researchers and students interested in modern art, postwar women artists, and abstraction.

Jelena Stojković is an art historian and critic based in London. She is also a Senior Lecturer in Critical Theory at the School of Arts, Oxford Brookes University, UK.

Daniel Sturgis is a British artist and Professor of painting at the University of the Arts London, UK.