Artfully Dressed: Women in the Art World
Artfully Dressed: Women in the Art
World brings together portraits by Dutch artist Carla van de Puttelaar. Held at The
Weiss Gallery until 31 May, the exhibition focuses on 60 photographs of
some of the most influential women in the art world today.
Van de Puttelaar's portraits draw inspiration from historical portraits and offer an insight into the women running the international art world, from artists and gallery directors, to curators, designers and art historians.
Van de Puttelaar's portraits draw inspiration from historical portraits and offer an insight into the women running the international art world, from artists and gallery directors, to curators, designers and art historians.
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| Carla van de Puttelaar, Ana Howie, 2018 |
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| Carla van de Puttelaar, Agnieszka Prendota, 2018 |
Although the portraits are an attempt at aesthetic perfection through the lens of traditional iconography, they subvert that very trope. The theme in itself is a challenging feminist statement at a time when gender equality in the workplace and the art world is in the news. Van de Puttelaar questions what constitutes female beauty, power and by extension, vulnerability.
Among the sitters are Maria Balshaw CBE, Director of the Tate Art
Museums and Galleries; Fashion historian Amber Butchart; Emilie
Gordenker, Director of the Mauritshuis; Lidewij de Koekkoek, Director of the
Rembrandt House Museum; Catharine MacLeod, Curator of 17th Century Portraits at
the National Portrait Gallery; Hanna Klarenbeek, Curator at the Paleis Het Loo;
Aileen Ribeiro, Fashion Historian and Costume Expert; Jennifer Scott, Director
of the Dulwich Picture Gallery; Diana Scarisbrick, pre-eminent Jewellery
Historian; Burcu
Yuksel, Art Consultant and Dealer; Miho Kajioka, Photographer; Fariba Farshad,
Director of Photo London and Roxana Halls, Artist, among others. They
are dressed in haute couture, by famous designers such as Iris van Herpen, Jan
Taminiau and Claes Iversen, vintage and period costume, or wrapped in sumptuous
historic fabrics by Watts of Westminster.
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| Carla van de Puttelaar, Cassie Davies-Strodder and Maisie, 2018 |