![]() Are the artists not just experimenting with materials? A couple of works are tenuously linked to the theme: it’s unclear to me how Helen Chadwick’s photographs of animal flesh or Liliane Lijn’s exploded glass sculptures are about “identity and belonging,” as the wall text claims. In the next room are works about “home” - some are literal (Mona Hatoum, Susan Hiller), others more metaphorical (Sonia Boyce, Rosalind Nashashibi). Susan Hiller, “Belshazzar’s Feast, the Writing on Your Wall” (1983-4) (Tate © Susan Hiller) 60 Years, despite its time-based title, is arranged in a series of themes: “spaces and structures,” “home,” and “fictional identities.” Each section has its own tone or mood, which means that the visitor is taken on an emotional journey: from the cool and rational through to the playful and absurd, and the poignant and uncanny. Nevertheless, there are some fantastic works on display. The primary victims are Alison Wilding, whose vast orange and black sculpture “Assembly” (1991) is claustrophobically placed in the first room and Sarah Lucas whose sexy stuffed-tights-woman “Pauline Bunny” (1997) loses all of its impact because of bad lighting. Although this placement makes sense chronologically ( 60 Years is the most contemporary section, gathering around 60 works by women artists working in Britain since 1960), it feels a bit like the women have been shoved away in a small dark corner. ![]() The display is located in a three-room suite at the end of Tate Britain’s permanent collection display “Walk Through British Art,” which spans from 1540 to the present day and is extremely male. Sarah Lucas, “Pauline Bunny” (1997) (Tate © Sarah Lucas) But to give you a flavor - a recent survey of the collections of major US museums found that out of the 10,000 artists represented, 87% are men. I won’t keep quoting stats that’s what the inimitable Guerrilla Girls do. The reason those school kids don’t know any women artists isn’t because women artists don’t exist it’s because they’ve been systematically excluded from art history textbooks and museum collections. To me, this proves the burning need for shows like Tate Britain’s current all-women permanent collection display, 60 Years. While Kahlo is fabulous, there are other women artists out there who could also be on the face of a playing card. What she got in the next class was … Frida Kahlo. She decided to set her pupils the task of creating a women artist’s trump card as homework. Each card depicted a modern or contemporary artist, but out of the 32 cards in the pack, only four were women. LONDON - My friend, who works as an art teacher at a London school, recently decided to dedicate one of her classes to playing a game of Artists’ Top Trumps. Installation view of 60 Years at Tate Britain (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)
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