Sophie Taueber-Arp, Zurich, 1916/17, Unknown photographer. Original in collection of Stiftung Hans Arp und Sophie Taeuber-Arp.
‘A long overdue recognition of Taeuber-Arp’s pivotal contribution to modern art and design…’ [Tate Modern Website] as with most retrospectives of famous twentieth century female artists the long overdue long overdue retrospective comes years and even decades after the artist has died.
A quick round-up of exciting exhibitions, cultural happenings, books and articles I’ve read, amazing food that I’ve eaten and everything else cultural, museums, history and heritage!
In June I re-visited one of my favourite museums in Scotland; The Tenement House in the West End of Glasgow. The museum was the home of Miss. Agnes Toward (and her mother) from 1911 until 1965 when she entered long-time hospital care before dying in 1972. The Tenement House was sold to the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) in the early 1980s and is a microcosm of one woman’s lifetime experiences from the early to mid-twentieth century.
Gerda and Eina Wegener with Gerda’s painting Sur la route d’Anacapri, 1924, Royal Library, Denmark.
Gerda Wegener. Never heard of her? Nope, never have I until I listened to this podcast by fashion history podcasters Dressed on the illustrious career of illustrator Gerda Wegener (pronounced with a ‘V’) in the early twentieth-century. Gerda drew illustrations using the ‘pochor’ technique of painting for Le Journal Des Dames et Des Modes as well as working as a successful painter and commercial artist for various companies in France and Denmark. However, her name may be familiar to you as she is played by Alicia Vikander in the 2015 film The Danish Girl which centres on the story of Einar Wegener / Lili Elbe who was the one of first persons to undergo gender re-assignments in the early 1930s in Dresden, Germany.
In August of last year I finally got to visit the Black Country Living Museum near Birmingham. I say finally as this museum had been on my social-history-addict-museum-lover radar for quite some time and availed of a visit to a good friend to spend a day at the museum.