WOMEN OF GENIUS

WOMEN OF GENIUS

Female Painters from the renaissance to classicism

a film by Dagmar Wittmers | SWR | arte | 2024

 
“Make women artists visible! – Get their paintings out of the repositories at last, let us see for ourselves and discover sensuously how their work can compete with the celebrated stars of painting!” This outcry has electrified the art scene. Using the example of four exceptional talents, the film shows how women artists were able to make themselves “visible” and forge unusual careers in the face of a wide variety of social conditions. Ingenious in their work, fearless in their interactions with society! Confronting their world of thoughts and feelings, which is often surprisingly modern and radical, a lively discourse emerges with interesting impulses for the present.

They conquered the academies, became court painters and were held in high esteem. How did the women painters of this time period manage to succeed at the seemingly impossible: having international careers and earning a living through their art?