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With the wave of feminism rising, in museums and galleries, women's voices and figures appear in front of the audience in various ways, of which the exhibition with women as the theme is undoubtedly the most central part. Some of these exhibitions focus on the ancient women's plump or delicate postures to show their classical beauty; some pay attention to the transformation of women's social roles in modern upheavals, reflecting their rise in struggle; some include the achievements of contemporary women in the fields of art, literature, science and technology, and create space for full exchange and equal development between different genders.
Among these various and colorful exhibitions, "Li Ren Xing - Cloud Exhibition of Ancient Chinese Women's Images" opens up a unique situation for the museum's women's exhibition, which not only combs through the female figures in paintings from the Warring States to the Ming and Qing dynasties, but also presents it to the audience in the form of a "cloud exhibition" that transcends time and space.
By reviewing the more than 100 women's theme exhibitions that still have traces to follow, and appreciating the images, lives and even spiritual worlds of women at different times and situations, it can provide a reference of diverse value for contemporary women to understand the development history of gender relations and pursue a better future. Here, we specially extract some of the exhibition posters, contents and live pictures to enjoy with you.
Swallow thin ring fat style and posture
The image of women in ancient China and their lives
When it comes to ancient Chinese women, the world often has many reverie. What exactly does a world-famous beauty look like? How did the deep affection of "mountains and rivers exhausted" arise? How is the fat powder incense box in ancient times different from today? The distance of time and space has cast a slightly mysterious veil over ancient women, but all the curiosity related to it cannot avoid the restoration of the overall image and living environment of ancient women, and the answers to these questions can be seen from related cultural relics.
The theme of the ancient women's theme exhibition and the cultural relics involved are quite diverse, from the bone decorations of the Stone Age, to the tomb murals of the Qin and Han Dynasties, and then to the female figures of the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties, all of which show the colorful style of ancient women in many dimensions.
The Han and Tang dynasties are the monuments in the long river of Chinese history, and the prosperous economy and stable social environment have spawned magnificent cultural features, and also bred strong, delicate and delicate women.
In 2014, the Shenzhen Museum held the "Prosperous Beauty - Tang Dynasty Women's Life Exhibition", based on colorful Tang Dynasty figurines, supplemented by women's makeup, clothes and images, so that the posture and vitality of Women in the Tang Dynasty are vivid under the eyes.
Poster of "Prosperous Ladies - Tang Dynasty Ladies' Life Exhibition"
The 2016 exhibition of Xi'an Museum,"Huan Fei Yan Thin - Han and Tang Chang'an Her Life" exhibition, from the five angles of feasting, music and dance, makeup, clothing, and fenghua, white depicted and profiled han and Tang noble women.
Poster of the exhibition "Huan Fei Yan Thin - Han Tang Chang'an Her Life"
Coincidentally, 2 years later, the Changsha Museum's "Huan Fei Yan Thin - Han and Tang Dynasty Chang'an Li Renxing" re-placed the innocent and delicate women in Chang'an City in front of the audience with a very similar perspective.
Interior view of the exhibition hall of "Huan Fei Yan Thin - Han And Tang Dynasty Chang'an Li Renxing"
Under the social changes of the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties, artists gradually turned their attention more to civilian women. At this time, the female image is more fresh and gentle than that of the Han and Tang Dynasties, and the female appearance and life scenes are more intuitively displayed with the female figure as the representative.
Suzhou Museum brings together the collection of women's paintings since the middle of the Qing Dynasty, and held the "Jiangnan Beauty - Suzhou Museum Collection of Women's Paintings Exhibition" twice in 2016 and 2020, opening up the picture of the life of Jiangnan since the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Poster of "Jiangnan Jiali - Suzhou Museum Collection of Women's Paintings Exhibition"
Qingdao Municipal Museum's 2017 "V. Beauty: Collection of Ming and Qing Women's Cultural Relics Exhibition" not only shows the delicate and beautiful Ming and Qing women in the eyes of men, but also sets aside a unit to show women's hearts and the delicate and gentle world of pen.
In 2019, the Sichuan Museum launched the "Wu Se - The Art of Life of Women in the Ming Dynasty", sharing the exquisite life and elegant taste of women in the Ming Dynasty with the audience through 61 exquisite female living objects.
Poster of the exhibition "Looking and Coloring: The Art of Life of Women in the Ming Dynasty"
In addition to focusing on specific eras, there are also exhibitions that treat ancient Chinese women as a whole, focusing on female talents or related cultural relics.
For example, the Nanjing Museum's 2015 "Wen Wan - Ancient Chinese Women's Cultural Relics Exhibition" depicts women of all classes, various identities and various situations with more than 230 fine cultural relics.
"Wen Wan - Exhibition of Ancient Chinese Women's Cultural Relics"
Part of the exhibit "Ancient Ladies Walking Music Map"
Another example is the "She - Female Image and Talent" exhibition of the National Palace Museum in Taipei in 2020, which outlines the different faces of women in previous generations through calligraphy and painting works from five generations ago, and vividly shows women's talents and artistic achievements.
Poster of the exhibition "She – Female Image and Talent"
"She : Female Image and Talent" exhibition
Part of the exhibit "Spring Dawn in the Han Palace"
Su Xin xiang warm burning fanghua
The figure of a woman in the upheaval of modern Chinese society
Modern China has experienced drastic changes from feudal society to semi-colonial and semi-feudal, and in the wave of democratic revolution and national liberation movement, traditional gender concepts have been subverted again and again, and the awakening of new women and social changes have been intertwined, leaving a strong brushstroke in China's modern history.
Since the Opium War in 1840 tore the curtain on China's modern history, people's lives have been turned upside down. What exactly has changed for women? "Fashion and Change - A Glimpse of Chinese Women's Life Patterns in the Modern Century" presents an interesting answer, the exhibition has been in wuxi museum, Guilin museum, Shanghai history museum, China Women and Children's Museum touring exhibition, from the family and marriage, clothing and body, education and occupation of three dimensions, review the changes in Chinese women's lives over the past hundred years, reproducing the spiritual outlook of women at that time.
Poster of the exhibition "Fashion and Change: A Glimpse of chinese Women's Lifestyle in the Modern Century"
As one of the symbols of women's body and the aesthetics of the times, clothing reflects the transformation of women's self-perception and self-pursuit in modern times, of which the qipao can be described as the most eye-catching one. The Guangdong Provincial Museum's "100 Years of Fashion - The Story of Hong Kong's Long Shirts", Chongqing China's Three Gorges Museum and Dalian Modern Museum's "Dress Attack on Beauty - The Past and Present Life of the 100-Year Haipai Qipao" all take the development history of the qipao as the starting point and explore social changes such as the costume system, ethical concepts, cultural exchanges, industrialization and urbanization process, and women's liberation movement.
Interior view of the exhibition hall of "100 Years of Fashion - The Story of Hong Kong Long Shirt"
Poster of the exhibition "The Beauty of Clothing- The Past and Present Life of the Centennial Haipai Qipao"
Even in the midst of the ups and downs, modern Chinese women have never given up shouting and advancing, if revolutionaries fight for liberation, then female artists use their hands and pens to create the future. The definition of "boudoir" has been rewritten by female calligraphers and painters, who are still full of talent and good intentions, but they have less elements to please others.
The "Lead Hua Dai Color - Hua Ya Zhai Collection of Paintings and Calligraphy Collections" that has been touring the Hebei Museum and Yanyuan Art Museum includes the works of more than 200 female calligraphers and painters from the Ming and Qing dynasties to the Republic of China, which intuitively shows the changes in the creative concept and artistic style of modern female artists.
Poster of "Lead Hua Dai Color- Hua Ya Zhai Tibetan Girl Show Calligraphy and Painting Collection Exhibition"
In 2020, the Fujian Provincial Museum of Art's "Her Fanghua Era - Modern and Contemporary Talented Women's Poetry calligraphy and painting documentary exhibition" selected female celebrities who had outstanding contributions and social influence in China's politics, culture, education, science and technology and other fields at that time, displayed their poems, books, paintings and other precious documents, and brought the audience a distinct sense of the Republic of China experience.
"Her Fanghua Era" exhibit Zhang Ailing to Dai Tian Codex
Among the female artists of the Republic of China, the Shanghai school female painter Pan Yuliang is like a dazzling star, and the Pan Yuliang Painting Exhibition is also the darling of museums and art galleries at all levels across the country, such as "Yuru Yucheng - Pan Yuliang's Artistic Life" of Chengdu Museum, "Pan Yuliang's Art Class" of Anhui Museum, "Pan Yuliang: The Silent Journey" of Guangdong Times Art Museum... There are dozens of exhibitions, and the artistic concepts and educational concepts she conveys, with the pen as a blade, cut the social constraints entangled in women's bodies, and are still thought-provoking to this day.
Interior view of the exhibition "Yuru Yucheng - Pan Yuliang's Artistic Life"
Screenshot of the "Pan Yuliang's Art Classroom" exhibition webpage
Poster for the exhibition "Pan Yuliang: The Journey of Silence"
With the time shu coil cloud journey can be expected
The Vision and Achievements of Contemporary Chinese Women
The process of modernization has brought about rapid economic and cultural development, and is constantly reshaping gender relations, and contemporary Chinese women have ushered in unprecedented opportunities and are also facing new problems exposed by the times.
Society's gaze on contemporary women and gender symbols has integrated into a new perspective, and the forms of expression are more diverse, and they also give women's theme exhibitions a deeper social significance with more nuanced interpretation and interpretation.
In 2014, the Beijing Times Art Museum held the exhibition "Her Times", which presents the multidimensional identity and social issues of women in the contemporary context through different visual languages, and the exhibition also invites eight artist couples to participate, creating a good ecology for the harmonious dialogue between men and women.
Poster of the "She Times" exhibition
Exhibit "Plum"
Exhibit "Under the Bodhi Tree"
The exhibition "Forgetting Worries: Archaeological Women's Time" at the Guangdong Museum of Art of Times uses installations, photographs, paintings and other works of art to try to express the perception of ordinary women in the time and space of daily life such as family, emotions and labor, and explore the challenges brought by traditional concepts and neoliberal situations and even evolving technologies to traditional concepts of women and kinship.
Poster for the exhibition "Forgotten Grass: Time for Women in Archaeology"
Interior view of the exhibition "Forgetful Grass: Archaeological Women's Time"
Hangzhou Arts and Crafts Museum's 2018 exhibition "Goddess's Equipment - Contemporary Art @ Museum: The Myth of Fashion" will connect women's fashion in different eras and regions, look at the future with tradition, integrate aesthetic vision with social issues, not only explore gender topics, but also throw out a wide but profound question about consumerism, technological progress, human survival and so on.
Poster of the exhibition "The Equipment of the Goddess – Contemporary Art @ Museum: The Myth of Fashion"
Interior view of the exhibition "The Equipment of the Goddess - Contemporary Art @ Museum: The Myth of Fashion"
At the same time, contemporary women are showing themselves to the world with vigorous vitality and unique tension, and their "shouts" are continuously released through the hands of female artists.
The "HER KIND Creation" of the Chikusaka Art Museum is one of the exhibitions that dares to break the situation, which is committed to removing the inherent concept of feminine characteristics of traditional women's themes, adhering to the concept of "trauma is the source of innovation", not only facing women's problems, but also exploring new possibilities for contemporary women.
Poster of the exhibition "HER KIND Creation"
Interior view of the "HER KIND Creation" exhibition
On the basis of women's expression, the "She Said HERSTORY" theme art exhibition of Shanghai Himalayas Art Museum combines aerial networks, stage performances, and multimedia AR interactions, with the establishment and disillusionment of women's utopia as the core, and presents the literary and artistic works that reflect women's search for a way out of the real dilemma to the audience in a three-dimensional way.
"She said HERSTORY" themed art exhibition poster
Since April 2021, the online art platform "Her Art" has launched the "Her Power" Online Art Exhibition, which regularly pushes the latest works of contemporary female artists, and has so far displayed more than 300 paintings, installations, sculptures, photography and other works from more than 120 female artists in more than 30 countries and regions, bringing together the power of women in praising life, thinking about society and depicting the times into historical imprints.
"She Power" online art exhibition "poster
"Her Power" Online Art Exhibition"Exhibit "Shackles"
"Her Power" Online Art Exhibition"Exhibit "Necklace"
Exotic Wind and Moon, Ocean View
Rosewood's colorful overseas women's exhibition
Looking at the world, different forms of national culture have created a very distinctive female image and female fashion, and under different social forms, the shadows of all stages of feminist ideological development are still visible. Crossing the boundaries of time and space, walking into the strong exotic style of overseas women's exhibitions, you can feel the strange brilliance that is completely different from Chinese culture, and you can also glimpse the value pursuit of beauty and commonality of women around the world.
Under the nourishment of regional culture, women's art in various places thrives, and flowers, grasses, and trees have their own advantages.
At the Akihado Gallery in Japan, female artists and their women form a beautiful landscape, such as Okamoto Toko's "Blooming withering Blooming" exhibition and the joint art exhibition of Yuka Taguchi and Shiori Matsuura, who see women as elegant and beautiful, but also full of strength and weight of life.
"Bloom, wither, Bloom" exhibit "Hundred White Flowers"
"Wednesday of the White Night" by Yuka Taguchi
In 2017, the National Museum of Women's Art held the "Women's Renaissance" exhibition, which uses stream-of-consciousness photos and sculptures by female artists to stir up and activate the deep-rooted emotions in the audience's hearts about gender, life, life and other elements.
"Women's Revival" exhibition exhibit "Revisiting bullets"
The world-renowned Museum of Modern Art, the Pompidou National Centre for Arts and Culture in Paris, France, launched in 2021 the exhibition "They Create Abstraction", which details the works of 110 women artists in the history of the development of abstract art from open source to the 1980s, highlighting the long-underestimated contribution of women in the field of abstract art and leading to discussions about gender definitions and artistic stances.
Exhibition "They Create Abstraction"
Exhibit "Big City"
Exhibit "St. Stephen's Green"
Outside of the professional art field, women of all ages and identities have never stopped creating, and their extraordinary skills and outstanding achievements shine in the flow of time.
As a long-term traveling exhibition project, the "Portraits of Women in the Field of Mathematics in Europe" exhibition, which has landed in Australia, Norway, Chile and other places, exhibits photos and interview records of more than 20 female mathematicians in Europe, inspiring young female scientists around the world to bravely pursue their careers.
"Portraits of Women in Mathematics in Europe" touring exhibition poster
The British Nursery Museum focuses on the founders, maintainers and supporters of the Abandoned Children's Hospital in London, bringing to life the stories of women who have infiltrated the history of the hospital in the exhibition "The Nobility of Women".
"The Nobility of Women" exhibition reflects the image exhibits of female kitchen carvings from the 1940s
The exhibition "The Nobility of Women" is an exhibition of images reflecting the participation of children and nurses in summer camps in the 20th century
The National Museum of American Women's History sees the brilliance of women in the history of inventors and patent applications, and in the 2018 exhibition "Creative Women: The Creation and Invention of American Women", the audience witnessed how American industry has been driven by female inventors along the way, and ultimately gave back and benefited women's lives.
"Creative Women: The Creation and Invention of American Women" exhibition
A photographic exhibit reflecting the use of a dishwasher invented by a woman
There are also some women in the exhibition who appear as "deviant", they are outside the label of softness, purity and obedience, they have a bold and enthusiastic, and they do not shy away from struggling, which puts a beam of attention on the multi-faceted and angular aspects of women. Although different social rules show a variety of patterns of fetters, it seems that there is a consensus to discipline women with "chastity", and the British Nursery Museum held an exhibition of "Fallen Women" in 2015, showing the Victorian concept of chastity imposed on women and women's resistance to it.
Exhibits on the "Fallen Woman"
The River Jumping Girl Destroyed by Alcohol
The Deportees
Based on the study of anorexia and eating disorders in young women, the International Museum of the Red Cross in Switzerland presents the exhibition "The Struggle of the Adolescent Girl's Body", which dissects the connection between the body, culture and disease, and calls on social rationality to face the domination of the female body by the distorted concept of perfect body in social networks.
Poster for the exhibition "The Struggle of the Girl's Body"
Talking about the "out of line" expression of female images, it is necessary to mention the "Evil Women" exhibition of the Judicial and Police Museum in Sydney, Australia, which sharply points out how the stereotype of "red face disaster water" attributes to sexual and gender original sin theory by comparing the real cases of women's crimes in real society and the female figures of evil in literary and artistic works, so as to achieve the purpose of erasing women's real social situation and self-consciousness domination.
"Evil Woman" exhibit "Murder by Books"
Interior view of the "Evil Woman" exhibition hall
There are many interesting and meaningful women's exhibitions, which cannot be introduced here one by one due to length, but the appreciation and attention to women's exhibitions should not be limited to this, and the interpretation of women's real life and spiritual pursuits should not be limited to exhibitions, but need a broader world to encompass the infinite future of women's lush growth.
*The names of the overseas women's exhibition in this article are Chinese translated by the author, and readers are welcome to criticize and correct.
Source/Zhejiang Provincial Museum
Editor/Tao Yinsheng
Review/Qiao Hong
Producer/Xi Shujun