The Feminine Principle
Non-professional Female Artists
from the Collections of the Silesian Museum in Katowice
The selection includes outstanding representatives of the art brut movement, such as Maria Wnęk and Justyna Matysiak, artists recognised within the canon of Polish naïve art, including Maria Korsak and Katarzyna Gawłowa, as well as creators whose work has gained recognition more recently. Twenty-one women – each working in her own distinct manner, each with a personal story to tell. For some, art offered an escape from the hardships of life; for others, it served as a form of therapy or a means of restoring a sense of dignity.
The collection of non-professional artists’ works is not merely a material assemblage of objects, but above all a repository of human stories behind their creation. The exhibition The Feminine Principle is no exception. Dedicated to non-professional female artists represented in the collections of the Silesian Museum, the display brings together twenty-one women’s narratives, enclosed within wooden frames. Among them are stories that are well known yet worth revisiting, as well as entirely new ones, often resonating with contemporary experience.
These accounts are deeply personal, at times intimate – emotionally demanding, marked by numerous life tragedies, yet also revealing the beauty of everyday life, a sense of wonder at nature, and hope. The common denominator is womanhood: often undervalued in life, overlooked in art, historically marginalised, never considered sufficiently talented or interesting.
Through this exhibition, we give voice to women who may appear ordinary, yet are in fact extraordinary. Despite historical injustice, personal hardship, and a lack of understanding from their immediate surroundings, they did not abandon their passion. By restoring these stories to collective memory, we seek to preserve their continuity, and to draw inspiration and life wisdom from the experiences of our foremothers.
The curator of the exhibition in Lublin is Sonia Wilk, Head of the Department of Non-Professional Art at the Silesian Museum in Katowice.
Female artists, painters and sculptors – each working in her own way, each with a personal story to tell. For some, art offered an escape from the hardships of life; for others, it became a form of therapy, or a means of restoring a sense of dignity. For art, they were willing to sacrifice sleep, health, and social relationships. Only a few were accepted and supported by their surroundings, able to create without fear of ridicule, humiliation, or even condemnation. Others were often forced to conceal their passion, even from those closest to them. Although they come from different backgrounds and differ in levels of education, life experience, and the periods in which they lived and worked, for each of them art constituted – and continues to constitute – the very meaning of life.
The selection was not accidental. It represents the phenomenon in its entirety, encompassing outstanding representatives of the art brut movement, artists included in the canon of Polish naïve art, outsiders, and intuitive painters. Alongside recognised creators whose works are held in Polish and international museum collections, the exhibition also includes forgotten artists, about whom information can be found only with great difficulty in specialist literature. There are also women creating today, as well as a debut artist whose works are being presented in museum galleries for the first time. All are brought together by a unifying element: the feminine principle within the non-professional art collection of the Silesian Museum in Katowice.
- Sonia Wilk
Własność Fundacji Teatroterapia Lubelska. Wszystkie prawa zastrzeżone.
Zrealizowano przy pomocy finansowej Miasta Lublin