Gwen John : strange beauties / edited by Rachel Stratton and Lucy Wood.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Stratton, Rachel, editor, contributor.

Wood, Lucy, editor, contributor.

Zahra, Orin, contributor.

Birrell, Rebecca, 1991- contributor.

Robins, Anna Gruetzner, contributor.

McLees, Fiona, contributor.

Anderson, Helena, contributor.

Elkin, Lauren, contributor.

John, Gwen, 1876-1939, artist.

National Museum Cardiff, host institution.

National Galleries of Scotland, host institution.

Yale Center for British Art, host institution.

National Museum of Women in the Arts (U.S.), host institution.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

John, Gwen, 1876-1939--Exhibitions.

John, Gwen.

Genre:

exhibition catalogs.

Exhibition catalogs.

Physical Description:

271 pages : illustrations (chiefly colour), portraits ; 27 cm

Distribution:

New Haven ; London : Yale University Press

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale Center for British Art in association with Amgueddfa Cymru, Museum Wales, 2026.

Summary:

"The first comprehensive survey in 40 years brings new scholarly attention and a feminist perspective to the Welsh painter with a singular vision of female interior life. Gwen John (1876-1939), best known for her portraits of women depicted in close tonal registers, was overshadowed during her life by her relationships with men, including her brother, the painter Augustus John, and lover, the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. In recent years, leading art historians and curators have shed new light on John's significant contributions to British art, her connection to European modernism, and her serial process. Gwen John: Strange Beauties builds on this groundwork, bringing together the artist's distinctive oil paintings with rarely seen works on paper to illuminate the underexamined scope of her ambition, revealing lesser-known aspects of her practice-a vibrant use of color, plein air sketching, and an interplay between figuration and abstraction. This richly illustrated catalogue includes essays by curators Rachel Stratton and Lucy Wood, and a notable array of writers and art historians, including Helena Anderson, Rebecca Birrell, Lauren Elkin, Cecily Langdale, Fiona McLees, Anna Gruetzner Robins, and Orin Zahra"-- $c Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: Strange beauties / Rachel Stratton and Lucy Wood

Canonizing John / Rachel Stratton

Picturing learned women / Orin Zahra

The nude / Rebecca Birrell

God's little artist / Lucy Wood

Looking and making / Anna Gruetzner Robins

Practice on paper / Fiona McLees

Writing the image / Helena Anderson

Feminism and abstraction / Lauren Elkin.

Notes:

Published in conjunction with the exhibition 'Gwen John: Strange Beauties' held at the National Museum Cardiff, February 7- June 28, 2026 ; National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, August 1, 2026 - January 4, 2027 ; Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, February 18 -June 20, 2027 ; and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, July 30 - November 28, 2027.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0300286570

9780300286571

OCLC:

1524234886