Prepared by curator and art historian Alison M. Gingeras, the exhibition challenges the myth of the absence of female artists in art. Consisting of eight parts, the visual narrative bears witness to the enduring and dynamic creative activity of women over the last 500 years. The emerging collection of nearly 200 works—including both recent pieces and paintings by Renaissance, Baroque, and 19th-century artists—offers a centuries-long visual history of female “emancipation.”
The exhibition presents allegorical representations of power, resistance, and sexual violence; it examines the issues of art education and access to education; representations of the female body and erotic desires; the iconography of motherhood and reproductive choice; women's agency during wartime; and how the role of women in society changes in times of upheaval. The Female Question 1550–2025 brings together works by nearly 150 female artists, divided into eight thematic sections:
- Indomitable Women
- The Power of the Palette
- Education and the Canon
- Her Own Muse
- The Surreal Self, the Mystical Self
- There Is No Gate, No Lock, No Bolt
- Born of Woman
- Women at War
Location: Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (MSN Warsaw)
Dates: 21.11.2025–03.05.2026
