A Tale of the Andes and the missing women in The Coutauld
This past Tuesday, I attended the private viewing at The Green & Stone, in Chelsea in London. It was for the exhibition by Ecuadorean born artist Diana Mercado, it was A Tale of the Andes a captivating exhibition of mixed media paintings, retelling a story of the last days of the Inca Empire. But it was more than that, it was the story of a wonderful, and courageous artist who has been carving a path within art, while creating a legacy of her family and her home country.
The show was breathtaking, the richness of color, and the strong visual narrative, together with the nostalgic Ecuadorean music in the backdrop while people admired and rejoiced in the beauty of the paintings.
I was proud and happy to be there, to listen to Diana talk about her body of work and the relevance of an immigrant woman, to be talking about the bravery stories of others in the remote past, which was passed down to her by her grandfather to give her inspiration to cope with the challenges she confronted as a child migrant to the US.
Prior to attending the exhibition, I stopped by The Coutalud to see the Goya to Impressionism currently on display, to my dismay it was sold out. The lovely staff, two young women at the ticket office, were gracious about explaining that there were no women artists on display on the Goya to Impressionism exhibit. And on the general collection, they explained there was currently on display one Berthe Morisot painting and even when Vanessa Bell artworks are also owned in the collection, they are currently loaned out. I was pleasantly surprise that they knew this information, as this is not often the case. They also felt a little shame when they realised for themselves how relevant it is that there is so few women in the collection. I went ahead with my visit, as seeing even one painting by a woman artist is important to me.
Until you read me again, I hope you keep asking the uncomfortable questions, of why there is so little representation in the art world for women artists.
