22, 23 and 24 of February, 2021
The Role of Women in the Spanish Art System in the 19th Century: Matters of Ideology, Scenarios, and Professional Careers.
The purpose of this Congress, organized by the Prado Museum, is none other than to go over the roles women played within diverse artistic structures, from the advent of the constitutional regime, at the turn of the 19th Century, to the end of the reign of Alfonso XIII, into the first decades of the 20th Century, from a manifold perspective, and with a view to covering diverse positions. Invited by men to take part in a system that had not been designed with them in mind – and one in which feminine artists were considered lovely exceptions –, women shone fleetingly, only to disappear from the story crafted by the bourgeoisie to match its outlook on the world and which we have agreed to aseptically refer to as History of Art.
We know that, for over half a century, gender studies have offered historians valuable analysis strategies for works of art and their contexts that, along with an interdisciplinary approach, offer indispensable cultural results to today’s audiences. In order to incorporate the knowledge of this discipline into the narrative offered by the collections of the Prado Museum, the current call focuses on the questions posed by the Las Invitadas exhibit, but it also applies to the interests of all those who have specialized in this broader period.