Female artists in the spotlight

PIECES from the worldrenowned art collection are to go on display at Touchstones as part of an exhibition celebrating female artists.

Drawn from the collection of worldrenowned collector and philanthropist, Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Herstory: Women Artists will run from Saturday, July 28, to Saturday, September 29.

The pieces will be combined with complementary artefacts from the Touchstones’ collection in a bid to highlight ‘disturbing truths, injustices, outdated societal concepts and commemorate the lives of inspirational women.’

Mark Doyle, art gallery curator and collections manager at Touchstones Rochdale, said: “Patrizia’s collection is a statement on many levels, not least the sustained presence of female role-models in the world of contemporary art, but also the concentration of remarkable and radical, post-war art made by female artists in times of rapid change.

“Patrizia’s dedication to her Turin and Madrid Foundations and generosity in loaning works for the ‘Herstory’ exhibition from her historically valuable collection of female art contributes to ensuring artists’ influence is felt in the future. Rochdale itself, as home to a prominent branch of the Suffragettes and, later, fearless art and artists during the 1980s, has fanned the flames of change on numerous occasions, yet inequality remains in our diverse, inter-generational population.

“By linking these internationally significant works of art with documentary evidence of a past where women suffered, aspired and fought to overcome disadvantage bestowed on them by virtue of their gender at birth, ‘Herstory’ is curated to offer a panoramic view of feminist objection, solutions and progress, where it has been achieved.”

A total of 33 works from the collection of Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo will be shown in Rochdale.