Mainie Jellett
Mainie Jellett was an Irish painter, stage designer, writer, lecturer, arts administrator, and a trailblazer of Modern Art in Ireland. Born in Dublin, she began her studies at the Metropolitan School of Art before continuing at the Westminster School of Art in London from 1917 to 1919, where Walter Sickert taught her. In 1920, she moved to Paris to study under André Lhote and later Albert Gleizes, and their influence is apparent in the combination of bold color and abstract form in the present work. The curved forms are closely related to Jellett's series of cubist works and also demonstrate her knowledge of Gleizes's principal of translation and rotation. During the 1920s, she developed compositions from those with a single element rotated on a single axis to more complex compositions with rotations of seven and eight elements.
By 1923, she had embraced a fully abstract, Cubist-inspired style. Her avant-garde approach, however, was met with ridicule when exhibited at the Dublin Painters' Society. Undeterred, she dedicated much of her time to challenging Ireland's conservative artistic climate, using essays and lectures to advocate for modernism in a culturally insular era.
We present today's work as a celebration of Women's History Month. :)
P.S. Learn more about women artists associated with the Cubist movement in our online course Cubism 101: Picasso, Braque, and the Others. Once enrolled you will enjoy unlimited access to the course! :)
P.P.S. We love to present to you women artists that did not receive enough recognition in the past. Meet Jacqueline Marval—the female Fauvist of whom you’ve never heard!