Women’s art on show at Cambridge University Library

A display of contemporary women’s art, from the New Hall Art Collection, has gone on loan to Cambridge University Library.

’Celebrating 25 years of contemporary women’s art: the New Hall Art Collection’ is on display in the Library’s Entrance Hall and brings together an eclectic mix of offerings.

The works will remain on show at the University Library until the end of the year, as part of the Library’s effort to [encourage a sense of creativity as well as academic industry in the Library environment.]

The New Hall collection on loan to the UL includes works by Charlotte Hodes, Michelle Hungerford, Maud Sulter, Alexis Hunter and Mary Husted.

Sulter’s photographic portraits explore the black contribution to world culture and history, drawing on the ancient cultures of Africa. The work on loan to the UL, Phalia, features Alice Walker as a personification of the Muse of Comedy and the Bringer of Flowers.

[The works on display include investigations into pattern, form and colour in large canvases by Charlotte Hodes and Michelle Hungerford.

Alexis Hunter’s automatic painting was worked on spontaneously, with ideas emerging as she painted.

Mary Husted’s painted collages experiment with the interplay between real and illusory space, and ’Dreams, Oracles, Icons’ incorporates fragments of images to recall memories and visual experiences of the loss of a child.]

The UL will also display work from New Hall’s ’Thirty Years of Solitude’ exhibition. Featuring a selection of Iranian contemporary photographs by women, the original exhibition featured the work of 30 photographers and seven film directors, all of them women living and working in Iran.

Works on display in the Entrance Hall include a set of four photographs by Shadi Ghadirian, entitled ’Be Colourful’ and a series of eight photos by Hana Mirjanian entitled ’Self Portrait’.

The works show how women deal with problems such as religious paternalism, a loss of identity, isolation and war. Much of the photography is loaded with powerful symbolism.

University Librarian, Anne Jarvis, said ’The University Library is delighted to play its part in celebrating the anniversary of the New Hall Art Collection. This is the first occasion that a collection of works by women artists has been displayed here, and we hope that everyone who visits the Library will find inspiration in the exhibition.’