Art visit - The Fine Art Society Contemporary- Annie Kevans, Women and the History of Art

I suppose for many men there's almost a knee jerk anti- reaction to a show entitled  Women and the History of Art, well I metaphorically  took the bull by the horns and without fear or favour entered the lions den yesterday to see what it was about.

 The Fine Art Society Contemporary gallery in New Bond Street is a sombre looking place and in this respect the Annie Kevans show fitted well - the pictures were heavily retro and showed very much  a production line ethos - all the same size and price, looking simple and 'tasteful' nothing jarring or shocking to see.

not far from the gallery 

What was more intriguing perhaps than the portraits of the Women who had an impact at one time in the  art  world was the brief biographical details that accompanied the pictures.

There was some puzzlement as to why Annie had chosen the approach she had when more dramatic methods of decrying the fact that so much of the art world has denied women their place in the history - was she being ironic or reflecting a perceived vacuousness?

Urbanely outfitted?

In fact this method of recreating history has used by Annie before in here works, I saw the  series of pictures of Boys at the Saatchi recently (last year as part of Paper) and was puzzled but that series was not about feminism (as perhaps Women and the History of Art is )   - have a look here at a review that gives some insight into the motivation behind the project (which we mostly thought would make a good book, or the theme of a curated exhibition).