Feminal was the first magazine directed and written by women to be published in Catalonia. Born at the beginning of the 20th century as a monthly supplement to La Ilustració catalana , it was inspired by similar magazines that were published in various European cities at the time, around the suffragette movement and the women’s rights movement. It was a conservative and not a revolutionary publication, aimed at a reading public of bourgeois women, but which introduced to Catalonia the awareness of the demand for women’s rights, especially in education and professionalization, and which always claimed their role as creators of knowledge and culture.
It was also a publication with a very careful aesthetic and that gave a very relevant weight to the visual arts, either commenting on exhibitions and current news, or presenting to its readers the activity and work of women artists. The exhibition Ferresa of silence. The artists in the magazine Feminal , 1907-1917 , organized by the Museu d’Art de Girona, focuses precisely on these artists who appeared and who often collaborated in the magazine. Only some of them are relatively well-known today (Lola Anglada, Pepita Teixidor, Lluïsa Vidal), so the exhibition aims, above all, to recover from public anonymity a very large group of creators that the patriarchal stereotypes of artistic historiography have kept forgotten for a long time: Visitació Ubach, Maria Rusiñol, the Mallorcan Pilar Muntaner or Francisca Rius i Sanuy, among others; as well as some foreign artists who were also present in the pages of Feminal , such as Juliette Wyttsman, Clémentine-Hèléne Dufau or Mela Muter.
The exhibition catalogue includes a beautifully illustrated presentation of the works that have participated, as well as an introductory article for the magazine Feminal written by the historian Isabel Segura. Also an extensive study by the exhibition curator, Elina Norandi, who analyzes the work of many of the artists who appeared there and the circumstances, generally unfavourable, in which they produced it. The study also focuses on the reception of these creators and the difficulties they still have in entering the canonical history of modern art. It also emphasizes, not only the fundamental role of feminist historiography in the recovery of these creators, but also the importance of their families and descendants, who have often played a key role in taking care of their legacies.
Joan Duran-Porta
Responsible for md’A publications
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The catalogue can be purchased at the Museu d’Art shop and also online at the Generalitat de Catalunya bookstore.
