A new documentary on the life and work of 19th Century Impressionist artist Mary Cassatt will be screened across the world on March 8 to mark International Women’s Day.
Three cinemas in the local area will be showing Mary Cassatt: Painting The Modern Woman, which is part of the Exhibition on Screen series of art films.
Born in Pennsylvania, Mary Cassatt (1844 – 1926) set her sights on becoming an artist.
Painting women
She eventually settled in France and made a career painting the lives of the women around her.
Her radical images showed them as intellectual, curious and engaging – a major shift in the way women were represented in art at the time.
Directed by Ali Ray and produced by Exhibition on Screen founder Phil Grabsky, it charts how the artist came to join the Impressionists – a movement that went on to transform the history of art.
Phil says around half of the production company’s films are based on exhibitions and half are not. The Cassatt film has been made in the absence of an exhibition.
The Impressionist movement
He explains: “We’ve done a number of films in and around the Impressionist movement – Renoir, Degas, Monet, Manet, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Pissarro – and you can’t look at that period without seeing just how important Mary Cassatt was.
“Yet, she is less well known than the others. That is because of a sexist art historical world that just hasn’t really given her the attention she is due.”
He goes on: “This is an artist that worked with Monet, Manet, Renoir and Degas, she was respected by them and exhibited with them. If they considered her their equal, then she’s certainly worthy of a film.”
The team worked closely with the National Gallery of Art in Washington, which is planning to stage a major Cassatt exhibition in 2026.
The film also features interviews with eminent Cassatt curators and scholars from across the world.
A key figure
Phil explains: “There are three aspects to Cassatt: one is a really important Impressionist artist; the second is the absolute key to the sale and distribution of Impressionist art to the United States.
“She was the person that the Barnes and the Carnegies would ask who they should buy.”
He adds: “The third thing is why we called the film ‘Painting the Modern Woman’ because she herself refused to be called a female artist – she wouldn’t have it, she was an artist, and that’s quite right.
“But her awareness of how hard it was to fight as a woman to be an artist is part of the narrative of her pictures.”
From a representation of her mother reading French newspaper Le Figaro to a woman wearing a huge sunflower on her dress, Phil says there are hidden messages in Cassatt’s work if we look closely enough.
Hidden messages
He explains she was making the point that women could be just as educated and learned as their male counterparts, meanwhile the sunflower was a symbol of the women’s suffrage movement in America.
Phil adds: “If you look more closely, there are all these extra levels of storytelling going on which are fascinating and historically extremely relevant.”
Mary Cassatt: Painting The Modern Woman screens on March 8 at Dundee Contemporary Arts (6.15pm) Perth Playhouse (7.30pm) and The Birks Cinema Aberfeldy (2.30pm).
exhibitiononscreen.com
