Coming Of Age

This exhibition brought together twentieth century works from the Tate collections which deal with the process of growing older: with personal change and transition, with memory and reminiscence, with the development of muturity and self-knowledge. All the works are by women and reflect significant life experiances from a distinctively female perspective. Using diverse means of expression, the works reflect the century’s radical changes in artistic practice. Beneath seemingly disparate portrayals of the same theme, there runs a common vein of candid, humorous and sometimes provocative observation.

The exhibiton also charts the changing status of women artists within the Tate collections, from a time when they were sparely represented to the much more balanced situation of the present day. In that sense, too, this is an exhibition about ‘coming of age’ and the changing attitudes within the art world towards women and creativity.

Artists featured include Gwen John, Dod Procter, Vanessa Bell, Nancy Spero, Loise Bourgeois, Rebecca Horn, Cindy Sherman, Paula Rego, Kiki Smith, Sherrie Levine, Rineke Dijkstra, Tracey Emin and Hannah Starkey.