The Female of the Species

"Painting for me is very physical and I endeavour to exploit it fully." Deborah Lanyon Deborah Lanyon’s large abstract paintings come from a generation of artists, mostly men, including John Hoyland, Frank Bowling, Howard Hodgkin and Sean Scully. Like those artists, she works rapidly and physically with canvases positioned on the floor, letting the paint have its own voice. Yet the feminine subtleties give the work interest and difference from those of the male painters in this genre.

The paintings are the voice of a woman and a reflection of her personality: physical but effortless; dynamic yet soft; harmonious and rhythmic. They have something else to say that gives them a place in the evolution of abstract painting through the last four decades.Historically, the act of painting big paintings was a male expression of genius, whilst women’s artistic creativity was tempered to the pursuit of leisure. ‘Why are there no great women artists?', asked art historian Linda Nochlin in her seminal essay of 1971. Though the tide is finally beginning to turn, we still seem to be asking this question and continue to fight for women to be taken seriously. Male selection by our institutions and by our taste makers continues to muffle the female voice.

Yet, like other women artists breaking through, the seemingly ‘male’ traits of dedication, devotion to practice and physical endurance are strong in Lanyon’s practice. Whilst working on the edge of both intellect and vision, Lanyon permits the paint to develop its own identity within her paintings and her large, vibrant and energetic works on canvas are painted on the floor and wall, for which she uses her whole body.

By Joanna Bryant