Film Night | The Other Side of the Picture (1998) and By Woman's Hand (1994)

The Other Side of the Picture (1998) tackles the question posed by art historian Linda Nochlin, “why have there been no great women artists?” It takes audiences behind the disheartening statistic that women account for only 8 percent of the National Gallery of Canada’s collection and into the homes and studios of great Canadian women artists such as Mary Pratt, Joyce Wieland, Jane Ash Poitras, and Landon Mackenzie. Considering the last two centuries of women’s art history, this film comments on why we are still missing “the other side of the picture.”

By Woman’s Hand (1994) explores a group of young Montreal women artists who, in the 1920s, formed the nucleus of what would later be known as the Beaver Hall Hill Group. With a particular emphasis on its three most prominent members, Prudence Heward, Sarah Robertson, and Anne Savage, this film considers the supportive artistic environment they created for themselves.

These films are screened in connection with the exhibition Undaunted: Canadian Women Painters of the 19^th Century.