#100YEARS OF FEMALE POSTER ARt
Lucy Delap. “Using great big headlines and foregrounding visual material – whether photos or cartoons.” Working on much of the imagery was the Suffrage Atelier and the Artists’ Suffrage League; networks of professional artists and ordinary men and women who produced postcards and ceramics to be distributed and sold in suffrage shops across the country. This woodcut was produced by the Suffrage Atelier, founded in 1909. The Atelier’s designs were not posters, but wood blocks printed by the artist themselves. This year marks a century since women were given the right to vote for the first time. No longer willing to be shackled by their sex, women fought for equality with the most powerful tool of all: art. And we haven’t stopped since. How the Law ‘Protects the Widow’ [1909], Cambridge University Library
In 1910, a brown paper parcel arrived at Cambridge University Library. Inside was a selection of posters created by the suffragettes – members of the most powerful women’s movement in history. The sender was a certain Dr Marion Phillips; a leading figure of the suffrage movement and Women’s Labour League.
their startling message. ‘Our weapon is public opinion’, they stated against a backdrop of opposition and ridicule. With print production central to much of the ground campaign, the suffragettes had to convincingly paint an argument that would win the hearts and minds of the nation. “The movement adopted techniques from the tabloid press,” explains lecturer in modern British history, Dr
The thin sheets of paper belied
84 FINE ART COLLECTOR SPRING 2018
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