Poitiers – French artist Eugénie Dubreuil has collected more than 500 works by female artists, beginning in 1999. Last year she donated her collection to the Sainte-Croix Museum in Poitiers, which is now putting them on display in an exhibition that aims to restore the forgotten voices of women in art.
"Women artists have long been marginalised in art history courses and by museums and galleries," Manon Lecaplainn, director of the Sainte-Croix Museum, told RFI. "For decades, art history has been written without women. Why should our exclusively female exhibition be shocking?"
"Our aim is not to exclude men from art history," she explains. "The goal is to make people think."
The Sainte-Croix Museum has been known in France for its proactive policy of promoting women artists since the 1980s.
In this new exhibition, Lecaplain and her co-curator Camille Belvèze are showcasing nearly 300 works from the 18th century to the present day, divided into three sections: the collection of Eugénie Dubreuil, the hierarchy of genres in art history, and the social role of the museum.
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This exhibition is the first step in a five-year project to promote Dubreuil's collection – entitled La Musée – and relies on a financial grant of €150,000.
"Why not an initiative like this on a larger scale in France, Europe, the world?" asks Dubreuil.
► La Musée runs until 18 May, 2025 at the Sainte-Croix Museum in Poitiers.
