Mary Cassatt: Painting The Modern Woman
Ali Ray
Trailer
Available on ARTS.FILM from July 26, 2024
Mary Cassatt made a career painting the lives of the women around her. Her radical images showed them as intellectual, curious and engaging, which was a major shift in the way women appeared in art. Presenting her astonishing prints, pastels and paintings, this film introduces us to the often-overlooked Impressionist whose own career was as full of contradiction as the women she painted. Her artwork is some of the finest of the period. She printed, sketched and painted dozens of images of mothers and children, yet she never married or had children herself. She was a classically trained artist but chose to join a group of Parisian radicals – the Impressionists – a movement that transformed the language of art. Likewise, she was as much a part of the group as Degas, Monet, or Renoir. The world’s most eminent Cassatt curators and scholars reveal a riveting tale of great social and cultural change; a time when women were fighting for their rights and the language of art was completely re-written. Mary Cassatt and her modern women were at the heart of it all.
Mary Cassatt made a career painting the lives of the women around her. Her radical images showed them as intellectual, curious and engaging, which was a major shift in the way women appeared in art. Presenting her astonishing prints, pastels and paintings, this film introduces us to the often-overlooked Impressionist whose own career was as full of contradiction as the women she painted. Her artwork is some of the finest of the period. She printed, sketched and painted dozens of images of mothers and children, yet she never married or had children herself. She was a classically trained artist but chose to join a group of Parisian radicals – the Impressionists – a movement that transformed the language of art. Likewise, she was as much a part of the group as Degas, Monet, or Renoir. The world’s most eminent Cassatt curators and scholars reveal a riveting tale of great social and cultural change; a time when women were fighting for their rights and the language of art was completely re-written. Mary Cassatt and her modern women were at the heart of it all.
| Director | Ali Ray |
| Executive Production | Phil Grabsky |
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Production
Ali Ray
Ali Ray is a filmmaker, writer, and development producer. She has directed and produced both series and singles for Channel 4, Channel 5 and worked on productions for BBC, Discovery and other international broadcasters. Ali has worked primarily in art history programming, directing and producing The Impressionists, Great Artists, High Five, Venice Biennale and Judgement Day. In the Exhibition On Screen series, Ali has directed feature length films on Frida Kahlo, Mary Cassatt and Gustav Klimt. Ali also has a successful career in non-fiction writing, specializing in food and travel. She is a magazine columnist and has travel articles published in The Guardian and The Sunday
Telegraph and other print and online magazines.
Biographical notes provided by the film production team
Telegraph and other print and online magazines.
Biographical notes provided by the film production team
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