Name: Eyebrows in Painting: Historical Paintings from the Macao Museum of Art Collection
Start: 2017-06-30T00:00:00.000Z
End: 2017-12-10T00:00:00.000Z
Location: Macao Museum of Art

Curator's Statement

In the 19th and 20th centuries, for women to become professional artists, they needed to navigate the gender hierarchies within the art world and society—a prerequisite for their success. On one hand, women's entry into the profession was restricted; on the other, women were muses and an endless source of inspiration, depicted in the roles they were perceived to hold, immortalized as goddesses, mothers, servants, and concubines.

In the art world, museums globally have been inspired by questions of women's status to review their collections. They use these collections to explore two aspects: 1) how the female image has been portrayed in art history, and 2) how female artists are (or are not) represented in museum collections. In light of this, the Macao Museum of Art presents "Eyebrows in Painting: Historical Paintings from the MAM Collection," featuring around seventy portraits of women from its collection. These include works in traditional Chinese and Western styles, as well as pieces that blend Eastern and Western influences.

The exhibition is divided into four sections:

Western Tradition in Macao – Late 19th Century
China Through European Eyes – Late 19th Century
Calendar Poster – Early 20th Century
Propaganda Poster – Mid-20th Century

The works encompass various media, including oil paintings, sketches, watercolors, gouache, posters, and ceramic sculptures, presenting diverse perspectives on women in China and Macao.

Entering the 20th century, innovations in technology, philosophy, and culture provided women with more opportunities, enabling them to take on more active roles in society and avant-garde art. However, like art itself, women still served different ideologies within a society deeply rooted in patriarchal concepts. Art can reinforce the value of women's social roles while also expressing diverse viewpoints. Within the context of the Macao Museum of Art's collection, this exhibition attempts to use works from different eras to showcase coexisting conservative and progressive values—values that could even be seen as the decline of women's social roles within traditional frameworks.