Contemporary British Women Artists: In Their Own Words

'Contemporary British Women Artists: In their own words' features a series of interviews. It presents an in-depth study documenting an important and influential sample of contemporary British women artists' thought. Each artist’s interview was edited in a formal collaboration between interviewer/editor and artist.

Rebecca Fortnum's introduction to the book reflected on the interviews themselves, drawing out issues of the artist’s influences and processes, as well as outlining the status contemporary women artists currently hold in the UK today. In addition to the interviews, the book is illustrated with a new body of work - a series of black and white photographic portraits Fortnum has taken of the artists.

The 20 women included in the book all are internationally recognised artists, selected to represent a diversity of practice and age. They included: Tacita Dean, Jane Harris, Maria Chevska, Gillian Ayres, Vanessa Jackson, Maria Lalic, Hayley Newman, Sonia Boyce, Anya Gallaccio, Paula Rego, Lucy Gunning, Christine Borland, Claire Barclay, Tania Kovats, Jemima Stehli, Emma Kay, Tomoko Takahashi, Tracey Emin, Jananne Al-Ani and Runa Islam.

Publisher's Description:
"In this illuminating collection of new interviews, some of the most important women artists practising in Britain today talk about their work, their influences and their relationships, sometimes ambivalent, with the art historical canon. Enlightening and frequently entertaining, the interviews, with artists spanning different generations and working in media as diverse as performance art, painting, sculpture, video and installation, give fascinating first-hand insights into both the artists' lives and the creative process."

Rebecca Fortnum's research interests include Painting, Documentation, Visual Intelligence, and Feminism.

Rebecca Fortnum read English at Corpus Christi College, Oxford before gaining an MFA from Newcastle University and taking up a fellowship at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, USA.
With a distinguished history of teaching in the arts, Rebecca Fortnum has been a Visiting Fellow in Painting at Plymouth University and at Winchester School of Art; Visiting Artist at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Senior Lecturer at Norwich School of Art and Wimbledon School of Art; and Associate Lecturer at Bath Spa University and Central St Martins School of Art. She is currently Senior Lecturer at Camberwell College of Art, University of the Arts, London and Research Fellow at the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts, Lancaster University.
She has received numerous awards throughout her career as a visual artist, including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the British Council, the Arts Council of England, the British School in Rome and the Art and Humanities Research Council. She has exhibited widely including solo shows at the Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, Spacex Gallery, Exeter, The Winchester Gallery, Kapil Jariwala Gallery, London, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham, The Drawing Gallery, London and Gallery 33, Berlin; her work has been shown in group shows in New York, Maine, Budapest, Salzburg, Marseilles and Gdansk as well as numerous UK exhibitions. Recent group shows include 'Fluent: painting and words' (2002) at Centenary Gallery, London and 'Unframed: the politics and practices of women's contemporary painting' at Standpoint Gallery, London in 2004. Artist, writer, curator and researcher, she has contributed to various conferences, journals, magazines and books and was instrumental in founding the artist run spaces Cubitt Gallery and Gasworks Gallery in London.