The Last of the First

In November, art critic Maria Kjær Themsen publishes "The Last of the First - Portraits of Ten Female Artists Born 1925-46". For this evening, she draws on the book's ten portraits and tells the stories of the women at its centre.

These women were born between 1925 and 1946 and entered an art scene that had made no room for them. Yet they persisted - working across diverse forms including weaving, painting, performance art, sculpture, film, ceramics, and photography. What binds them together is not a shared style, but the shared experience of resistance: some responded loudly, others by stubbornly continuing to create. This is the first time their stories have been told from their own perspective.

Maria Kjær Themsen is an art critic at Information and chair of the visual arts council in Vordingborg. In 2024, she gave a well-attended lecture at the same venue about art in the 21st century. The event is arranged in collaboration with the Vordingborg Art Association.