Beauty, redress and reflection in the first European museum dedicated to female artists

For much of her life, Frida Kahlo wore plaster corsets that helped her stand upright. These corsets enhanced a woman who was hurt by the world and often felt invisible. Perhaps that’s why she covered them with scraps of fabric and painted them with bright colors. Today, they endure as collages, with carved plaster hearts, birds and tigers that seem to emit hidden messages. It’s not at all strange, then, that one of them is symbolically placed in a display case in the middle of the hallway on the second floor of Female Artists of the Mougins Museum (FAMM). The work illuminates the founding idea of the space, which was inaugurated in Mougins, France, on June 24, 2024.

Inspired by the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. — the first museum in the world entirely dedicated to female artists — FAMM (note the play on words: “woman” in French is femme, pronounced famm) aims to be its European counterpart.

The four floors cover the major movements of modern art, from the end of the 19th century to contemporary art, as well as the new trends of the 21st century. There are examples of Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism. If Berthe Morisot was the great outcast of Impressionism and Maria Blanchard the outcast of Cubism, what can we say about Elaine de Kooning? She was unjustly relegated to the background in the shadow of her husband — one of the leaders of Abstract Expressionism — Willem de Kooning.

The selection at FAMM is astonishing: it includes Dora Maar, Niki de Saint Phalle, Sonia Delaunay, Lee Krasner, Louise Bourgeois, Leonora Carrington, Françoise Gilot, Marina Abramović, Tracey Emin, Jenny Saville and Tatiana Trouvé. Collector Christian Levett is the mastermind behind a project born out of awareness and a desire to stop the underrepresentation and undervaluation of women artists.

“My journey through the art world began with collecting classical works, antiques and old masters. However, over time, my interest shifted to modern and contemporary art. During this transition, I became aware of a striking disparity in the market value and availability of works by men and women artists. I saw that I could create a museum-quality collection of women’s works, for a fraction of the difficulty and cost of acquiring comparable works by their male counterparts,” Levett explains.

FAMM’s mission is thus twofold: to highlight the extraordinary contributions of women artists across diverse periods and styles, while educating the public on the rich — but often forgotten — history of women in art. “The museum aims to correct historical omissions, providing a platform on which the works and stories of women artists are celebrated and studied in depth,” the collector explains.

Mougins is a town in Provence, linked to the history of art that dazzled Man Ray, Cocteau, Chagall and even Picasso, who spent his final years there. “Our museum positions itself on the art scene as a pioneering institution. It’s part of a global movement to rectify historical gender imbalances in the art world, collaborating with other institutions on exhibitions, publishing books on women artists and contributing to a more inclusive understanding of history.” Not only does FAMM enrich France’s cultural tapestry: it also sets a precedent for the appreciation of female artists on a global scale.

Frida’s corsets were tanned over time, without her ever seeing them. The paintings by Blanche Hoschedé Monet — Claude Monet’s stepdaughter and daughter-in-law — were barely visible in art books. For Levett, it’s crucial to pay attention to the sometimes hostile contexts in which female artists worked. Therefore, he considers it crucial to “explain, when it comes to each painting, the obstacles they overcame and the lasting impact they have had on the art world.”

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