Emma Talbot’s (b. 1969, UK) winning proposal for the Max Mara Art Prize for Women questions deeply rooted positions of power, governance, attitudes to nature and representations of women through an acutely personal lens. It takes as a starting point Gustav Klimt’s painting The Three Ages of Woman (1905), which features a naked elderly woman standing in apparent shame.
Following a bespoke six-month Italian residency organised by The Collezione Maramotti in Reggio Emilia, Italy, Talbot animates the figure of the older woman as someone with agency who overcomes a series of trials similar to The Twelve Labors of Hercules. Through her modern-day trials, Talbot invests the woman with the potential to reconstruct contemporary society, tackling some of the most pressing issues of our time including climate disaster and feminism. The commission features two 11-metre-long free-hanging silk paintings alongside a life-sized sculptural figure, drawings and a new animation. The exhibition will be accompanied by a full colour publication with newly commissioned essays and photography.
Emma Talbot: The Age/L’Età. Whitechapel Gallery
