In 1914 Karlowska was one of the few women artists to be elected an original member of the London Group, an offshoot of the Camden Town Group to which Harold Gilman and Robert Bevan belonged. Karlowska exhibited regularly under her name and had a solo show at the Adams Gallery in 1935. Despite her accomplishments and the endurance she displayed in being a woman artist at the time, Karlowksa’s career was overshadowed by that of her husband, Robert Bevan, a good friend of Gilman’s. --- In this painting, Gilman slots Karlowska into a flat mosaic of vibrant color. The space is compressed, fusing Karlowska firmly with the dancing wallpaper. She is asphyxiated: the air of the painting is sucked out and replaced by viscous blobs of paint. To counter the loud color and flamboyant mark-making, Karlowska sits quietly and resolutely, fighting her silent battle in what is often characterized as the polite “British” way. Gallery label for Figuring Women - The Female in Modern British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-03-28 - 2008-06-08)
