Yale University Press – Blog

An Excerpt From Gwen John: Strange Beauties

The Yale‑University‑Press volume "Gwen John: Strange Beauties" accompanies a landmark retrospective that reunites the artist’s oils, watercolors and drawings for the first comprehensive survey in four decades. Curated by Rachel Stratton and Lucy Wood, the show travels from National Museum Cardiff to Scotland, Yale, and Washington, D.C., spotlighting John’s nuanced modernist vision and feminist‑tinged perspective. The publication foregrounds her prolific works on paper—over 900 pieces—revealing a more experimental, colour‑rich practice than previously acknowledged. By dismantling the oil‑centric hierarchy, the project repositions John as a pivotal figure in early twentieth‑century art.