Women in History - The Arts

Inspiring Women in History #IWD

Our intention is to celebrate and give visibility to the contributions that many women have made throughout history in the Arts.

There are countless extraordinary women who have earned their place in history with their artistic achievements.

Telling the stories of these artists and the representation of women in the Arts more widely reveals the significance of their contributions.

We want to recognise their accomplishments, and celebrate them as role models for us now and for the future women generations.

INTERMEDIATE B2.3-4-5 & That’s English! MODULE 10

Women in the

Arts

Throughout the centuries, women have been involved in making art, whether as creators and innovators of new forms of artistic expression, patrons, collectors, sources of inspiration, or significant contributors as art historians and critics.

Women have been and continue to be integral to the institution of

Art, but despite being engaged with the art world in every way, many women artists have found opposition in the traditional narrative of art history. They have faced challenges due to gender biases, from finding difficulty in training to selling their work and gaining recognition.

Women Artists

Sofonisba Anguissola (1535-1625) Self-portrait of Sofonisba Anguissola

Sofonisba was a painter in a time when it wasn´t very common for a woman to be an artist.

She was born in Cremona (Italy) and when she was very young stood out as an excellent drawer.

She arrived to Spain in 1559 as an Art teacher for Isabel of Valois (Felipe II wife).

While she was in the Court she didn´t sign her pictures, so many of her paintings were attributed to successful painters like Zurbarán, Moro or Tiziano.

She was an specialist in portraits such us the portrait of Felipe II, in 1573, perhaps the most famous portrait of the king.

Nowadays, there are still doubts about the authory of The Lady of the Ermine. This piece of art is attributed to The Greco, homewever some experts believe that Sofonisba was the author.

She was a really pioneer in her time, and offered to her fellow female artists a mirror where they can look at themselves.

Oscar Martínez INTERMEDIATE B2.2.5

Artemisia Gentileschi Artemisia Gentileschi was an Italian Baroque Painter.

She is credited as one of the greatest female painters of this period.

accordingly Artemisia "caravaggism".

is

considered

Artemisia was born in Rome, Italy, on July 8, 1593. Her father Orazio Gentileschi, a well-known painter, helped her to develop her artistic skills.

Orazio was hugely influenced by Caravaggio, a representative of the

Gentileschi married Pierantonio Stiattesi, a painter from Florence, the city where they were located after. Artemisia enjoyed the patronage of Cosimo di Medici among others. She became friends with many outstanding artists and thinkers, namely Galileo.

Artemisia is known for such works as "Madonna and child", "Susanna and the Elders" and "Judith Slaying Holofernes". Actually, the second one was her first signed and dated painting, completed around 1610.

Some Gentileschi's paintings focus on a female protagonist, for instance the story of Judith appeared multiple times in her art.

Artemisia Gentileschi died in Naples around 1652. During her life, and unsurprisingly for that era, she suffered in a male-dominated field as a woman. Today, she remains an inspiration, not only for her artwork but for her ability to overcome the limits and prejudices of her time.

JosĂŠ M. LĂłpez Santiago INTERMEDIATE B2.2.3

Maruja Mallo

MARUJA MALLO was the pseudomym of María Gómez González, an extraordinary painter that was born in Viveiro (Lugo) on 5th of January of 1902.

She was one of the most important artist of “ La gerneración del 27” taking part of the avant-garde movement together with exceptional men of the moment like Dali, Alberti, García Lorca or Ramón Gómez de la Serna.

She began to study arts in 1922. At 1928 José Ortega y Gasset exibited 10 of Mallo´s painters, that fact was a great cultural event for its originality and freshness. Later, she won an study grant in Paris, where got in touch whith René Margridte, Joan Miró and others; was there where she began with her surrealistic phase.

She was at Galicia when the Spanish Civil War breaked out, she ran away to Portugal and then to Argentina, where she continued painting, teaching and cultivating friendships like Pablo Neruda.

In 1962 she returned to Spain and settled in Madrid, where her public life almost desapear. She died there on 6th of February of 1995.

Ana Testa Fernández INTERMEDIATE B2.2.3

Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986)

She is one of the most significant and intriguing artists of the twentieth century, known internationally for her boldly innovative art.

“I feel there is something unexplored about woman, that only a woman can explore.”

Maruja Mallo

Maruja Mallo was born in Viveiro in 1902, but her real name was Ana María Gómez. She lived in Madrid with her large family since she was 20 years old until she turned 35, and there she studied at The Academy of Arts.

In this period, she met prestigious writers, like Lorca or Alberti, and other artists like Dalí.

She was known for her art skills as a painter, but also for her life style, because she would ride a bike and she was a modern woman in that time.

In 1937 she moved to Argentina and she travelled around the American continent, even to the USA. She returned to Madrid in the 60s, where she died in 1995. She was certainly an excepctonal woman.

Pablo Veiga INTERMEDIATE B2.2.4

Maruja Mallo She was born in Viveiro (Lugo) in 1902. Her real name was Ana María Gómez González. In 1922.

She moved to Madrid with her family. She studied at the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts, where she met Salvador Dali, who introduce her to the World of Surrealism and the Generation of 27. She illustrated poems by Rafael Alberti, such as “La pájara pinta”. In 1927 she met Ortega y Gasset, and worked as an illustrator for “Revista de Occidente “. In the 1930s she travelled to París, where she met André Bretón.

Back in Spain she worked as a teacher. When the Spanisch Civil War broke out, she was exiled to Argentina. In 1939 she painted her most importante work: “El canto de la espiga”. She returned to Spain in the 1960s. She died in Madrid in 1995.

She was the rebel muse of Spanish surrealism who loved scandalizing conservative citizens. Among her love affairs is ver relationship with Alberti which didn’t fit because of the free love she professed.

She started the hatless movement (Las Sinsombrero) due to the fact that they decided to take off the hat, which, at this time, was a sign of a high position in society. She said that for this reason they got stoned because they identified them with the third sex.

She was a free and independent woman, frequently at cafés and gatherings when it was forbidden foe women to enter them and she broke with all the stereotypes of this period.

Silvia López INTERMEDIATE B2.2.3

Maruja

Mallo

(1902 – 1995)

Maruja Mallo was a painted born in Viveiro (Lugo) in 1902. Her real name was Ana María Gómez Gonzalez. At the age of 20, she moved to Madrid where she knew Salvador Dali who shows her the world of Surrealism. She would go clubbing with Lorca, Dalí and Alberti, who she lived a romance with. Moreover, she had numeral affairs with other artist from literary circles such as Pablo Neruda and Miguel Hernandez. Furthermore, she was part of a group of women called “The Hatless” name by which a group of Spanish women Thinkers and Artists belonging to the generation of 27 born between 1898 and 1914 are known. The name comes from the gesture of taking your hat off in public.

When the Spanish Civil war broke out, she was exiled and moved to Argentina where she painted her most important work “El canto de la espiga”.

Mallo lived in several places in Europe and USA and after 25 years of exile, she returned to Spain.

She was a courageous woman because she refused to conform to any of the rules the patriarchy attempted to impose on women. Well done!

Isabel Blanco INTERMEDIATE B2.2.4

Frida Kahlo Magdalena

Carmen

Frida

Kahlo

Calderón was a Mexican painter. She was born on July 6 th, 1907 in Coyoacan ( México).

She

was

characterized

since

her

childhood by a deep sense of independence and rebellion. Besides, Frida was proud of her " Mexicanidad".

Some paintings by the Mexican artist are: " Urban Landscape", " Frieda and Diego Rivera", " Tray with Poppies", etc.

Kahlo incorporated graphic and surrealistic elements in her portraits. Her work is related to her biography and her own suffering. Because when she was 5 years old, she contracted polio, and also she had a terrible bus accident which caused her severe injuries in her body.

So, her life was marked by her vital anguish and physical suffering.

Later, in 1992 she met the communist artist Diego Rivera , who recognized her talent. They were married in 1929 and divorced en 1939, but they weren´t divorced for long, remarrying in 1940.

Also, it´s noteworthy that the Louvre purchased a painting from Kahlo, " The Frame", making her the first Mexican artist to be feautured in their collection.

Several days before her death on July 13 th, 1954; Frida wrote in her diary: " I hope the exit is joyful, and I hope never to return"- Frida Yovania Gómez INTERMEDIATE B2.2.4

Frida Kahlo Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderon was a Mexican painter. Her life was marked by the misfortune to get polio, and afterwards a serious accident in her youth that kept her in a bed for long periods of time, getting to undergo 32 surgical operations. Her pictorical work is about her biography and her own suffering. She painted mainly self-portraits.

She married the painter Diego Rivera and they influenced each other.

They shared the taste for Mexican folk art of indígenous roots.

Her paintings were exhibited in France. One of her works of this exposition (“self-portrait the frame) became the first painting of a Mexican artist acquired by the Louvre museum.

She was admired by others painters of her time like Picasso, Kandinski, Breton or Duchamp. Her work achieved international fame and recognition after her death.

Olga López Viana INTERMEDIATE B2.2.3

Frida Kahlo Frida Kahlo was a woman who still is considered one of Mexico´s greatest artists. She was born on 6th of July in 1907, in Coyocoan (Mexico).

In her chilhood she suffered poor health.

When she was 6 years old, she contracted polio and she had to be bedridden for nine months.

This disease caused her right leg and foot grow much thinner than her left one.

Despite of this healthy factors, she played diferent sports along her lifetime.

Talking about her artist career, it´s important to say that her pieces of work were characteristic for being, in most cases, self portraits which often incorporated symbolic portrayals of physical and psycological wounds.

On the other hand, we can highlight her marriage with Diego Rivera, which changed her personal and painting style. Frida Kahlo was painting even up to her last moment. One of her last paintings was self-portait with Portrait of Dr.Farill (1951).

She died in La Casa Azul in 1954. The documentary film makers defended that the official death’s cause documented was a pulmonary embolism.

It can be said that Frida Kahlo was a singular person in the history of art and also was an icon of female creativity and of the feminist movement.

Alicia García INTERMEDIATE B2.2.5

Frida Kahlo Frida Kahlo is considered one of the greatest artists of Mexico. She was born on July 6th, 1907 in Coyocoan (Mexico City) and she grew up in her family’s house, which is kwon as “The Blue House”.

Frida has a hard childhood because of her poor health. At the age of 6, she contracted polio and she had to be bedridden for 9 months. This disease caused her right leg and foot grow less than the left ones, becoming even thinner. That is why Frida always wore long skirts.

In 1922 she attended the renowned National Preparatory School in Mexico City. Soon, she became famous for her outspokenness, bravery and political and intellectual views. That year, she also suffered a tragic bus accident, in which she was seriously injured. Frida had to stay in the hospital for several weeks and that is why she started to paint. Frida used to paint selfportraits. Once, she said: “I paint myself because I am often alone and I am the subject I know best”. After a few years, she got married with the famous Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. They had a strange marriage, based on affairs and divorces. Frida couldn’t have children due to the accident she suffered and she was heartbroken for that.

Despite her personal challenges, her art work continued to grow in popularity but in 1950, she was diagnosed with gangrene in her right foot. She became bedridden again and deeply depressed, also having inclination for suicide. Eventually, one week after her 47tn birthday, Frida Kahlo passed away at her beloved “Blue House”, which was opened as a museum in 1958. Her fame had been growing after her death and, nowadays, Frida is an icon of the female creativity and the feminist movement.

Ana Ferreiros INTERMEDIATE B2.2.5

Julia Minguillón Julia Minguillón was worn in Lugo in 1907 and died in Madrid in 1965 at the age of 59 because a lymphoma. She was the oldest of 4 brothers and she spent her first years in Vilanova de Lourenzá, where his father had a pharmacy.

From the age of 9 to 17 she studied in Burgos and Valladolid. During those years she suffered constant mockery by her classmates because of her Galician accent and she consoled herself by painting excellent caricatures of them. Later she studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Madrid and duo to her qualities and training, the Diputación of Lugo gave her a scholarship to the Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid.

In 1941 she became the only woman to get the gold metal of the National exhibition of Fine Arts for her painting “Escuela de Doloriñas”, her most important work that was also exhibited at the Venice Biennale the following year. Julia Minguillon's personal style, between post-impressionism and naturalism and her sensitive landscapes marked the later Galician painting. His works “The girl and the butterfly”, “The Virgin of the air”, “Kilila” and “Tyla and I” stand out.

I admire this painter very much because she was a very “normal” and discreet woman who never showed controversial attitudes and never spoke politically.

Her only know eccentricity was that she buried Tyla, her dear dog, in a grave in front of the sea. For these reasons and for leaving her carreer in second place after following her husband in this journalistic carreer in Madrid, Julia Minguillón was a woman to which History has paid little attention.

In addition, she was always closely linked to Galicia and Galician Art and her work dignified the land that saw her born, unlike her contemporary and important painter of Lugo Maruja Mallo, who had a non-existent relationship with Galicia.

Carmen Rodríguez INTERMEDIATE B2.2.4

Judith Scott Judith Scott was a visual artist with Down Syndrome and deafness who achieved recognition because of her enigmatic fiber sculptures.

She was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1943.

Isolated as a result of being institutionalised for most of her life, she began creating art at the age of 43, after being introduced to Creative Growth, that is an art center where people with mental or psicological disabilities can develop their artistic style with freedom.

Fabric became her passion and medium of choice, so for the rest of her life she created sculptures using yarn, twine and strips of fabric that she wrapped and knoted around mundane objects. She used keys, plastic tubing, bicycle wheels, shopping carts, and so on.

Judith's vivid and enigmatic sculptures that evolved throughout her career, expressed her imagination in ways she could not do so through speech.

She was and is recognised as one of the most important representatives of Outsider Art, a kind of art that is created out of the official culture limits by autodidact artists who develop their creative pieces without contact with artistic institutions.

Her abstract works have been compared to nests and cocoons and her precesses looked both a ritual and a play.

She passed away in 2005, but her work is held by the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the American Folk Art Museum, and so on.

In 2006, Lola Barrera and Iñaki Peñafiel released the documentary ¿Que tienes debajo del sombrero? about her life.

Dolores Casas INTERMEDIATE B2.2.5

Zaha Hadid She was born in Bagdag, Irak in 1950 into a rich and famous Mosul family. She studied Maths in the American Institute in Bagdad and after that, she went to London to study architecture.

In London, she created her first design study.

After that, she moved to the United States where she also worked as a professor in Harvard.

She didn´t get married, and had not children. In addition, she was bad tempered and belligerent. Her her strong carácter usually came out as when she argued in A Coruña with the translator in her speech as she considered the speaker was not doing it in the proper way.

She was considered not reliable and was often even defenestrated by her men workmates. She had to struggle several times against them. Although, she won the Prize for the Cardiff Pavillon, finally it was built by another male architect.

She belonged to the “Desconstructivism” movement where she found inspiration in unconventional forms to bend lines and create new shapes. She normally used to design straight lines and sharp angles. She took inspiration from historic Islamic designs found in calligraphy and geometric patterns to create something entirely new.

The most important is that she has had all the best prizes about architecture including the PRITZKER PRIZE (2004), and also the Royal Gold Medal by The Royal Institute of British Architects.

Her art is all around the world with wonderful white buildings.

She died recently in 2016 in Miami of a heart attack after suffering a severe bronchitis process.

Today I would like to celebrate this WOMEN´S DAY to Dame Zaha Hadid's contributions for her lifetime to the world of architecture, design and ART.

Pilar Bermúdez INTERMEDIATE B2.2.4

Coco Chanel (1883-1971)

Coco Chanel is an icon of fashion and culture who still keeps inspiring young fashion designers.

She was born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel on August 19th, 1883 in Saumur, France.

At age 12, after her mother´s death, she was in an orphanage, where she worked as a peddler.

Around the age of 20, Chanel became involved with Etienne Balsan, who offered to help her start a millinery business in Paris. She soon left him and opened her own shop on Paris´s Rue Cambon in 1910.

In the 1920s, she launched her first perfume Chanel Nº 5.

Chanel suit with collarless jacket were introduced by her in the fashion industry for the time. Later when World War II started she had to close her business.

At the age of 70, Chanel made a triumphant return to the fashion world and although she received bad reviews from critics, soon won shoppers around the world.

Today her company continues generating hundreds of millions in sales each year.

Cristina Fernández B2.2.4

Women in Literature

Mary Woollstonecraft (1759-1797)

English writer, philosopher, and advocate of feminism with her book A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792). “I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves.�

Concepción Arenal

Concepción Arenal was born on 31 January, 1820 in Ferrol and died on 4 February, 1893 in Vigo. She was a law graduate, thinker, journalist, poet and pioneer of Spanish feminism.

She belonged to the San Vicente de Paul Society and defended through their publications the work of religious communities in Spain.

Throughout her life and work she denounced the situations of the prisons, the misery in health homes or begging and the status of women in the nineteenth century

Marta Pando That’s English! MODULE 10

Rosalía de Castro

(1837-1885) Rosalía de Castro (Santiago de Compostela, 1837-Padron, 1885) was the most famous Galician writer in History. She was part of the movement called Rexurdimento, the Romantic period after the Séculos Escuros.

Well educated, she lived betwen Santiago de Compostela and Madrid, where she got married in 1858 with Manuel Murguía, a well-known writer in that time. That year she writes “Lieders”, a feminism manifest who show us how she was aware of Women Rights.

The 17th of May of 1963 she published Cantares Gallegos, considered the most important piece of the Rexurdimento, and this is her best legacy: the Recovery of the Galician Language and her love for our culture. Every year, Galicia celebrates this date tributing a diferent Galician writer.

With the publication of Follas Novas in 1880, she achieved the recognition as a great poet.

Rubén Novo INTERMEDIATE B2.2.4

Rosalía de Castro

Rosalia de Castro was born in Santiago de Compostela in 1837 and died in Padrón in 1885.

She was a writer. She wrote in Spanish and Galician languages.

She was a son of a priest, that was a crisis for her when she was a teenager. Her health was under the weather along her life. Her first book was La Flor, She receives very good reviews. She got married with Manuel Martínez Murguía and they had seven children.

The dead of her mother and one of her sons was a very difficult time for her.

The works of Rosalia go among other issues worrying about social conditions of fishermen and farmers. Her books reflect anxiety as she was very sensitive and she was always very sad.

She died in Padrón in 1885 from a uterine cancer.

She is best known for her poetry Cantares Gallegos and Follas Novas.

She was a strong woman in a very difficult time of history because she wrote in Galician language.

Rosa Maseda INTERMEDIATE B2.2.4

Constance Lloyd (1859-1898)

Artist, writer, photographer, suffragette, Oscar Wilde's unhappy wife. “Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family life.�

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) Adeline Virginia Wolf was a modernist English writer in the 20 th Century. She was born in 1882 (London) and she died in 1941 (Sussex). She was born in a good accommodated family, her father was a famous literature figure and hers mother had important social and artistic connections.

In her adolescence, Virginia lost her mother and brother, and she fall down in a depression. She overcame this loss through writing. She began to write “Reminiscence” about her childhood and her mother loss. She based many of her novel´s characters on real-life prototypes and family members. Owing to her maniacdepressive worries, she mixed popular people with a surrealistic world from her dreams.

She was best known for her novels, specially “Mrs Dalloway” (1925), an “To the Lighthouse” (1927). She also wrote pioneering essays on artistic theory, literary history, women´s writing and the politics of the power.

Her legacy for women appears in her most famous essay, “A room of one´s own” (1929). In this work, she talks about people necessity of independence.

People need take their own decisions and have their own money to be able to achieve this independence. This essay is based on her own experience, because she was under her father decisions and later with her husband.

Sandra Gómez INTERMEDIATE B2.2.3

Clara Campoamor

(1888-1972) Spanish politician, lawyer and feminist fighter for women´s rights, especially with “Women´s Vote” She was elected a deputy in 1931 elections and she fought against sexual descrimination, for the legal quality of children born within and otuside marriage, the divorce, and the universal suffrage often called “Women’s Vote”.

She achieved everything. The most complicated issue was the vote because the left did not want women to vote because they were supposed to be strongly influenced by the church and would vote in favor of the right. She got the women´s vote with 161 votes in favour and 121 against. Even her party voted against this law.

Eventually, in 1933 elections, women could vote!!

Reyes Costas INTERMEDIATE B2.2.3

Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973)

First woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

“Let woman out of the home, let man into it, should be the aim of education. The home needs man, and the world outside needs woman. “

Emilia Pardo Bazán

She was born into a Galician aristocratic family in the 19th Century.

Writer, journalist and professor, Emilia Pardo Bazán was one of the best writers in the history of Spanish Literature. In addittion, she was the precursor of the Naturalism art movement in Spain.

Galicia, its culture and its people were her inspiration and they are the protagonists in her books. Her masterpiece “Los Pazos de Ulloa” reflects the decline of the Galician rural world.

Due to her ability to write and communicate, she defended women's rights. She wanted equal rights and opportunities for men and women, and the same value for their voices and opinions.

Because of my Galician origin and my status as a woman, I greatly admire this brave woman.

María Elena Rosendo INTERMEDIATE B2.2.3

Freya Stark (1893-1993)

British-Italian explorer and travel writer who rode on a mule up Mount Everest, charted the Persian territories, spoke 9 languages and was a spy during WWII. “Curiosity is the one thing invincible in Nature.�

FRED VARGAS Fred Vargas is the pseudonym of Frederique Audoin-Rouzeau (born in Paris, France the 7th of June of 1957) daughter of a famous surrealist writer PhilippeAudoin. She is a French historian, archaeologist, vociferous political campaigner and novelist.

As an archaeologist she has written important works on medieval social structures and on the epidemiology of the plague.

As a vociferous political campaigner she is very critic of the French political and judicial system as a supporter of the fugitive Italian writer Cesare Battisti, exiled from France and currently in custody in Brazil who was accused of committing terrorist offences in Italy in the 1970s.

She is best known as a crime writer, she has written more than ten novels and won several awards. The last one was the“Princesa de Asturias de las Letras” in 2018.

Both she and her twin sister Jo (a painter) adopted the name Vargas from the Ava Gardner‟s character in the Barefoot Contessa (Maria Vargas). She began to write when her father was ill at the end of his life and he died before she was published, but she didn´t care because she knew what her father would say about her books “Fred, this is a shit from A to Z” From her father she also remembers that he forbade them (her sister and her) to see TV and only let them read some authorized books.

At present she is writing a new book and has another one in her head.

Juan Carballeira INTERMEDIATE B2.2.3

Agatha Christie Agatha Cristie, whose real name was Mary Clarissa Miller, was a British writer specialized in Police Genre, also write romantic novels and theater plays.

The structure os her stories is based on the tradition of puzzles to be solved.

She published her first novel called The Misterious Affair at Styles when she was working as a nurse in The First World War, later, she became one of the most read writers of the time. Other well known novels are: Murder on the Orient Express and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, wich was chosen the best crimen fiction of the time.

Her best known characters were: Hercules Point, a retired policeman characterized by his mustache and his egg shaped face , who became one of the leadin actor of the writer and Miss Jane Marple , a English single, who wasn`t a detective but she used her isntict and she was always rigth when the police failed.

Moreover, In 1972 ,The writer was declared Lady of the Bristih Empire by Her Royal Highness Queen Isabel II. Finally, Altough Agatha was a woman that went throught difficult situations during her life, she always did what she wanted and what made her feel happy and this was the secret of her great success.

Natalia MartĂ­nez INTERMEDIATE B2.2.3

J.K.Rowling I admire the writer JK Rowling, apart from her talent and charitable donations,

for

her

personal

history

of

overcoming. Joanne Rowling was born on 31 July 1965 in Yate (United Kingdom). She was married twice, the first in 1992 with Jorge Arantes, an Portuguese journalist with whom she had a daughter and the second in 2001 with an English doctor called Neil Murray with whom she had two children more, a son and another daughter.

Their children are called: Jessica Isabel Rowling Arantes and David Gordon and Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray.

In her first marriage she suffered domestic violence. Due to this, she was diagnosed of severe depression and she tried to commit suicide with 30 years. But while her life was staggering, she found her way of escape writing, and after finding many closed doors, she managed to publish “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone”. Fortunately with her second husband she seems happy, which I am glad.

She is famous for writing the Harry Potter saga, for which she happened of be a divorced mother who was living from an unemployment pension and charity, to becoming in one of the richest people in the UK. Rowling stated, "I think we have a moral responsibility: When you have received more than you need, you must act wisely with it and give it intelligently” and I agree.

Her philanthropic work is one of the reasons why I love this writer and so I’m happy that things are going well for her now, thank God. Mª Fe López That’s English! MODULE 10

Women in Music

Janis Joplin (1943-1970)

First female rock and roll legend. ”Don’t compromise yourself.

You are all you’ve got.”

Laurie Anderson Laurie Anderson was born in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, on June 5, 1947. Singer, Violinist, Poet, Composer, Sketcher and experiment Artist.

She studied violin as a teen and played in the Chicago Youth Symphony. In 1969, she received a degree from Barnard College with B.A. Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, studying Art History. In addition, in 1970 she gott an M.F.A. in sculpture from Columbia University.

During her career Laurie Anderson has achieved multitude of successes.

She is a pioneer in electronic music and she invented several devices that she has used in her recordings and concerts. In 1977 she invented a Tape-Bow Violin that use recorded magnetic tape on the bow instead of horsehair, and magnetic tape head in the bridge. In the late 1990s, she participated with Interval Research to create an instrument called “Talking stick”.

In addition she has composed several singles like “O Superman” in 1981, “Strange Angels” in 1989, “Beautiful Red Dress” in 1990, etc… and also she has realised some collaborations with other artist like "This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)" with Peter Gabriel in 1986, "Diva" from Zoolook by Jean Michel Jarre in1984, "Gentle Breeze" with Lou Reed in 2004, etc…

Besides this she has directed or participated in some films like “Home of the Brave” in 1986, “What You Mean We?” in 1987, “The Rugrats Movie” in 1998 (as a character voice), etc… In TV she has participated in several programs like “The New Show” - musical guest in 1984, “Saturday Night Live” - musical guest in 1986, “The Late Show” with David Letterman – guest 2010, etc…

Laurie Anderson is currently touring several countries with the show “Landfall”. This show is a collaboration with Kronos Quartet´s.

Raúl Pérez INTERMEDIATE B2.2.5

Judith Weir (1954- )

She is a British composer and the first female Master of the Queen's Music. “The problem with our art form: it's so ephemeral!�

Amelie Lens

Amelie Lens is a Belgian electronic music DJ, record producer, and coowner of the Lenske record label. She is signed to the Pan-Pot imprint Second State records, with whom she has released several singles and EPs, the most successful to date being 2017's Contradiction EP. Amelie is a self-confessed control freak. Every step of her journey as a DJ so far has been the result of her own obsessive attention to detail and laser-focussed determination which permeates everything she does.

Techno had Amelie at „hello‟, and she spent the rest of her teenage years crossing Belgium by train to attend gigs, hypnotized by the new world that was opening up to her. The often-referred to 'explosion' with which the Antwerp native made her way into the global techno scene has been ignited by her first outing to Belgium's Dour Festival at just 15 years old.

Fast forward a few years and Amelie had started her own club nights in Antwerp. At the start of 2019 Drumcode marked its 200th release by asking Lens to remix the label heads 2014 release "Teach Me”.

Lens has molded her own imprint, LENSKE, in her image-driven, energetic and authentic. In just a few years Lens has achieved what many artists would dream of achieving in a lifetime, and her rapid ascent is something many find hard to grasp.

Rest assured that Amelie Lens‟story is just beginning.

Antón Novales INTERMEDIATE B2.2.3

María Xosé Silva SES María Xosé Silvar was born in Coruña in 1982.

She has a degree in Galician Philology and Social anthropology.

In 2007 won “A Coruña Son” prize with her band.

She sings against injustice; she defends her language hard and her performances are a sincerity explosion.

SES is a multifaceted woman, she is a percussionist, guitarist, teacher, traditional dancer, Singer songwriter and leader of her own music band.

Her lyrics defend Galician language and rural women. She is proud of her language, her gender and her Galician roots.

She is a defender of women´s rights in the music industry and she fights for equality and feminism.

Nazaret Méndez INTERMEDIATE B2.2.4

Women in Performing arts

Frederica Sagor Maas (1908-1986)

Female screenwriter in early Hollywood, ignored, plagiarised and despised by the film industry. “Unless you wanted to quit the business, you just kept your mouth shut.�

Greta Garbo Greta Garbo was a Swedish film actress during the 1920´s and 1930`s. In 1990 , The American Film Institute ranked Garbo on their List of the greatest female stars of classic Hollywood Cinema .Her perfomances in films as” Anna Christie” and “Romance “, she received the first or three Academy Award nominations for best actress , her sucess allowed her to dictate the terms of her contract and she became selective about her roles . Important movies as” Mata Hari” , Grand Hotel”, “Queen Christina”, “Ninotchka”, “Marguerite Gautier “. Finally she retired from the screen at the age of 35 with 28 films.

When Greta was a child , she desliked school and she preferred to play alone , she was a leader who became inrerested in theatre , she rarely gave interviews , detested crowds, many people ,she spend a lot of time alone so her many extravagances are famous and her life-long melancholy and moodiness, she always dressed large sunglasses, she kept her mysticism until the end.

Regarding her relationships , Greta never married , did not have children and lived alone as an adult , her most famous romance was with the actor John Gilbert even if recent biographis believe that Garbo was bisexual.

Everyone considered her “The Divine Garbo”, she proyected a magnetism and a mystique halo.

Amelia Zapata INTERMEDIATE B2.2.3

Pina Baush

She was a German dancer, choreographer and pioneer in contemporary dance. She revolutionaised modern dance, mixing different movements with a vangard style. Some of her pieces are performed in the dance theater where she combines corporal movements , emotions, sounds, and scenography, and where the spectators can participate (a style now known as Tanztheater). Her work is connected with the German tradition of expresionist dance and its existential human anguish.

She created the company Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, which performs internationally.

M. Dolores Lago Arce That’s English! MODULE 10

Janet Gaynor 1906-1984)

The first OSCAR to a woman “I’m going out and have a real life!

I’m gonna be somebody!”

Rita Moreno

Rosita Dolores Alverio, known as Rita Moreno, is a Puerto Rican actress, dancer, and singer, who has worked in the American entertainment industry for over 70 years. She has been recognized with the four major awards in her field, becoming the first Latina woman to have an “E.G.O.T.” (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony). In 2004, she was recognized with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Even more, she received the National Medal of Arts in 2009.

Rita Moreno was born in 1931 in Humacao, Puerto Rico. When she was 5 years old, she moved with her mother to New York, after her parents were divorced. Her mother remarried and she later started to use her stepfather‟s surname, Moreno. She began taking dance classes and at 11 age she got her first job as a dubbing actress. At 13 she debuted on Broadway in Skydrift, and this made that Hollywood film directors were interested in her. Her first film was So Young, So Bad, released in 1950, but it was in 1961 when she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Anita in the film adaptation of the musical West Side Story. She was typecast in stereotypical ethnic or sexualized roles, even after winning the Oscar. For that reason, she gave up film industry for a few years and worked in the theater and children‟s TV series like The Muppet Show, for which she earned an Emmy Award.

Regarding to her personal life, she had a turbulent relationship with Marlon Brando that finished with her attempt suicide in 1961. After that, she married Dr. Leonard Gordon in 1965 and they had a daughter. Her husband died in 2010 at the age of 90.

Rita Moreno currently acts on the Netflix series One Day at a Time, furthermore she'll be executive producer and star in Steven Spielberg‟s 2020 remake of West Side Story.

Patricia Rodríguez INTERMEDIATE B2.2.4

Margot Fonteyn (1919-1991)

Royal Ballet Prima Ballerina Assoluta was an iconic figure in British ballet. “Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in Art and life alike.�

Brigitte Bardot Briggitte Anne Marie Bardot was born in Paris ,28th of September in 1934.

She was an actress, dancer,Singer,writer, fashion model and sex symbol in the 1950´s. She retired in 1973 and she bacame an activist for animal´s rights.

Bardot appeared on the cover of France´s Elle magazine at the age of 15. She made her big-screen debut in 1952 in “Le Trou Normand”. Various roles followed including “La Lumiere d´en Face” and “Helen of Troy” The film “And God created woman” launched her into international fame, in which Bardot played a sexuality liberated young woman. Bardot became renowed for displaying a naturalistic, free flowing sexuality that spoke to the concept of “joie de vivre” becoming Europe´s top actress.

Bardot turned from moviemaking to her love of animals in the middle 70´s and in 1980´s she founded The Brigitte Bardot´s Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals. This Project helped to create shelters for elephants in South Africa, koalas in Australia, dancing bears in Bulgaria and primates in Cameroon. Moreover, her work has led The Council of Europe banning the importation of seal fur and the French Government banning ivory imports.

In 2006, the Foundation celebrated its 20th anniversary, reaching 75.000 members by the year 2012.

María Jul INTERMEDIATE B2.2.5

Sara Baras Sara Baras is a Flamenco dancer and choreographer. She is also a director of her own dance company. She started her studies in her mother´s dance school and since this moment she has worked continuosly until today.

When she was twenty years old, she was awarded with the first in Paris and after that she formed couple with her first dancer Javier Barón. Her achivements were in Spain, New York and Geneva. Three years later, she changed her partner for Enrique Morente and then for Antonio Canales.

Her shows “Women”, “Sensations”, “Dreams”, “Tastes”, “Voices”, “Shades” among others facilitated her to get the Dance National Award in 2003. She presented her shows all over Europe, USA and Asia, colaborating with Paco de Lucía to the guitar. Her merits have been recognised and celebrated along the world.

Among her accomplishments are forays into the fashion world, into the London fashion week, due to her beauty, and her colaborations with Triumph underwear where she was model, director and choreographer in the mounting.

She also participated like an artist and represented to women in Cartier jewel catalogue. She paraded on the Cibeles catwalk.

She has recived the tribute of eight cooks with Michelin Star in 2019. She has recived more than fitty awards in her life and she was named Andalucía Face in 2002, and she is one of widely reveals significance of their contribution to the Art. She is an extraordinary woman who has earned her place in history.

Mónica Paredes INTERMEDIATE B2.2.5

Dame Judi Dench

English actress, artist and author “The theater is the thing I love doing most.�

Inspiring Women We celebrated just some of the many fierce and fantastic females who altered the course of History