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Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, room WS , Case R, Shelf 107, Box R

No.3

Watercolour
1993 (made)
Artist/Maker
Margaret Harrison (artist)
Place of origin
Great Britain (made)

A watercolour depicting a woman standing behind a cosmetics counter. In front of her there is a stand full of bottles of nail varnish in various shades of pink.


Object details

Categories
Paintings
Drawings
Feminism
Object type
Watercolour
Titles
  • No.3 (assigned by artist)
  • Perfumed Politics and Cosmetic Bodies (series title)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour
Ink
Paper
Watercolour Painting
Brief description
Watercolour by Margaret Harrison, from the series 'Perfumed Politics and Cosmetic Bodies' entitled 'No.3', watercolour, Great Britain, 1993
Physical description
A watercolour depicting a woman standing behind a cosmetics counter. In front of her there is a stand full of bottles of nail varnish in various shades of pink.
Dimensions
  • Sight size height: 24.5cm
  • Sight size width: 18cm
Dimensions taken from Victoria and Albert Museum Department of Prints, Drawings and Paintings Accession Register for 1995
Subjects depicted
Feminism
Cosmetics
Department Store
Woman
Mirror
Bibliographic references
  • Victoria and Albert Museum Department of Prints, Drawings and Paintings Accession Register for 1995
  • The following excerpt is from the exhibition catalogue for 'Still I Rise: Feminisms, Gender, Resistance' at the De La Warr Pavilion, 2019: 'Margaret Harrison often uses traditional techniques to make work from a radical feminist perspective. She is one of the founders of the London Women's Liberation Art Group in 1970, as well as the Women's Workshop of the Artists Union. She made headlines in 1971 when her first solo exhibition was shut down by police on grounds of indecency. Harrison aroused the attention of the police with her highly detailed drawings depicting male bodies, including an iconic image of Hugh Hefner as a Playboy bunny, wearing a basque and prosthetic breasts. Between 1973 and 1975, she collaborated with artists Kay Hunt and Mary Kelly to conduct a study of women's work in a South London factory. Their installation was timed to coincide with the implementation of the Equal Pay Act 1970, and is one of the earliest examples of an art project tackling political and industrial issues from an overtly feminist perspective'.
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.342-1995

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Record createdMarch 24, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O206282/no3-watercolour-margaret-harrison/
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