Female gazes in colonial Libya: forgotten artists between amateurism and professionalism

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed, also in the Italian context, the flourishing of numerous studies aimed at investigating so-called colonial art and, in parallel, the major exhibitions that were dedicated to it especially during the Fascist ventennio. These studies have brought to light the names of numerous authors involved in this artistic field, many of whom are little or not at all known. Among them appear several female figures, who arrived overseas - in most cases - following their families or husbands. Some of them were amateur authors, while others were artists with a fair amount of training, received through private lessons and attendance at the academy. Alongside more famous artists, such as Mimì Buzzacchi Quilici, there are the names of lesser-known authors such as Luigia Daviso Viola, Gina Chiozza Lorenzi and Elisa Bottèro Taffiorelli, to name but a few.  

The essay proposed here would therefore like to provide an initial, partial overview of the Italian women artists who stayed in overseas territories from the period between the two world wars, focusing in particular on the Libyan context and on some of the cases considered most interesting and illustrative of the different types of women artists, divided between amateur and professional authors.