Coral Woodbury

Coral Woodbury (born 1971 in New York) is an American painter, whose work critically reinterprets Western art from a feminist perspective. Woodbury attempts to bring overdue attention to the long line of women artists who worked without recognition or enduring respect.

Created especially for The Women’s Art Collection, these three works depict artists closely related to its early history: Mary Kelly, Lubaina Himid and Maud Sulter.

In 1986 Mary Kelly’s series Extase was acquired by Murray Edwards College (then New Hall) after the American artist undertook a residency at the College in collaboration with Kettle’s Yard. This acquisition became the stimulus for the creation of The Women’s Art Collection several years later when the College started a call for donations to women artists living and working in the UK. Among the first artists to donate their work were Maud Sulter and Lubaina Himid, then in their twenties and just setting out on their artistic careers.

In her ongoing series Revised Edition, Woodbury takes H.W. Janson’s A History of Art and paints portraits of women artists on its pages. First published in 1962, the book quickly became a referential text on art history yet did not mention a single women artist until 1986. Woodbury’s work makes visible artists who have been obscured from history.