French sculptor honors forgotten female artists at Petit Palais

French sculptor Prune Nourry is exhibiting a series of portraits honoring female artists who were overlooked by art history at the Petit Palais in Paris.

Nourry created 18 giant white portraits, reaching heights of 3.5 meters, to represent female sculptors from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She commissioned three art historians to gather biographies and photographs of these women to inform her work.

The exhibition aims to address the fact that women make up only 4 percent of the Petit Palais collections. The artist placed her works throughout the museum's permanent galleries and gardens. On the museum forecourt, she installed Mothership, a sculpture made of black corten steel measuring 17 meters long and 12 meters wide. This piece depicts a giant pregnant woman and serves as a starting point for her exploration of motherhood and forgotten female artists.

Nourry also included hollow portraits to represent students who could not pursue professional careers in sculpture. These include women who were institutionalized or those who abandoned their own careers to support the work of their husbands. Her installation also features her previous works, such as her Terracota Daughters, which she positioned near a sculpture of Jeanne d'Arc.