In the 1960s Fanchon Frölich enjoyed professional success her work entered prestigious collections including the Walker Art Gallery's, but from the 1980s onwards, Fröhlich's work began to be overlooked. This exhibition seeks to re-establish her position in the artworld by showing her work alongside that of her contemporaries.
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00:00 The Victoria Gallery and Museum preserve and present unique objects from the last 130 years
00:09 of the University's history, alongside curating imaginative exhibitions like the one we're
00:15 going to see now.
00:16 What we've got here is an exhibition curated by Liverpool University.
00:20 It's French and French artwork across a period of something like 30, 40 years and the work
00:29 is alongside male artists who she either worked with or she was influenced by.
00:38 In the 1960s, Fanchin-Freulich enjoyed professional success.
00:42 Her work entered prestigious collections, including the Walker Art Galleries.
00:47 But from the 1980s onwards, her work began to become overlooked.
00:52 This exhibition seeks to re-establish her position in the art world by showcasing her
00:57 work alongside that of her contemporaries.
01:00 I mean on my left we've got one of my paintings and on my right we've got one of her collaborative
01:05 phenomena paintings.
01:06 And collaborative phenomena is a scientific term which her husband Herbert used.
01:14 By the late 1980s, she had a large collection of friends, they were all women, and she got
01:19 them all painting.
01:20 She would be painting alongside some of her friends on the same artwork and in the background
01:26 would be somebody on the keyboards providing music and so on.
01:32 So it was fun, serious art.
01:36 In the University of Liverpool's founding charter, there was a clause for equality and
01:40 by 1884 half of the students were female, making the gallery an apt place to present
01:46 the work of a woman who was such a trailblazer.
01:49 There was a point in which, I think it was in the early 60s, when she was trying to get
01:54 exhibitions and she was doing abstract art, which tended to be just a male domain, and
02:03 she was told by this woman gallery owner that she was simply the wrong sex.
02:09 We're at the point now where we realise that there were so many great women artists who
02:15 were not recognised in their time, and she is one of them.
02:19 She should be recognised as being a highly talented woman.
02:24 As well as the gallery, the museum collection includes items from the dental school, natural
02:28 history, fossils, skeletons and more.
02:31 As well as soaking up some culture, they organise events here, holding anything from award ceremonies,
02:36 business dinners or conferences.
02:38 You could even get married here.
02:40 When University College Liverpool, which is what the University of Liverpool was known
02:45 as when it opened its doors in 1882, needed a new headquarters, local architect Alfred
02:50 Waterhouse was asked to draw up plans.
02:53 Ordinary bricks and terracotta dressings were selected for the gothic exterior, which led
02:58 to the coining of the phrase 'Red Brick University'.