Opening: Unforgettable. Women artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600–1750

Exhibition design, Ghent/ BE

Festively opened on 6 March 2026 at the Royal Museum for Fine Arts Ghent, Unforgettable is the first major retrospective dedicated entirely to the role and significance of women in the arts during the long 17th century, specifically for the region of Belgium and the Netherlands (the historical Low Countries). After more than two years of research, the exhibition was able to gather works by well over 40 women artists active between 1600 and 1750. It covers the full range of visual media: from paintings, prints and sculptures to textiles or paper cuttings.

The exhibition shows that women were active in just about every artistic discipline and aspect of production. It highlights the celebrated painters who excelled in a male-dominated field, as well as the anonymous women who produced the most precious lace of the time. Their contributions were indispensable to the development of the visual culture of the Low Countries.

Aslı Çiçek and her team were commissioned to design the exhibition following an invited competition. Her scenography reconfigures the museum’s gallery circulation and draws inspiration from both the precision and discipline, as well as the sensitivity, of the artists on display.

Contemporary intervention:
In response to the exhibition, the artists Christiane Blattmann, Manon de Boer, Melissa Gordon, Aglaia Konrad, Valérie Mannaerts, Hana Miletić, Annaïk Lou Pitteloud, Heidi Voet, and Asia Zielińska have created an intervention for the museum’s forum room.

Images: © Martin Corlazzoli