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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Claire Armitstead

The amazing life of 101-year-old art warrior Ce Roser: ‘We made noise. We closed the streets’

Artist Ce Roser, in a headscarf and denim jacket, smiles near her studio's painting supplies
‘We were aggressive, but we weren’t fierce’ … Ce Roser in her studio in New York. Photograph: Dario Lasagni/Courtesy VeneKlasen

In January of 1971, the American art historian Linda Nochlin published a landmark essay, Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? It was a provocation and a call to arms that was to send shockwaves through the arts establishment.

“It wasn’t just a problem for artists,” says Ce Roser, more than half a century on. “My older friends could not get shows, although they had had brilliant careers before, and that happened also to all of my friends who were poets or writers. Nobody seemed to be able to establish themselves as career artists. So we got together, we complained, and I decided we should have a meeting and really talk seriously about it.”

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