This March, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza and Fundación Caja Madrid are presenting Heroines, a comprehensive survey of the depiction of women as the protagonists of key roles and as manifestations of the gender identity crisis in western art. The exhibition focuses on strong women: active, independent, defiant, inspired, creative, dominating and triumphant.

Heroines presents around 120 works that constitute a complete catalogue of female figures of the widest variety of types and from different eras: From Greek mythology to the subversive images of contemporary feminist artists, from the great figures of the Christian tradition to anonymous modern women reading the papers and self-portraits. Focused in particular on the period of modern art from the 19th century, the exhibition follows a thematic order exploring the contexts and vocations of these heroines, the iconography of solitude, work, war, magic, intoxication, sport, religion, reading and painting.

Each chapter of the exhibition juxtaposes works from different periods and in different artistic idioms and media with the aim of encouraging the visitor to reflect on change and permanence through these differences. The look of great women artists ((including Mary Cassat, Lee Krasner, Nancy Spero, Angelica Kauffmann, Berthe Morisot, Marina Abramovic, Kiki Smith, Mona Hatoum, Julia Fullerton-Batten,...) in front of female images created by illustrious male artists (Caravaggio, Rubens, Rembrandt, Goya, Delacroix, Pissarro, Degas, Munch, Nolde, Hopper,...).