‘Singulières’ at the LaM: looking at the works beyond the labels

At the LaM, more than 300 works by 70 international women artists make up ‘Singulières’. The exhibition questions the categories and absences that have shaped women’s place in art history.

More than 300 works by 70 international women artists have been brought together at the LaM in Villeneuve-d’Ascq for the exhibition ‘Singulières: Artists, Self-Taught, Liberated’. On show from 3 October 2026 to 14 February 2027, it invites visitors to look anew at women creators who have long remained in the shadows — and to question the categories that helped keep them there.

The number gives a sense of the scale of the project; its significance lies above all in how the works are placed within art history. The LaM says it is bringing together anonymous, self-taught artists, artists classified as outsider art, and those resistant to any categorisation. This approach places diverse paths and practices side by side, without suggesting that the label ‘outsider art’ is enough to define them.

A category to examine closely

The term ‘outsider art’ appears here as one of several possible descriptions, not as a shared identity assigned to all the women artists. This distinction matters. Calling a woman creator self-taught tells us about her training; calling her anonymous tells us about how her name has been preserved or passed on. ‘Outsider art’, by contrast, refers to a classification category. These terms therefore describe different things and should not be used as substitutes for examining the works.

Drawing on the L’Aracine collection and numerous loans, the exhibition aims to bring to light artists who have long occupied a marginal place in accounts of art. The LaM presents this juxtaposition as a way of questioning women’s place in art history. The aim is clear: to shift attention from the label to the works, their forms and the trajectories they make visible.

France Culture describes five sections in the exhibition. ‘Tracing the Invisible’ explores, among other things, mediumistic creations by Hélène Smith, Madge Hill and Laure Pigeon. ‘Vegetalities’ brings other forms and practices into dialogue; ‘Of You, I Know Nothing’ examines the repression of women’s voices. ‘The Theatre of Existence’ and ‘For Another History’ broaden the reflection to include inner struggles and the place of art in society.

These themes do not impose the same biography on all the women artists. Rather, they allow visitors to compare works and experiences that the word ‘self-taught’ alone would not be enough to bring together. It is in this gap between shared categories and individual paths that the project finds some of its interest.

Forms to observe before explaining them

The museum’s exhibition text describes exuberant forms, intimate visions and gestures of rebellion. These are pointers offered by the institution, not an interpretation that should dictate how every work is seen. When looking at a piece, it is still possible to start more simply: by observing the lines, colours and materials, and the way a form occupies the surface. A personal reading can then draw on contextual information without being reduced to biography.

The LaM cites Baya’s ‘Woman in an Orange Dress and Blue Horse’, dated to around 1947. The work’s record specifies gouache and pencil on paper, measuring 74.7 × 91.6 cm. These details give the viewer concrete points of reference: the medium, the scale and the elements named in the title. They are not enough to establish what the work means, but they make it possible to describe it without immediately attributing a universal symbol or assumed intention to it.

Context can enrich this observation. Knowing that a work comes from the L’Aracine collection, that it has been lent, or that it is shown alongside other artists helps explain the decisions about conservation and juxtaposition. The provenance of a piece is therefore information about its conservation history; how we view it also depends on the juxtapositions proposed along the exhibition route.

An exhibition to broaden the narrative

The exhibition is curated by Savine Faupin, head of the LaM’s outsider art collection, and Christophe Boulanger, assistant curator of the collection. The museum says the exhibition draws on its holdings and on loans. This combination of collection works and loans makes it possible to bring together a wider selection than that of any one institution, while raising a fundamental question: how can artists be made visible when their practices, status and forms of recognition differ?

The title ‘Singulières’ draws attention to individuals, while the subtitle ‘Artists, Self-Taught, Liberated’ offers several ways into the exhibition. The plural matters: it encourages us not to conflate the artists’ paths. The idea of liberation, meanwhile, is part of the exhibition’s framing. It can steer the reading towards creation as a space for emancipation and transformation, themes the museum associates with its project, without summing up every work or every life.

The exhibition is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 11:00 to 19:00. The LaM lists a full-price ticket at €11 and a concession ticket at €9. The museum also offers an exhibition booklet to help visitors prepare. These practical details accompany the essential point: take the time to look at what is actually on display, then distinguish between what the work shows and what its context — and the institution’s account — helps us understand.