Thrilling as it is to meet these mavericks, it’s also dispiriting to encounter so many whose careers screeched to a halt after marriage, went unacknowledged in their lifetimes and/or died in poverty, mental institutions or - in the case of the German artist Charlotte Salomon - a concentration camp. Almost every piece Hessel references appears in a photo, most in color and some in luscious, two-page spreads. She documents not just what they created but also the obstacles they surmounted in doing so: Barred from art academies and life drawing classes until the 1890s, they trained by copying paintings by men used their own bodies to model biblical heroines laced domestic scenes with subtle social commentary masked their identities with pseudonyms and hid self-portraits in their work so it would be properly credited - which it often wasn’t. Mapping women along a loose timeline, Hessel covers huge swaths of history in lively, lucid prose, positioning these artists within (or against) dominant genres.
And women’s paltry representation in most major museums and top-dollar international auctions is news to no one. A survey she conducted revealed that most young Britons couldn’t name even three women artists. Hessel was spurred to action in 2015 after attending an art fair featuring thousands of artworks - all by men.
Hessel also extends the legacy of art historian Linda Nochlin, whose legendary 1971 ARTnews essay “ Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” diagnosed the problem Hessel seeks to redress. Gombrich’s “The Story of Art,” whose first edition in 1950 excluded women and whose 16th (1995) had one among its 688 pages. If you haven’t encountered Katy Hessel, the feminist dynamo who’s on a mission to grant female artists their rightful place in history, now’s your moment.Ī British historian and journalist, Hessel hosts a popular podcast and Instagram account, both called “ The Great Women Artists.” Her new book, “ The Story of Art Without Men,” consolidates her research and claps back at the “bible” of art history, E.H.
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