In 2015, a young historian named Katy Hessel stepped into a bustling art fair and realized a striking absence: among thousands of works, not a single one belonged to a woman. The question that followed was simple and painful: can you name 20 female artists? ten before 1950? before 1850? the answer was almost always no.
That moment became a turning point. Hessel recalled asking, why aren’t there great female artists? Sixty years after the Guerrilla Girls challenged MoMA about the obstacles facing women in art, progress has been maddeningly slow. In 2023, Marina Abramovic will host a solo exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, a milestone many see as overdue. A YouGov survey cited by Hessel finds that 30% of Britons cannot name more than three female artists.
Frida Kahlo’s Henry Ford Hospital (1932) is a reminder of the vivid, often overlooked contributions of women to art history.
Hessel’s awakening led her to discover a vibrant online community, including the popular Instagram account @thegreatwomenartists and a podcast that have helped spark renewed attention. Her work nods to the canonical History of Art while highlighting the voices of women who historically went unheard.
Women who run the art world
From Elisabetta Sirani, a Renaissance artist whose work was long unrecognized, to Tracey Emin, a provocateur among the Young British Artists, art history is undergoing a healing reexamination. The conversation expands with works such as Around Women’s Art, Amparo Serran de Haro and África Cabanillas’s offerings, and feminist critiques like Griselda Pollock’s and Nochlin’s enduring essays. These texts helped ignite a broader feminist rethinking of the studio and the canon.
An architect at Seicento
The truth is books often recount the art world through works by men, leaving many women’s stories untold. Plautilla Bricci, celebrated for a remarkable portrait of an architect in The Architect (Anagram), lived in Rome during the Seicento. Her life, filled with court intrigues and papal politics, enriches literature with a human, textured voice.
Architect Plautilla Bricci.
Writer Melania G. Mazzucco has previously woven fiction and biography, notably in Ella, so amada, about photographer and writer Annemarie Schwarzenbach. Mazzucco’s later exploration situates the first woman responsible for Il Vascello, a villa in Rome linked to the Saint Luke Academy. Her biographical approach illuminates a forgotten thread in the city’s architectural and artistic tapestry.
Where are the surrealists?
Remedios Varo (1908-1963) stands among the Spanish artists erased from early survey histories. One of the first women to study at the Royal Academy in San Fernando, she pursued a surrealist path that led from Madrid to Paris and finally Mexico. Her circle connected with Lorca, Dalí, Magritte, and Breton, and she formed close ties with photographers and fellow painters who helped shape surrealism’s later chapters. The trio of Varo, Carrington, and Lamba—often called the witches of the circle—helped redefine the movement on the margins.
Still Life Resurrection by Remedios Varo.
Varo’s enduring influence is recognized in exhibitions and scholarly works that finally place her among the canonical surrealists. Contemporary novels and studies have brought her story to a broader audience, ensuring that the female Surrealists are no longer hidden from the history books. The circle’s memory includes Dora Maar and Jacqueline Lamba, who contributed to the movement in meaningful, independent ways.
To the rescue of modernists
Recent editorial efforts revive forgotten Catalan women who shaped modernism in the late 19th century. Quan les dones havien de pintar flors highlights a group of female painters who, though born into privilege, faced barriers to formal training. They studied in private studios and academies, limited by society’s expectations and by the rules of La Llotja. Rather than retreat, they specialized in floral subjects, a fashionable avenue that allowed them to express skill and sensitivity in ways the era admired.
Roses by Maria Lluïsa Güell.
Oltra’s study traces flowers across styles and periods, challenging the disparaging label floral painters once carried. It also names figures such as Antònia Ferreras, Maria Lluïsa Güell, and Lluïsa Vidal as part of a broader, richer botanical lineage that influenced impressionism and the Dutch masters of the 17th and 18th centuries.
And in Elina Norandi’s ambitious event Cent dues artistes (Univers), the names of 102 Catalan artists born in 1850 and beyond are highlighted. The assertion remains strong: without a truly egalitarian narrative, women in art will continue to be perceived as less innovative or less important. The project calls for deliberate effort to shift that balance and ensure that these artists receive the recognition they deserve.