This year, curators, art historians, authors, journalists and critics around the world have been taking up the cause of women artists past and present. Books filled with original research, startling discoveries, fresh takes, and lavish looks make for great reading and gifting. Find new inspiration and deeper appreciation through these books by and about women in the arts.
The Story of Art Without Men by Katy Hessel
Katy Hessel’s book is making big waves across the pond. The best-seller and Waterstones Book of the Year is available to pre-order for a May delivery (but you could fly over and pick one up now). In a recent interview, Guardian columnist and curator, Hessel told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour about how, as a recent graduate with a degree in art history, she had attended an art fair. After seeing thousands of paintings, photographs and sculptures, she realized she hadn’t seen the work of a single female artist. Something was wrong. The experience prompted her to ask herself if she could, off the top of her head, name 20 women artists, and she couldn’t. So, she set out to set the record straight and tell The Story of Art Without Men. Hundreds of gorgeous, challenging and compelling works of art by women are presented in pages filled with history, talent, and hard work, all wrapped up with Hessel’s passion and insights.
Great Women Painters by Phaidon Editors with an introduction by Alison M. Gingeras
Pushing forward from the success of their 2019 hit, Great Women Artists, Phaidon now presents another deep dive, looking at more than 300 women who paint. Each bio is accompanied by a work of art. Depending on your household, some of them may be household names. Look for features on Alice Neel, Mary Cassatt, Yayoi Kusama, and Artemisia Gentileschi, but also on cutting edge contemporary artists, like Nina Chanel Abney and Eguchi Ayane, who might be new to you. The introduction by curator, Alison M. Gingeras, will set you on a path, and the great women painters will carry you away.
Women Holding Things by Maira Kalman
Artist, writer, and designer, Maira Kalman, is well known for her covers and illustrations in The New York Times and The New Yorker and for her books for youngsters as well as for older, wise readers. Women Holding Things is, she states, “a love song to women and the many things they hold, literally and metaphorically.” There are dreamy fantasies and frank admissions, as we see women lifting enormous boulders that seem weightless, but also women holding grudges. Kitchen implements, dog leashes, babies, and all manner of things need to be held. There’s even a picture of Virginia Woolf, as Kalman puts it, “barely holding it together.” This isn’t a book to read, any more than a Rembrandt is a picture to look at. There’s too much going on for that. It’s a handheld artwork, a visual rumination on what we hold and how we all work to hold on.
Liza Lou by Julia Bryan-Wilson, Cathleen Chaffee, Glenn Adamson and Elisabeth Sherman, with contributions by Carrie Mae Weems
All that glitters is worth more than gold, in Liza Lou’s work. She has crafted an oeuvre of exquisite works of art from materials that rarely ascend to museum walls. With needle, thread, time and beads – countless numbers of beads over countless hours – Lou has created works that speak about work … about the work and lives of women, the path of the artist, and, more broadly, what we value. For those who’ve seen her “Kitchen” at the Whitney Museum (an entire kitchen recreated with sculptures covered with dazzling beadwork) the authors offer new ways of looking. Beyond the beauty apparent to the eye, there are deeper layers. It’s a perfect time to get to know this remarkable artist. Her multimedia work, “Trailer,” a full-sized 1949 aluminum trailer outfitted with beaded, sculptural chairs, tables, lamps and more, was just added to the Brooklyn Museum’s permanent collection and is scheduled to go on display in 2023.
Muse: Uncovering the Hidden Figures Behind Art History’s Masterpieces by Ruth Millington
Every picture tells a story, but it’s often an incomplete tale. Art historian, critic and curator, Ruth Millington looks beneath the brushstrokes of iconic works to reveal a trail of inspiration, collaboration and creation. She begins with the tale of Vermeer’s mysterious “Girl With a Pearl Earring.” Who was she? What was her relationship with the artist? It’s open to many interpretations. Whoever she was, she was a muse of one sort – a beautiful face that inspired a painter.
But such characterizations may be “lazy and untrue” according to Millington. She delves deeper into muses and the way inspiration works, revealing that it’s often a two-way street. See how Beyoncé’s pregnancy photographs, Dora Maar’s portraits by Picasso, Andrew Wyeth’s “Christina’s World,” and even several men posing for women artists, reveal a greater level of involvement by and agency for those famous faces.
A Revolution on Canvas: The Rise of Women Artists in Britain and France, 1760-1830 by Paris Spies-Gans
Art historians around the world are reassessing the historical and cultural importance of women artists. Spies-Gans looks at the profitable businesses and active studios run by a surprising number of female painters, sculptors and other artists in the 18th and 19th centuries in Britain and France. Find out how Angelica Kauffman, Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, and others broke through barriers and achieved great success in a male-dominated realm by doing what they did best – creating lasting works of art. There are extensive reproductions of paintings, drawings and prints, along with letters and documentation, including public responses. It’s a rare look at the working lives of women artists of the past.
Top photo: Bigstock
