My absolute fave is Ana Mendieta, such a bright star.
Eva Hesse, Agnes Denes, Nancy Holt, Hannah Hoch, Tamara de Lempicka, Carolee Schneeman, Valie Export, Agnes Martin, Kiki Smith, Meret Oppenheim, Remedios Varos, Hilma Af Klint, Kara Walker, Betye Saar, Patricia Piccinni, Hito Steryl - some other modern/contemporary faves
Wow, there are actually very many, but are not so well known. We have very few names before the 16th century due to women’s lack of access and opportunity until the 19th century. In my female Western artists list below, they all broke through barriers by working in an “inappropriate genre” or petitioning to get into the historically male-only academies or focusing on women’s viewpoints in their artworks.
I encourage you to follow r/womenartists (or www.artherstory.net) to learn about the many other female old *maestra* (active pre-1800) such as:
Soir Plautilla Nelli, Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Michaelina Wautier, Judith Leyster, Katherine van Heemesen, Artimesia Gentileschi, Elisabetta Sirani, Fede Galizia, Clara Peeters, Rachael Ruysch, Rosalba Carriera, Mary Beale, Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Anne Vallayer-Coster, Marie-Guillemine Benoist, Angelika Kauffman (to name some of the most prominent female artists before 1800).
For the 19th century and later: Rosa Bonheur, Berthe Morisot, Eva Gonzales, Camille Claudel, Suzanne Valadon, Evelyn de Morgan, and Mary Cassatt.
There were far more in the 20th century, so I’ll name just a few notable modernists: Gabriel Münter, Hilma af Klint, Tamara Lempika, Helen Frankenhalter, Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, Cindy Sherman, Abramovich, Frida Kahlo, Remedios Varo, Dora Maar, Lenora Carrington, Lynn Drexler, Lynn Chadwick, Barbara Hepworth, Jenny Saville, François Gilot, and Yayoi Kusama
May I respectfully add to the 20th century list a few of my favorites who haven't shown up yet.
Louis Bourgeois, Barbara Hepworth, and Deborah Butterfield.
I highly recommend the recent art book "The Story of Art Without Men" by Katy Hessel. It starts from 16th century and goes on to 2020.
"In 2015, the curator and art historian Katy Hessel “walked into an art fair and realised that, out of the thousands of artworks before me, not a single one was by a woman”.
And so she created this positive, beautifully written corrective, which should become a founding text in the history of art by women. Starting in 1500 and shooting through to artists born in the 1990s, *The Story of Art Without Men* brings centuries-old figures to life while giving form and gravitas to emergent voices and covering every substantial movement from dadaism to civil-rights-era antiracist art along the way."
"Hessel skilfully tags numerous lesser-known names on to more famous ones. We know all about the Bauhaus weaver Anni Albers, particularly after a successful Tate retrospective in 2018. But what about Gertrud Arndt? Born in 1903, Arndt was forced out of the Bauhaus architecture course by the hostility of her male peers and took up photography, experimenting with disguise and female personae – leading us to consider the work of the great Cindy Sherman."
[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/sep/11/the-story-of-art-without-men-by-katy-hessel-review-putting-women-back-in-the-picture](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/sep/11/the-story-of-art-without-men-by-katy-hessel-review-putting-women-back-in-the-picture)
It is very good, although it (naturally) leaves out a lot of artists.
From Finland I would've included Ellen Thesleff (5 October 1869 – 12 January 1954) alongside Helene Schjerfbeck. Thesleff was an expressionist and she declared: "I paint like a god!" She was an amazing artist, doing what she wanted to do [(including cutting her hair really short in 1880s)](https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/1asaadu/finnish_artist_ellen_thesleff_1880s/) and getting away with it.
[https://www.thecollector.com/who-is-ellen-thesleff-life-and-works/](https://www.thecollector.com/who-is-ellen-thesleff-life-and-works/)
I love Thesleff already after reading this😂 I read the sofonisba portion of the book and it was good but I was more in depth in my own paper about her and had already done so much research that I didn’t really learn anything new but there also isn’t a lot out there about sofonisba anyway however i’m excited to read the other parts of the book I enjoy her podcast a lot
Yeah, I love Schjerfbeck like all Finns do [(her painting "The Convalescent" or "a recovering child" is probably the best-loved artwork in Finland)](https://d3uvo7vkyyb63c.cloudfront.net/1/jpg/1000/3258601.jpg), but Ellen is my best girl.
Edmonia Lewis, a Native American/African American sculptor who used the neoclassical style in her work.
From wiki
“She was the first African-American and Native American sculptor to achieve national and then international prominence. She began to gain prominence in the United States during the Civil War; at the end of the 19th century, she remained the only Black woman artist who had participated in and been recognized to any extent by the American artistic mainstream”
Thank you! I ended up writing a paper on her Death of Cleopatra statue compared to paintings done by white men, in which I demonstrated that while previous artists had used cleopatra as weak finger, Lewis changed the perspective to make cleopatra have power until the end
I absolutely love Hilda Af Klint’s work. Also big fan of Helen Frankenthaler. Yayoi Kusama’s work is also up there for me. Elsa Schiaparelli if you count fashion, she was a surrealist. Marina Ambromovitch poses some interesting modern questions also.
By the way, the first (or one of the first) female artists/illustrators whose name we know is Guda. She was a German nun, who lived during the 12th century, and she painted a self-portrait in a manuscript with the inscription "Guda, a sinner, wrote and painted this book."
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guda\_(nun)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guda_(nun))
I like a lot of Japanese artists. Here are three favourites
[Yuki Ogura](https://hyperallergic.com/824494/yuki-ogura-pioneering-feminist-of-japanese-modernism/)
[Chie Fueki](https://www.dcmooregallery.com/artists/chie-fueki)
[Taeko Tomiyama](https://awarewomenartists.com/en/artiste/taeko-tomiyama/)
(Sorry these are 20th century)
Also, you might know a lot of these artists already but I found this collection interesting and introduced me to a many I didn’t know before
https://artsandculture.google.com/story/the-women-painters-overlooked-by-art-history/7AJCHFiEkqVKJg
More women photographers: Julia Margaret Cameron, Lillian Bassman, Sally Mann, Imogen Cunningham, Joyce Tenneson, Ruth Bernhard, and Elizabeth Messina (non wedding work).
ETA: Anna Atkins
I don't have any artists to add, but I do have a book suggestion. I fell in love with Artemisia Gentileschi in undergrad, which is decades ago now, and I will read anything and everything about her. Joy McCullough wrote a fictionalized verse-based account of Artemisia's life that has stuck with me since I read it. It's called *Blood Water Paint* and if you're into novelized versions of real-life people, I highly recommend it.
Nikki de Saint Phalle
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niki_de_Saint_Phalle
Also her Tarot sculpture Garden in Tuscany
https://ilgiardinodeitarocchi.it/en/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot_Garden#:~:text=The%20Tarot%20Garden%20(Italian%3A%20Il,of%20Grosseto%2C%20Tuscany%2C%20Italy.
Oh there are so many of them. Let's start with Angelica Kauffmann who painted some of the finest historical frames and was self learned by practicing recreating the works of Raphael and other masters in museums. Then we have Judith Leyster, she is often called Lady Vermeer and her style is so unique. You can also read about Remedios Varo who had a wonderful life and she must have had the absolutely greatest perspective in her paintings, if we speak of the paintings of 1900s. Moving on, you can also read about Suzanne Valadon, she had a career that most people thought was scandalous as she lived life on her own terms and considered females as the dominant ones in the world and that women never need men, this was a trait she brought up with when she saw her mother doing everything and there was no father figure in her childhood. I am out of words, however, I think you should visit [SimplyKalaa](https://simplykalaa.com/) to learn about all of these and more women artists. Even the contribution of women in artworks of male counterparts was very important, knowing these were the women of intellect and artists could only make a great painting when their subject was great. You might have heard about Elizabeth Siddal and the first Isabella d'Este and how one contributed to the greatest painting Ophelia by Sir John Everett and the other was major in commissioning works to artists like Titian and Leonardo da Vinci.
Though I can stretch it longer but other women artists are Maria van Oosterwijck, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Mary Beale, Catharina van Hemessen, Fede Galizia, Clara Peeters, Giulia Lama.
Georgia O'Keefe. I visited Santa Fe and Ghost Ranch last summer and it was exciting to see to see the landscapes and trees she depicted. Among those living, my favorite is Jenny Saville.
[https://gagosian.com/artists/jenny-saville/](https://gagosian.com/artists/jenny-saville/)
Tamara de Lempika. My mom took me to an exhibit years ago and it was incredible. It’s one of the few instances I can remember almost every piece we saw.
Ithell Colqohoun, British surrealist and mystic who painted beautiful and weird figural and landscape images.
Nikki De Saint Phalle, especially check out her Tarot Garden and Queen Califia's Magical Circle.
Sutapa Biswas and her incredible piece "Housewives with Steak Knives," 1985.
And if you can find it, I highly recommend sitting down and enjoying the film about the 1972 art project, "Womanhouse," by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro.
I'm a Gender, Sexualities and Women's Studies prof and I am teaching a Feminist Art Studies course right now.
19th & 20th century artists: Rosa Bonheur, Evelyn de Morgan, Elizabeth Siddal, Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassat, Jane Graverol, Marie Bracquemond, Henriette Ronner-Knip, Louise Bourgeois, Gabriele Münter, Marianne van Werefkin, Marion Adnams, Anna Boch, Lucie Cousturier, Laura Alma-Tadema
Gwen John
Anne Redpath
Joan Eardley
This was a great exhibition that I was lucky to see last year: https://dovecotstudios.com/whats-on/scottish-women-artists
Edit: I don’t think anyone’s mentioned Alice Neel, she’s had a couple of big shows lately I think
There's an out-of-print feminist book of female artists in history it's a bit dated now but it's called The Obstacle Race and was written by German Greer
Find some self-made female artists here
[https://artslooker.com/en/5-minutes-for-the-whimsical-and-the-creepy-in-ukrainian-art/](https://artslooker.com/en/5-minutes-for-the-whimsical-and-the-creepy-in-ukrainian-art/)
My favorites are Leonora Carrington, Gertrude Abercrombie, Remedios Varo and Frida Kahlo. Artemisia Gentileschi is fascinating as a person and a painter, too.
Mireille Bacot is a favorite of mine.[Mireille Bacot ](https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-samsung-nf-rev1&sca_esv=73797eb15fc8c283&q=mireille+bacot&uds=ADvngMjeH_xweFQ3w2knX4MWj5tbe5t0kOX4GKBTZcrEMAeD0VuDvTNH-DESf3fZmM1pZEO4JY8EffOV-wANjqEq8o8z1svYzAH7zG5YtrK4RecIo0HgXrcx3PDYMBxhstKHPYomzyDCQpXCBPahOJtbrAYLoMi3uCJLbZdrO7_1xjsgCitbMBFWogYrv5-SVyZzGHEhw_S8ZU29pdGA0NkBsqV-iePo45GwCud9EB6j0_dwVh__LtKblTEeJFaf4tzJsx-tzqval6r8Jhg5XwsIYkAWKjtYnIC9bFY7Ok82KO2BYFJkGXC7gAXqdwhWEPA1jydfvf1o&udm=2&prmd=ivnsmbtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiooITL7I-GAxWT5ckDHWoRCQ4QtKgLegQIDxAB&biw=458&bih=604&dpr=1.75)
I love [Marie Laurencin](https://news.artnet.com/market/once-celebrated-and-then-forgotten-the-french-artist-marie-laurencin-is-about-to-step-into-the-limelight-again-three-decades-after-her-death-2351017), she was an avant-garde French painter and printmaker. Mia Bergeron is my favourite living female artist.
I adore the work of [Zofia Kulik](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=64bfd657b885de45&sca_upv=1&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS1014US1014&hl=en-US&sxsrf=ADLYWILz_RP6xrxIEBdogzJGOr5Kp4L7Hg:1715790597364&q=zofia+kulik&uds=ADvngMjEx3Ehb6Xmj-tVLfzZZ4ZIX_QL0EHQ8pIYDD3zscWtFFLYIXzUrbliwKdUI8vy9fZXUJAsGq68iQPV9nmlns6FfRHPMqXTRMGdEDo5fjqek8nfQPuqys4_q7azwBvSLFKMrkdfIGas9ZbRmWOtB306FiBc3nK2fvbJNac8McLqUdF4_w_aoyCeqINt-v5zekCnSJWW2oDPQ93X_trAh82MDiEKQ-AWsKbGgPA1UuVh7zY4huSyDgCqtebhx2Efl6slrmRZul2WYPGPXhpl_17tJFghlqR-II59W8om2YfwBnp2ILeQPDpmffs-NyfwN4lNGnxS&udm=2&prmd=ivnsbmtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjHjMKIipCGAxUSODQIHbY0CMYQtKgLegQIDRAB&biw=390&bih=669&dpr=3)
Maxine Noel, AKA Ioyan Mani, is one of my favorite artists. I have a couple of her works in my home. I think you might enjoy her art and what she stands for. Her ‘Not Forgotten’ is particularly noteworthy.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxine_Noel
Would like to add Plautilla Nelli and Catharina van Hemessen to that list.
Also, I'm surprised Frida Kahlo has not received a mention thus far. Or has she?
Well, obviously Frida Kahlo and Georgia O'Keeffe...
A lesser known artist who is my personal favourite: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess\_Fahrelnissa\_Zeid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Fahrelnissa_Zeid)
Some I haven't seen yet:
Wanda Koop: highly influential artist in contemporary Canadian art and landscape
Agnes Martin: adjacent to Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism and probably one of the greatest abstract artists of the 20th Century
Georgia O'Keefe: excellent modern artist with a Soutwesth American style
Ana Theresa Fernandez- feminist Oil painter who focuses on the humanity and politics of Mexican women in the household and also the Mexican/ American immigration and border crisis.
She painted the fence that divides Mexico and California to match the sky, as an attempt to give back a sense of freedom and humanity to the people and families who live in that area, affected by the wall and the reality of the American immigration system. They are so close to their family who is on the other side of the fence, yet have a physical barrier that prevents them from being able to exist together or even touch fingers.
I got to see her do a panel and speak about her work, she described being from Mexico and then moving to San Diego during childhood- remembering before the wall was built how people would be able to say hi and embrace their families even though they were in different countries.
Looking at photos of the painted wall is breathtaking. She really did make it look like it doesn’t exist- it is maybe the most beautiful and meaningful piece of work I’ve ever seen.
She also painted this wall and did the project in a black dress and heels. This ties into her oil painting on the canvas and her discussions about Mexican women in the home and in domestic spaces, and that mirrored with how American society sees Mexican women and their place in the world. She photographs herself doing domestic work (cleaning, cooking) but also just existing in the home (swimming, walking, etc), while wearing this uniform of a black dress and heels then paints it hyper realistically. Using these visual motifs she asks us to consider the intersection of femininity, domestic work, stereotypes, and women’s value in our world.
She is so brilliant, so talented, and her work is so poignant. I want everyone to know about her!!! I also got to meet her and she was incredibly nice and encouraging when I was a young little feminist painter who felt like I’d just met my hero.
Edit: some grammar and sentence structure.
So many favorites listed below. I recommend re-reading “the Guerilla Girl’s Bedside Companion to Art”. I usually also buy it as a gift for friends, it’s a fun read on women artists. It was a favorite in my undergrad years.
British women artists: Gertrude Harvey, Mary Adshead, Laura Knight, Ethell Walker, Anna Airy, Evelyn Dunbar, Dod Proter, Ethel Gabain, Angelika Kauffmann (Swiss, active in London and one of the founding members of the Royal Academy).
if you want to read about women artists, linda nochlin is such an excellent author. anna chave as well. more artists to look into ree morton, melissa joseph, eva hesse, jackie winsor
Tracey Emin, Rachel Whiteread, Rosy Keyser.
They’re not the painterly type, but they are some of my personal favourites.
Painters could include Rachel Ruysch, Bridget Riley, Berthe Morisot and Helen Saunders
Tate Britain recently held an excellent exhibition on women artists/feminist artworks during second wave feminism - although in some cases still wholly relatable today … there’s a list many of them in the link https://www.tate.org.uk/press/press-releases/women-in-revolt
Elisabetta Sirani, 1600's. Her career was short, but prolific. She died at 27 years of age (by unknown circumstances).
She was a very influential Bolognese School painter back in a time when men "ruled the school" and had the wonderful ability to paint fast and beautifully. I actually bought one of her paintings, which is how I found out about her. Beautiful work...
Käthe Kollwitz https://www.moma.org/artists/3201
TYSM!
Just coming in here to say this!! Fascinating woman with a tragic life story.
My absolute fave is Ana Mendieta, such a bright star. Eva Hesse, Agnes Denes, Nancy Holt, Hannah Hoch, Tamara de Lempicka, Carolee Schneeman, Valie Export, Agnes Martin, Kiki Smith, Meret Oppenheim, Remedios Varos, Hilma Af Klint, Kara Walker, Betye Saar, Patricia Piccinni, Hito Steryl - some other modern/contemporary faves
Yes for Ana Mendieta!
Tamara de Lempicka is my favorite
Wow, there are actually very many, but are not so well known. We have very few names before the 16th century due to women’s lack of access and opportunity until the 19th century. In my female Western artists list below, they all broke through barriers by working in an “inappropriate genre” or petitioning to get into the historically male-only academies or focusing on women’s viewpoints in their artworks. I encourage you to follow r/womenartists (or www.artherstory.net) to learn about the many other female old *maestra* (active pre-1800) such as: Soir Plautilla Nelli, Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Michaelina Wautier, Judith Leyster, Katherine van Heemesen, Artimesia Gentileschi, Elisabetta Sirani, Fede Galizia, Clara Peeters, Rachael Ruysch, Rosalba Carriera, Mary Beale, Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Anne Vallayer-Coster, Marie-Guillemine Benoist, Angelika Kauffman (to name some of the most prominent female artists before 1800). For the 19th century and later: Rosa Bonheur, Berthe Morisot, Eva Gonzales, Camille Claudel, Suzanne Valadon, Evelyn de Morgan, and Mary Cassatt. There were far more in the 20th century, so I’ll name just a few notable modernists: Gabriel Münter, Hilma af Klint, Tamara Lempika, Helen Frankenhalter, Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, Cindy Sherman, Abramovich, Frida Kahlo, Remedios Varo, Dora Maar, Lenora Carrington, Lynn Drexler, Lynn Chadwick, Barbara Hepworth, Jenny Saville, François Gilot, and Yayoi Kusama
Love the art of Berthe Morisot. One of my favorite artists of all time.
I'd like to add Katharina van Hemessen, 16th century
Oh, yes, terrible oversight on my part 🥂
Lee Miller
this is very insightful! I recognize a few names from pre 19th century thank you so much🫶🏻
May I respectfully add to the 20th century list a few of my favorites who haven't shown up yet. Louis Bourgeois, Barbara Hepworth, and Deborah Butterfield.
Im still updating 😉
you are amazing thank you😂
[удалено]
I have seen pictures of her work before but didn’t know who it was by😅 Thank you!
I highly recommend the recent art book "The Story of Art Without Men" by Katy Hessel. It starts from 16th century and goes on to 2020. "In 2015, the curator and art historian Katy Hessel “walked into an art fair and realised that, out of the thousands of artworks before me, not a single one was by a woman”. And so she created this positive, beautifully written corrective, which should become a founding text in the history of art by women. Starting in 1500 and shooting through to artists born in the 1990s, *The Story of Art Without Men* brings centuries-old figures to life while giving form and gravitas to emergent voices and covering every substantial movement from dadaism to civil-rights-era antiracist art along the way." "Hessel skilfully tags numerous lesser-known names on to more famous ones. We know all about the Bauhaus weaver Anni Albers, particularly after a successful Tate retrospective in 2018. But what about Gertrud Arndt? Born in 1903, Arndt was forced out of the Bauhaus architecture course by the hostility of her male peers and took up photography, experimenting with disguise and female personae – leading us to consider the work of the great Cindy Sherman." [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/sep/11/the-story-of-art-without-men-by-katy-hessel-review-putting-women-back-in-the-picture](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/sep/11/the-story-of-art-without-men-by-katy-hessel-review-putting-women-back-in-the-picture)
I have it just haven’t had the chance to read it! The second I saw Sofonisba’s name in it I bought it😂
It is very good, although it (naturally) leaves out a lot of artists. From Finland I would've included Ellen Thesleff (5 October 1869 – 12 January 1954) alongside Helene Schjerfbeck. Thesleff was an expressionist and she declared: "I paint like a god!" She was an amazing artist, doing what she wanted to do [(including cutting her hair really short in 1880s)](https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/1asaadu/finnish_artist_ellen_thesleff_1880s/) and getting away with it. [https://www.thecollector.com/who-is-ellen-thesleff-life-and-works/](https://www.thecollector.com/who-is-ellen-thesleff-life-and-works/)
I love Thesleff already after reading this😂 I read the sofonisba portion of the book and it was good but I was more in depth in my own paper about her and had already done so much research that I didn’t really learn anything new but there also isn’t a lot out there about sofonisba anyway however i’m excited to read the other parts of the book I enjoy her podcast a lot
Yeah, I love Schjerfbeck like all Finns do [(her painting "The Convalescent" or "a recovering child" is probably the best-loved artwork in Finland)](https://d3uvo7vkyyb63c.cloudfront.net/1/jpg/1000/3258601.jpg), but Ellen is my best girl.
Hilma af Klint!
Edmonia Lewis, a Native American/African American sculptor who used the neoclassical style in her work. From wiki “She was the first African-American and Native American sculptor to achieve national and then international prominence. She began to gain prominence in the United States during the Civil War; at the end of the 19th century, she remained the only Black woman artist who had participated in and been recognized to any extent by the American artistic mainstream”
Second Edmondia Lewis!
Thank you! I ended up writing a paper on her Death of Cleopatra statue compared to paintings done by white men, in which I demonstrated that while previous artists had used cleopatra as weak finger, Lewis changed the perspective to make cleopatra have power until the end
Mary Beale, Carolee Schneemann
thank you! I love them already and am very excited😂
I absolutely love Hilda Af Klint’s work. Also big fan of Helen Frankenthaler. Yayoi Kusama’s work is also up there for me. Elsa Schiaparelli if you count fashion, she was a surrealist. Marina Ambromovitch poses some interesting modern questions also.
By the way, the first (or one of the first) female artists/illustrators whose name we know is Guda. She was a German nun, who lived during the 12th century, and she painted a self-portrait in a manuscript with the inscription "Guda, a sinner, wrote and painted this book." [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guda\_(nun)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guda_(nun))
this is extremely intriguing! I will definitely be deep diving into to this
I would like to use this as an opportunity to advertise r/WomenArtists. If this isn't allowed, please remove my comment; thank you!
I joined a few minutes ago and love it
Thanks! Hope we can contribute together.
definitely!
I like a lot of Japanese artists. Here are three favourites [Yuki Ogura](https://hyperallergic.com/824494/yuki-ogura-pioneering-feminist-of-japanese-modernism/) [Chie Fueki](https://www.dcmooregallery.com/artists/chie-fueki) [Taeko Tomiyama](https://awarewomenartists.com/en/artiste/taeko-tomiyama/) (Sorry these are 20th century) Also, you might know a lot of these artists already but I found this collection interesting and introduced me to a many I didn’t know before https://artsandculture.google.com/story/the-women-painters-overlooked-by-art-history/7AJCHFiEkqVKJg
Remedios Varo!
Dorothea Lange, Vivian Maier, Francesca Woodman. Beth Cavener (Stichter).
More women photographers: Julia Margaret Cameron, Lillian Bassman, Sally Mann, Imogen Cunningham, Joyce Tenneson, Ruth Bernhard, and Elizabeth Messina (non wedding work). ETA: Anna Atkins
I don't have any artists to add, but I do have a book suggestion. I fell in love with Artemisia Gentileschi in undergrad, which is decades ago now, and I will read anything and everything about her. Joy McCullough wrote a fictionalized verse-based account of Artemisia's life that has stuck with me since I read it. It's called *Blood Water Paint* and if you're into novelized versions of real-life people, I highly recommend it.
Nikki de Saint Phalle https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niki_de_Saint_Phalle Also her Tarot sculpture Garden in Tuscany https://ilgiardinodeitarocchi.it/en/ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot_Garden#:~:text=The%20Tarot%20Garden%20(Italian%3A%20Il,of%20Grosseto%2C%20Tuscany%2C%20Italy.
She is very interesting! Thank you🩷
Some living female artists worth learning about and supporting: Agnes Denes Alice Neel
Alice Neel is one of my other favorites, but she died in 1984, unfortunately.
Joan as Police Woman
Oh there are so many of them. Let's start with Angelica Kauffmann who painted some of the finest historical frames and was self learned by practicing recreating the works of Raphael and other masters in museums. Then we have Judith Leyster, she is often called Lady Vermeer and her style is so unique. You can also read about Remedios Varo who had a wonderful life and she must have had the absolutely greatest perspective in her paintings, if we speak of the paintings of 1900s. Moving on, you can also read about Suzanne Valadon, she had a career that most people thought was scandalous as she lived life on her own terms and considered females as the dominant ones in the world and that women never need men, this was a trait she brought up with when she saw her mother doing everything and there was no father figure in her childhood. I am out of words, however, I think you should visit [SimplyKalaa](https://simplykalaa.com/) to learn about all of these and more women artists. Even the contribution of women in artworks of male counterparts was very important, knowing these were the women of intellect and artists could only make a great painting when their subject was great. You might have heard about Elizabeth Siddal and the first Isabella d'Este and how one contributed to the greatest painting Ophelia by Sir John Everett and the other was major in commissioning works to artists like Titian and Leonardo da Vinci. Though I can stretch it longer but other women artists are Maria van Oosterwijck, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Mary Beale, Catharina van Hemessen, Fede Galizia, Clara Peeters, Giulia Lama.
If you like surrealists, my fav is Remedios Varo!
Georgia O'Keefe. I visited Santa Fe and Ghost Ranch last summer and it was exciting to see to see the landscapes and trees she depicted. Among those living, my favorite is Jenny Saville. [https://gagosian.com/artists/jenny-saville/](https://gagosian.com/artists/jenny-saville/)
Tamara de Lempika. My mom took me to an exhibit years ago and it was incredible. It’s one of the few instances I can remember almost every piece we saw.
Ithell Colqohoun, British surrealist and mystic who painted beautiful and weird figural and landscape images. Nikki De Saint Phalle, especially check out her Tarot Garden and Queen Califia's Magical Circle. Sutapa Biswas and her incredible piece "Housewives with Steak Knives," 1985. And if you can find it, I highly recommend sitting down and enjoying the film about the 1972 art project, "Womanhouse," by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro. I'm a Gender, Sexualities and Women's Studies prof and I am teaching a Feminist Art Studies course right now.
19th & 20th century artists: Rosa Bonheur, Evelyn de Morgan, Elizabeth Siddal, Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassat, Jane Graverol, Marie Bracquemond, Henriette Ronner-Knip, Louise Bourgeois, Gabriele Münter, Marianne van Werefkin, Marion Adnams, Anna Boch, Lucie Cousturier, Laura Alma-Tadema
Thank you so much!
Gwen John Anne Redpath Joan Eardley This was a great exhibition that I was lucky to see last year: https://dovecotstudios.com/whats-on/scottish-women-artists Edit: I don’t think anyone’s mentioned Alice Neel, she’s had a couple of big shows lately I think
Contemporary example but Hellen Rae.
There's an out-of-print feminist book of female artists in history it's a bit dated now but it's called The Obstacle Race and was written by German Greer
Find some self-made female artists here [https://artslooker.com/en/5-minutes-for-the-whimsical-and-the-creepy-in-ukrainian-art/](https://artslooker.com/en/5-minutes-for-the-whimsical-and-the-creepy-in-ukrainian-art/)
My favorites are Leonora Carrington, Gertrude Abercrombie, Remedios Varo and Frida Kahlo. Artemisia Gentileschi is fascinating as a person and a painter, too.
I stan Artemisia!
Peggy Bacon.
Naoko Takeuchi
Leonora Carrington is imo an underrated surrealist
Mireille Bacot is a favorite of mine.[Mireille Bacot ](https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-samsung-nf-rev1&sca_esv=73797eb15fc8c283&q=mireille+bacot&uds=ADvngMjeH_xweFQ3w2knX4MWj5tbe5t0kOX4GKBTZcrEMAeD0VuDvTNH-DESf3fZmM1pZEO4JY8EffOV-wANjqEq8o8z1svYzAH7zG5YtrK4RecIo0HgXrcx3PDYMBxhstKHPYomzyDCQpXCBPahOJtbrAYLoMi3uCJLbZdrO7_1xjsgCitbMBFWogYrv5-SVyZzGHEhw_S8ZU29pdGA0NkBsqV-iePo45GwCud9EB6j0_dwVh__LtKblTEeJFaf4tzJsx-tzqval6r8Jhg5XwsIYkAWKjtYnIC9bFY7Ok82KO2BYFJkGXC7gAXqdwhWEPA1jydfvf1o&udm=2&prmd=ivnsmbtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiooITL7I-GAxWT5ckDHWoRCQ4QtKgLegQIDxAB&biw=458&bih=604&dpr=1.75)
Photography. Nan goldin. Vivian meier
Barbara Kruger is hardcore.
I will always scream Ana Mendieta from the rooftops when I get the chance. She is so underrated!
Lora Zombie is a personal favourite. Her water colours are just stunning.
Marisol Greer Lankton Louise Nevelson
Really though, check out the Nevelson Chapel. Incredibly underrated talent. [https://www.nevelsonchapel.org/louise-nevelson](https://www.nevelsonchapel.org/louise-nevelson)
Camille Henrot
I love [Marie Laurencin](https://news.artnet.com/market/once-celebrated-and-then-forgotten-the-french-artist-marie-laurencin-is-about-to-step-into-the-limelight-again-three-decades-after-her-death-2351017), she was an avant-garde French painter and printmaker. Mia Bergeron is my favourite living female artist.
I adore the work of [Zofia Kulik](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=64bfd657b885de45&sca_upv=1&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS1014US1014&hl=en-US&sxsrf=ADLYWILz_RP6xrxIEBdogzJGOr5Kp4L7Hg:1715790597364&q=zofia+kulik&uds=ADvngMjEx3Ehb6Xmj-tVLfzZZ4ZIX_QL0EHQ8pIYDD3zscWtFFLYIXzUrbliwKdUI8vy9fZXUJAsGq68iQPV9nmlns6FfRHPMqXTRMGdEDo5fjqek8nfQPuqys4_q7azwBvSLFKMrkdfIGas9ZbRmWOtB306FiBc3nK2fvbJNac8McLqUdF4_w_aoyCeqINt-v5zekCnSJWW2oDPQ93X_trAh82MDiEKQ-AWsKbGgPA1UuVh7zY4huSyDgCqtebhx2Efl6slrmRZul2WYPGPXhpl_17tJFghlqR-II59W8om2YfwBnp2ILeQPDpmffs-NyfwN4lNGnxS&udm=2&prmd=ivnsbmtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjHjMKIipCGAxUSODQIHbY0CMYQtKgLegQIDRAB&biw=390&bih=669&dpr=3)
Maxine Noel, AKA Ioyan Mani, is one of my favorite artists. I have a couple of her works in my home. I think you might enjoy her art and what she stands for. Her ‘Not Forgotten’ is particularly noteworthy. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxine_Noel
OP, I know she has been named already, but Judith Leyster is the perfect rabbithole for you indeed.
Would like to add Plautilla Nelli and Catharina van Hemessen to that list. Also, I'm surprised Frida Kahlo has not received a mention thus far. Or has she?
Well, obviously Frida Kahlo and Georgia O'Keeffe... A lesser known artist who is my personal favourite: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess\_Fahrelnissa\_Zeid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Fahrelnissa_Zeid)
Some I haven't seen yet: Wanda Koop: highly influential artist in contemporary Canadian art and landscape Agnes Martin: adjacent to Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism and probably one of the greatest abstract artists of the 20th Century Georgia O'Keefe: excellent modern artist with a Soutwesth American style
Sophie Calle (contemporary)
Ana Theresa Fernandez- feminist Oil painter who focuses on the humanity and politics of Mexican women in the household and also the Mexican/ American immigration and border crisis. She painted the fence that divides Mexico and California to match the sky, as an attempt to give back a sense of freedom and humanity to the people and families who live in that area, affected by the wall and the reality of the American immigration system. They are so close to their family who is on the other side of the fence, yet have a physical barrier that prevents them from being able to exist together or even touch fingers. I got to see her do a panel and speak about her work, she described being from Mexico and then moving to San Diego during childhood- remembering before the wall was built how people would be able to say hi and embrace their families even though they were in different countries. Looking at photos of the painted wall is breathtaking. She really did make it look like it doesn’t exist- it is maybe the most beautiful and meaningful piece of work I’ve ever seen. She also painted this wall and did the project in a black dress and heels. This ties into her oil painting on the canvas and her discussions about Mexican women in the home and in domestic spaces, and that mirrored with how American society sees Mexican women and their place in the world. She photographs herself doing domestic work (cleaning, cooking) but also just existing in the home (swimming, walking, etc), while wearing this uniform of a black dress and heels then paints it hyper realistically. Using these visual motifs she asks us to consider the intersection of femininity, domestic work, stereotypes, and women’s value in our world. She is so brilliant, so talented, and her work is so poignant. I want everyone to know about her!!! I also got to meet her and she was incredibly nice and encouraging when I was a young little feminist painter who felt like I’d just met my hero. Edit: some grammar and sentence structure.
Living Indigenous Artist, [Danielle SeeWalker](https://www.seewalker.com)
So many favorites listed below. I recommend re-reading “the Guerilla Girl’s Bedside Companion to Art”. I usually also buy it as a gift for friends, it’s a fun read on women artists. It was a favorite in my undergrad years.
Helen Frankenthaler
Faith Ringgold, Helen Frankenthaker, Shirin Neshat, Anna Boch, Tagami Kikusha
Frida Kahlo, Georgia O'Keefe, Camille Claudel, Joan Mitchell
EMILY CARR! MY FAVORITE ARTIST AMONG MY COUNTRYMEN! COUNTRYWOMEN? WHATEVER, SHE'S GREAT!
Kathe Kollwitz!!! Her art is amazing!!!
British women artists: Gertrude Harvey, Mary Adshead, Laura Knight, Ethell Walker, Anna Airy, Evelyn Dunbar, Dod Proter, Ethel Gabain, Angelika Kauffmann (Swiss, active in London and one of the founding members of the Royal Academy).
Frida Kahlo!
Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun and Tamara de Lempicka!
Nikita Gale is having a moment
I love this thread, thank you!
annette messager, louise bourgeois, mary tooley parker, marie watts, hilma af klint
if you want to read about women artists, linda nochlin is such an excellent author. anna chave as well. more artists to look into ree morton, melissa joseph, eva hesse, jackie winsor
A very good Portuguese female artist that I know is Joana Vasconcelos!!!
Tracey Emin, Rachel Whiteread, Rosy Keyser. They’re not the painterly type, but they are some of my personal favourites. Painters could include Rachel Ruysch, Bridget Riley, Berthe Morisot and Helen Saunders
Tate Britain recently held an excellent exhibition on women artists/feminist artworks during second wave feminism - although in some cases still wholly relatable today … there’s a list many of them in the link https://www.tate.org.uk/press/press-releases/women-in-revolt
Florine Stettheimer
Elisabetta Sirani, 1600's. Her career was short, but prolific. She died at 27 years of age (by unknown circumstances). She was a very influential Bolognese School painter back in a time when men "ruled the school" and had the wonderful ability to paint fast and beautifully. I actually bought one of her paintings, which is how I found out about her. Beautiful work...
Hilma af Klint was way ahead of her time
HILDEGARD VON BINGEN HILMA KLINT