PUTTING WOMEN BACK IN THE PICTURE: THE STORY OF ART WITHOUT MEN

Waterstones has just announced its Book of the Year – and, at Women in Games, we couldn’t be happier that this is the wonderful work from Katy Hessel, The Story of Art Without Men. There are so many women, who as artists, have contributed to the games industry, when will their story be told?

Women artists currently make up just one percent of the National Gallery collection in London. This same museum only staged its first major solo exhibition by a historic female artist, Artemisia Gentileschi, in 2020, while 2023 will mark the first time the Royal Academy of Arts has ever hosted a solo exhibition by a woman in their main space (Marina Abramović).

In her book, curator and art historian Katy Hessel challenges the canon as we know it and showcases the female and gender non-conformist artists who are so often excluded from the history books. Hessel shines a spotlight on the paintings of Sofonisba Anguissola of the Renaissance, the radical work of Harriet Powers in nineteenth-century US, the astonishing work of post-war artists in Latin America and the women artists defining art in the 2020s.

From the Cornish coast to Manhattan, Nigeria to Japan, The Story of Art Without Men is the history of art as it’s never been told before.

Katy Hessel is an art historian, broadcaster and curator dedicated to celebrating women artists from all over the world. In 2015, Katy founded an Instagram account called @thegreatwomenartists, which has grown to almost 300,000 followers, and hosts a podcast of the same name with over 1.5 million listens. Katy has lectured at Tate, National Gallery, Christie’s and University of Cambridge; presented films for the BBC and Royal Academy; and collaborated with Dior on a podcast series featuring interviews with Tracey Emin and Judy Chicago. She lives in London and sits on the Board of Trustees at Charleston, the former home of the Bloomsbury Group.

 The Story of Art without Men by Katy Hessel is published by Hutchinson Heinemann and out now. Get your copy here.