In honor of Hillary Clinton becoming the first woman to be nominated for the United States presidency, we're celebrating 10 women artists who have made art history. Here they are, in no particular order:
Geisha
by Helen Frankenthaler is available on Artspace for $70,000
Abstract Expressionist
painter
Hellen Frankenthaler
invented the "soak-stain" technique, which involved pouring oil paint thinned by turpentine onto canvas to create radiant washes of color integrated with the canvas itself. Her breakthrough lead to the
Color Field
painting movement, promoted
by influential critic
Clement Greenberg
and popularized by the work of
Mark Rothko
.
Louise Bourgeois's
Couples
is available on Artspace for $10,000
Feminist
sculptor and painter
Louise Bourgeois
made
Surrealist
works during the heyday of
Abstract Expressionism
, exploring themes like sexuality, domesticity, the body, and the subconscious.
3. Yayoi Kusama
Yayoi Kusama with her installation at the 2010 Aichi Triennale
Born in Japan in 1929,
Yayoi Kusama
transcended two of the most important art movements of the second half of the 20th century:
Pop art
and
Minimalism
. Her highly influential career spans painting, performance, fully immersive installation, outdoor sculpture, literature, film, fashion, and design.
4. Anni Albers
Anni Albers's
Study Rug
is available on Artspace for $695
After studying at the
Bauhaus
in 1922, Berlin-born
Anni Albers
brought
Modernist
ideals to
textile
design. In addition to weaving bold, abstract textile compositions, Albers was an influential printmaker and writer, as well as the wife of
Josef Albers
.
Detail of Jennifer Bartlett's Rhapsody
Perhaps best known for the gridded work
Rhapsody
, a monumental installation first exhibited in 1976,
Jennifer Bartlett
was one of the most important artistic figures of the '70s and one of the first female artists of her generation to achieve both commercial and critical success.
Rhapsody
was triumphant on account of its new, imposing scale and its composition: a pastiche of individual paintings in various art-historical styles, which essentially surveys the possibilities of modern painting.
The
Guerrilla Girls
initiated a politically-charged conversation in the 1980s, taking the fight against sexism and discrimination in the art world to a new level. Cloaked by pseudonyms and rubber gorilla masks, the
feminist
activist group plastered political posters throughout the streets of major cities—using clear imagery and concise text to convey their messages, such as “
Do women have to be naked to get into
the Met Museum
?"
Leonora Carrington's
Beasts: Cave
is available on Artspace for $2,000
Having shown worldwide since the late 1930s,
Leonora Carrington
is one of the few recognized female contributors to early
Modernism
. The artist's surreal works were grounded in strong images of feminine power and creativity, such as childbearing, knitting, magic, and cooking.
8.
Alice Aycock
Alice Ayecock's
Low Building With Dirt Roof (For Mary)
, 1973
Making important contributions to Land Art and the transition from modernism to postmodernism in the 1970s, Alice Aycock began her career making large, semi-architectural outdoor works that initiated relationships between the structure, the site, and the psychological responses of the viewer.
9. Etel Adnan
Etel Adnan's Untitled (#213) is available on Artspace for $242
Beirut-born poet, artist, and essayist
Etel Adnan
continues to make her small-scale paintings into her 90s. Her surrealist poetry and reductive landscapes have been largely unrecognized until recently; at the age of 87, her paintings were a huge hit at Kassel's
dOCUMENTA
in 2012.
10.
Ida Applebroog
Ida Applebroog's
Ephemera
is available on Artspace for $12,000
A pioneer in the development of
feminist art
, painter and installation artist
Ida Applebroog
was an early member of
Heresies
, a collective of artists and writers that published influential journal
Heresies: A Feminist Publication of Art and Politics
in in the 1970s and '80s.
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