When Renée Adams, a professor of finance at Oxford University , showed 2,000 people a selection of paintings, participants (especially wealthy men) consistently rated works by female artists lower than the rest. These works, however, were not actually made by women; instead they were generated by a computer and then randomly assigned fictitious names and genders. This 2017 study confirms that though artworks themselves are not gendered, people—especially those belonging to the demographic most likely to collect art—project their sexism onto the value of art. And the proof is in the pudding.
Last week artnet News reported that women artists make up just two per cent of the art market. " More than $196.6 billion has been spent on art at auction between 2008 and the first five months of 2019. Of this, work made by women accounts for just $4 billion—around 2 percent." Museums aren't doing much better: "J ust 11 percent of all acquisitions and 14 percent of exhibitions at 26 prominent American museums over the past decade were of work by female artists," according to a recent investigation by artnet News and In Other Words. These numbers are staggering. And sexist. The grand majority of museum exhibitions, auctions, or art history books might as well have been called Great Men Artists— but they hadn't needed to be; by default, it was already assumed.
Phaidon's newest book, Great Women Artists , acknowledges the rampant exclusion and under-appreciation of women in the art world, creating an overdue paper trail that cements the contributions of 400 women over the last 500 years into the art historical canon. As the title suggests with its strikethrough styling, that though the gender of an artists has no inherent influence on the work she produces (the works featured in this book are incredibly diverse), gender does have an impact on how that artwork can and will be appreciated, historicized, and valued. (Just two per cent of the art market, people! Just two per cent!) Great Women Artists is the most extensive fully illustrated book of women artists ever published.
Great Women Artists
is available for $59
The book won't be released October 1st—but the anticipatory enthusiasm is already palpable. " Interview believes every damn day is worthy of celebrating great women, and Great Women Artists makes it easy," writes Devon Ivie for Interview Magazine. "If only all our college art history textbooks were this much fun." Meanwhile, the Culture Whisperer says, "N o self respecting art lover should be without a copy."
Order the book here , and while you wait for it to arrive, check out the list of great women artists who made the cut:
Magdalena Abakanowicz
Berenice Abbott
Nina Chanel Abney
Marina Abramović
Tomma Abts
Carla Accardi
Etel Adnan
Hilma af Klint
Eileen Agar
Eija-Liisa Ahtila
Chantel Akerman
Njideka Akunyili Crosby
Anni Albers
Ellen Altfest
Olga de Amaral
Ghada Amer
Laurie Anderson
Mamma Andersson
Sofonisba Anguissola
Eleanor Antin
Janine Antoni
Ida Applebroog
Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir ('Shoplifter')
Ruth Asawa
Dotty Attie
Gillian Ayers
Jo Baer
Fiona Banner
Phyllida Barlow
Tina Barney
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham
Anna Barriball
Yael Bartana
Uta Barth
Maria Bartuszová
Mary Bashkirtseff
Mary Beale
Vanessa Beecroft
Vanessa Bell
Rebecca Belmore
Lynda Benglis
Marie-Guillemine Benoist
Renate Bertlmann
Huma Bhabha
Zarina Bhimji
Dara Birnbaum
Maria Blanchard
Rosa Bonheur
Monica Bonvicini
Dineo Seshee Bopape
Pauline Boty
Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz
Louise Bourgeois
Margaret Bourke-White
Carol Bove
Sonia Boyce
Geta Brãtescu
Candice Breitz
Cecily Brown
Tania Bruguera
Heidi Bucher
Claude Cahun
Sophie Calle
Juno Calypso
Julia Margaret Cameron
Cao Fei
Janet Cardiff
Joan Carlile
Emily Carr
Rosalba Carriera
Leonora Carrington
Mary Cassatt
Jordan Casteel
Elizabeth Catlett
Vija Celmins
Helen Chadwick
Sarah Charlesworth
Constance Marie Charpentier
Judy Chicago
Saloua Raouda Choucair
Chryssa
Lygia Clark
Camille Claudel
Dana Claxton
Prunella Clough
Hannah Cohoon
Renee Cox
Ithell Colquhoun
Grace Cossington Smith
Renee Cox
Petah Coyne
Cui Jie
Imogen Cunningham
Hanne Darboven
Berlinde De Bruyckere
Elaine de kooning
Tacita Dean
Jay DeFeo
Mary Delaunay
Agnes Denes
Rineke Dijkstra
A K Dolven
Tara Donovan
Rosalyn Drexler
Elsie Driggs
Rose-Adélaïde Ducreux
Marlene Dumas
Celeste Dupuy-Spencer
Mabel Dwight
Mary Beth Edelson
Nicole Eisenman
Tracey Emin
Alexandra Exter
Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian
Lara Favaretto
Genieve Figgis
Rose Finn-Kelcey
Sylvie Fleury
Ceal Floyer
Lavinia Fontana
Martine Franck
Helen Frankenthaler
Andrea Fraser
Elisabeth Frink
Katharina Fritsch
Anya Gallaccio
Ellen Gallagher
Yishay Garbasz
Gego
Artemisia Gentileschi
Isa Genzken
Marguerite Gérard
Vanessa L. German
Gluck
Nan Goldin
Natalia Goncharova
Eva Gonzalès
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
Catherine Goodman
Dora Gordine
Sheela Gowda
Lauren Greenfield
Katharina Grosse
Guerrilla Girls
Shilpa Gupta
Ike Gyokuran
Elisabeth Haarr
Maggi Hambling
Ann Hamilton
Margaret Harrison
Rachel Harrison
Grace Hartigan
Mona Hatoum
Sharon Hayes
Jacoba van Heemskerck
Susan Hefuna
Mary Heilmann
Annemarie Heinrich
Catharina van Hemessen
Camille Henrot
Barbara Hepworth
Carmen Herrera
Eva Hesse
Sheila Hicks
Susan Hiller
Lubaina Himid
Hannah Höch
Candida Höfer
Nancy Holt
Jenny Holzer
Rebecca Horn
Roni Horn
Shara Hughes
Juliana Huxtable
Cristina Iglesias
Graciela Iturbide
María Izquierdo
Emily Jacir
Chantal Joffe
Gwen John
Joan Jonas
Loïs Mailou Jones
Louise Jopling
Brigit Jürgenssen
Frida Kahlo
Hayv Kahraman
Kan Xuan
Katsushika Ōi
Angelica Kauffman
Mary Kelly
Iris Kensmil
Corita Kent
Bharti Kher
Kimsooja
Kiyohara Yukinobu
Emily Kam Kngwarray
Laura Knight
Béla Kolárová
Käthe Kollwitz
Eva Kotátková
Joyce Kozloff
Lee Krasner
Barbara Kruger
Shigeko Kubota
Agnieszka Kurant
Yayoi Kusama
Alicja Kwade
Dorthea Lange
Greer Lankton
Maria Lassnig
Marie Laurencin
Louise Lawler
Deana Lawson
Lee Bul
Nikki S. Lee
Annie Leibovitz
Tamara de Lempicka
Zoe Leonard
Sherrie Levine
Helen Levitt
Edmonia Lewis
Judith Leyster
Liliane Lijn
Maya Lin
Linder
Hung Liu
Barbara Longhi
Sarah Lucas
Ana Lupaș
Dora Maar
Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh
Esther Mahlangu
Vivian Maier
Anna Maria Maiolino
Nalini Malani
Jeanne Mammen
Sally Mann
Britta Marakatt-Labba
Cinthia Marcelle
Teresa Margolles
Marisol
Helen Marten
Agnes Martin
Mary Martin
Julie Mehretu
Ana Mendieta
Marisa Merz
Angelica Mesiti
Annette Messager
Beatriz Milhazes
Lee Miller
Marilyn Minter
Marta Minujin
Aleksandra Mir
Joan Mitchell
Lisette Model
Paula Modersohn-Becker
Tina Modotti
Tracey Moffatt
Louise Moillon
Véra Molnar
Mariko Mori
Berthe Morisot
Mary Moser
Anna (Grandma) Moses
Marlow Moss
Zanele Muholi
Mrinalini Mukherjee
Vera Mukhina
Gabriele Münter
Elizabeth Murray
Wangechi Mutu
Alice Neel
Plautilla Nelli
Senga Nengudi
Shirin Neshat
Rivane Neuenschwander
Louise Nevelson
Georgia O’Keeffe
Lydia Okumura
Yoko Ono
Maria van Oosterwijck
Catherine Opie
Meret Oppenheim
Orlan
Lucy Orta
Emily Mary Osborn
Pan Yuliang
Gina Pane
Lygia Pape
Cornelia Parker
Katie Paterson
Clara Peeters
Beverly Pepper
Elizabeth Peyton
Susan Philipsz
Heather Phillipson
Patricia Piccinini
Cathie Pilkington
Howardena Pindell
Adrian Piper
Liubov Popova
Liliana Porter
Harriet Powers
Laure Prouvost
Pushpamala N
Lucrezia Quistelli
Carol Rama
Anita Rée
Paula Rego
Lisa Reihana
Lili Reynaud-Dewar
Germaine Richier
Bridget Riley
Faith Ringgold
Pipilotti Rist
Marietta Robusti
Luisa Roldán
Tracey Rose
Martha Rosler
Properzia de’ Rossi
Susan Rothenberg
Mika Rottenberg
Nancy Rubins
Rachel Ruysch
Hannah Ryggen
Betye Saar
Natascha Sadr Haghighian
Kay Sage
Niki de Saint Phalle
Doris Salcedo
Charlotte Salomon
Zilia Sánchez
Augusta Savage
Jenny Saville
Miriam Schapiro
Mira Schendel
Hélène Schneemann
Anna Maria van Schurman
Dana Schutz
Berni Searle
Tschabalala Self
Joan Semmel
Zinaida Serebriakova
Shen Yuan
Amrita Sher-Gil
Amy Sherald
Cindy Sherman
Mary Sibande
Amy Sillman
Laurie Simmons
Taryn Simon
Lorna Simpson
Dayanita Singh
Elisabetta Sirani
Sylvia Sleigh
Kiki Smith
Monika Sosnowska
Marie Spartali Stillman
Jo Spense
Nancy Spero
Frances Stark
Pat Steir
Irma Stern
Florine Stettheimer
Hito Steyerl
Jessica Stockholder
Michelle Stuart
Sturtevant
Maud Sulter
Alina Szapocznikow
Sarah Sze
Sophie Taeuber-Art
Atsuko Tanaka
Dorthea Tanning
Tarsila
Lenore Tawney
Anna Dorothea Therbusch
Alma Thomas
Mickalene Thomas
Elizabeth Thompson, Lady Butler
Rosemarie Trockel
Anne Truitt
Uemura Shōen
Mierle Laderman Ukeles
Amalia Ulman
Suzanne Valadon
VALIE EXPORT
Anne Vallayer-Coster
Remedios Varo
Joana Vasconcelos
Cecilia Vicuña
Maria Helena Vieira da Silva
Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun
Marie-Denise Villers
Ursula von Rydingsvard
Kara Walker
Rebecca Warren
Anna Waser
Michaelina Wautier
Gillian Wearing
Carrie Mae Weems
Marianne von Werefkin
Pae White
Rachel Whiteread
Faith Wilding
Hannah Wilke
Jane & Louise Wilson
Betty Woodman
Francesca Woodman
Rose Wylie
Xiao Lu
Xing Danwen
Catherine Yaas
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
Yin Xiuzhen
Lisa Yuskavage
Zarina
Fahrelnissa Zeid
Andrea Zittel
