The Story of Art Without Men by Katy Hessel

Shining a light on female artists who have been excluded from art history

“I have a talent and the constant impulse to employ it. for the love of it and the longing to work … and no man has the right to say that that is to be unheeded”.

— Joanna Boyce Wells, 1857

Barely a decade ago, it was not uncommon to visit art exhibitions and find a remarkable lack of representation of prominent female artists. The art scene was, and still is, dominated by male artists. A visit to the National Gallery in London, or reading E.H. Gombrich's book The Story of Art, which is still widely regarded as a seminal work of criticism and is now in its 16th edition (2022), will persuade you of its lack of focus on female artists. It’s as though the gatekeepers of the art world have written women out of art history.

Progress is happening. In recent years, thanks to the collective efforts of artists, curators, and art historians, like Katy Hessel, the art world has made strides towards inclusivity and diversity, with more and more female artists gaining recognition for their talents and contributions to the field.

Taking a critical look at the historical exclusion of women from the art world, Hessel's wonderful book, "The Story of Art Without Men," sheds new light on the history of art by focusing on the historical erasure of women from it. She begins with the story of some of the female artists in the 1500s and progresses to artists born in the 1990s. Along the way, she covers every significant movement from Dadaism to civil-rights-era antiracist art, bringing centuries-old figures to life.

Hessel covers a wide range of artistic movements, including photography, installation performance art, textile art, and media-based works popularised by Barbara Kruger, Guerrilla Girls, Jenny Holzer, and others in the 1970s and 1980s. She includes works that address intersectional issues of race, class, and sexuality. She looks at the work of many lesser-known female artists from different periods and styles, such as the American abstract expressionist painter Lee Krasner, and the Cuban-American performance artist Ana Mendieta.

In addition to highlighting the successes of female artists, the book also explores the struggles they faced, such as being denied access to education, funding, gallery representation, and other opportunities, which disproportionately affected women from marginalized backgrounds. Hessel also challenges the traditional narrative of art history, which has portrayed the art world as a meritocracy.

I loved Hessel’s positive and lucid way of writing and the way she focuses on the details. Although the book is concentrated mostly on Western art- understandably perhaps-it is an excellent resource and an important addition to the field of art history. Above all, it shines a light on the contributions of female artists who have been historically excluded or marginalized in traditional art history narratives.