The Trouble with Women Artists: Reframing the History of Art

Sixty-seven female artists and their work from the sixteenth century to the present demonstrate the evolution of art through a female-empowered lens.

The history of art has been forever considered, written, published, and taught by men, primarily for a male audience. For women, the mere possibility of becoming an artist—to have access to the necessary materials, to produce, exhibit, and, against all odds, succeed and sustain the activity—has been an incessant, dangerous, and exhausting fight—physically, mentally, and psychologically. The time has come to reframe the history of art in the context of the brave women who had the courage to defy all rules in order to pursue their vocation and carve out their place in the art world.

This book draws the portraits of sixty-seven fascinating woman and their significant artistic achievements, from groundbreaking Renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi to the photography of Nan Goldin today. Tracing the painters, sculptors, photographers, and performance artists who shaped modern art, readers discover key figures and their signature works, including Mary Cassatt, Sonia Delaunay, Georgia O’Keefe, Tamara de Lempicka, Frida Kahlo, Dorothea Tanning, Leonora Carrington, Yoko Ono, Eva Hesse, Marina Abramovic, Carrie Mae Weems, and Cindy Sherman.

Exploring the codes and archetypes of art history, this celebration of women in art analyzes their slow but steady achievement of artistic independence and the hard-won recognition for their creative work in a domain historically reserved for men.