3 feminist art books to give yourself at Christmas

It was time to rebalance the scales. For a long time, women artists have been excluded from cultural institutions and art history works, which dictate what is or is not a masterpiece, and at the same time give marbles to curators to imagine exhibitions. Let’s think for example of Sonia Delaunay, immense painter of abstraction, who was successful before her husband (Robert Delaunay), but who was nevertheless systematically relegated to the rank of “wife of”. One example among many others, basically quite representative of the sexism that has long characterized the art world.

But that’s without taking into account the commitment and talent of women authors, content creators, or historians, who work to give women artists the light they deserve in works that are as detailed as they are beautiful.

3 feminist art books

“History of Art Without Men”, by Katy Hessel

It’s an affront that Katy Hessel, art historian and curator behind the popular Instagram account and podcast The Great Women Artists, makes art history. “History of Art Without Men” is meant to be a comprehensive work that highlights only female artists, to counterbalance their sheer absence from Gombrich. This last work, considered the “bible” of art history, did not mention any woman since its first edition, published in 1950. What to turn the balance, therefore, in a dense book necessary and which will undoubtedly be a point of reference.

“A Place”, by Eva Kirilof and Mathilde Lemiesle (illustration)

Eva Kirilof is the creator of the newsletter La Superbe, born two years ago, in which she talks about art history under the prism of feminism and in a very accessible way. She publishes her first book, an illustrated essay titled “Une Place,” in which she tries to explain why and how female artists have been ostracized from art history for so long. Her speech is accompanied by illustrations by the talented Mathilde Lemiesle, creator of the Instagram account @mespresquesriens. A dense work to devour in one go or savor page by page, as beautiful as it is instructive and fascinating.

“Imparfaites”, by Ludivine Gaillard and Elise Enjalbert (illustration)

Ludivine Gaillard is the creator of the Instagram account @mieuxvautartquejamais. She is a cultural mediator, she has just published “Imparfaites”, a book in which she starts from myths to analyze how they are represented and to reveal male domination in the history of Western art. Much documented and richly illustrated, the book questions the omnipresence of women in the history of Western art and the way in which their image has been exploited and stereotyped to respond to the canons of patriarchal society.