Female Artists

In 2019, Art Paris put women artists in the spotlight with 'A Different Kind* of French Scene' (*the French 'genre' may also be translated as 'gender') highlighting 25 projects by women creators in France. However, for much of art history it has been an entirely different story: women artists have been almost entirely overlooked, criticised and pushed into the background. Women have been creating art since ancient times, across all mediums: painting, sculpture, engraving, photography, and architecture, but extraordinarily few (and even then, only rich white women with social connections) were ever afforded any recognition, and even fewer were acknowledged as creators or as artists at all. Art historians' interest in the work of women artists only dates back as far as the 1960s and the rise of gender studies, women's rights movements, and feminism. As late as 1989, a campaign by the activist group Guerrilla Girls pointed out that art by women artists made up only 5% of the works on display in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, whilst 85% of the nudes exhibited were of women, prompting them to ask “do women have to be naked to get into the Met.?" (apparently so). Today, that statistic is not much improved, neither in the Met., nor more broadly across the art world. The recent emergence and focus on the work of women artists does not, in fact, reflect a new phenomenon, merely the long overdue recognition of the work that women have been doing for centuries.

The pieces selected by Artsper reflect the dynamism and variety in the works of women artists, acting as a reminder that 'women artist' is not a genre, and does not reflect a predisposition to a certain way of working. All of these works show strong personality and ground-breaking initiative, with some artists also choosing to pay tribute to their predecessors, like Frida Khalo (Béa Simpson) or René Magritte (Laurina Paperina), showing respect and serving as a reminder of the long history and struggle of women in art. From the photography of Sylvie Castioni to the abstract paintings of Cassandra Brown, the artists shown below are proof of the eclecticism of women artists; collectors might be surprised by the range displayed, from the sensuality of the portraiture, to the vibrant colours of the paintings, to the effortless elegance of the sculpture.

Despite recent advances the art market and the art world in general are still largely dominated by men, and as a result the inherent value of women artists and their work is still overlooked. Artsper want to recognise the diversity of contemporary artists, their talents and even their superiority across fields where they have been historically ignored. In photography, Angélique, Irene Cruz and Juliette Jourdain work in subtle and nuanced monochrome, where in sculpture the likes of Niki de Saint Phalle, Caroline Brisset or Sophie Cavalié poetically craft a world that is at once amusing and melancholic. Not to mention the myriad women painters who have invested unambiguously in the field that once rejected them, bringing to life their narrative of reclamation, and taking up their rightful place at the forefront of art history.

Whether they are world renown like Niki de Saint Phalle or emerging talents like Stasele Jakunskaite, it is imperative to recognise and appreciate the mark that all women artists are making on the international art scene. Artsper is paying tribute to these women, and we invite you to do the same by browsing our selection of their remarkable work.

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