Great Women Artists, this is the name of the new Phaidon’s book. It is the most complete and illustrated book of women artists ever published to date, and will go on sale in September. It brings together the work of 400 most important female artists of the last five centuries of history, ordered from A to Z along with one of his most representative works and a small text written by an art expert who explains her career and the meaning of her work.

 

‘ELECTRICAL PRISMS N.º 41’ BY SONIA DELAUNAY.

It collects the work of women who found a way to become professional artists despite the limitations of their time (for a long time, many art schools did not allow women to enter). These include the well-known artists such as Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keeffe, Agnes Martin, Barbara Hepworth, Yayoi Kusama, Annie Leibovitz, Bridget Riley, Louise Bourgeois, Carmen Herrera or Maria Lassnig. But it also includes artists whose careers were eclipsed by their partners – such as Claudel (Rodin’s lover), Dora Maar (Picasso’s muse), Lee Krasner (Jackson Pollock) or Elaine de Kooning – or even those that were forgotten for centuries like Angelica Kauffman, Judith Leyster and Artemisia Gentileschi.

‘IDENTICAL TWINS’ BY DIANE ARBUS.

 

‘ARIADNA ABANDONED BY TESEO’ BY ANGELICA KAUFFMANN.

 

 

GEORGIA O’KEEFFE.

 

 

The final selection was made from an initial list of more than two thousand women, made by Phaidon together with international art experts. The criterion is ultimately to try to present as many artists as possible, from different eras and working on different materials.