The Story of Art without Men
The Sunday Times bestseller
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- USD 12.99
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- USD 12.99
Publisher Description
**OUT NOW: How to Live an Artful Life, Katy Hessel's new guide to finding art in the everyday**
WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
'A long overdue, revisionist history of art by the brilliant Katy Hessel . . . Never stuffy or supercilious, Hessel's book is a revelation and an important first step towards redressing the balance of an art world in which women have been sidelined, stepped over and trampled upon for far too long.' REFINERY29
'An extraordinary achievement that will have a disruptive cultural legacy and help determine the landscape for years to come.' HARPER'S BAZAAR
'Katy Hessel is a brilliant chronicler of the overlooked. I am so thrilled this book exists as an empowering, enlightening guide to the unforgettable vision of these brilliant artists. Essential reading.' ELIZABETH DAY
'Will change the history of art . . . thank God.' TRACEY EMIN
'I was not aware how hungry I was for this book until I dropped everything and ate it from cover to cover. I was not aware how angry I was that this book did not exist until it existed. It's an urgently needed, un-put-downable, joyful, insightful, glorious, perspective-shifting revision of the Story of Art.' ES DEVLIN
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How many women artists do you know? Who makes art history? Did women even work as artists before the twentieth century? And what is the Baroque anyway?
Have your sense of art history overturned, and your eyes opened to many art forms often overlooked or dismissed. From the Cornish coast to Manhattan, Nigeria to Japan, this is the story of art for our times - one with women at its heart, brought together for the first time by the creator of @thegreatwomenartists.
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'A spirited, inspiring, brilliantly illustrated history of female artistic endeavour . . . The Story of Art Without Men should be on the reading list of every A-level and university art history course and on the front table of every museum and gallery shop.' LAURA FREEMAN, THE TIMES
'Passionate, enthusiastic and witty . . . I wish I had had this book as a teenager' THE I
Sunday Times bestseller, January 2023
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Overlooked female artists take their rightful place in the pantheon in art historian Hessel's magisterial debut. Beginning with the Renaissance, Hessel covers "significant shifts or moments" in mostly Western art history, including the French Revolution and how its refounded artists' academies, which had been rid of aristocratic associations, enabled an "influx of middle class female artists." Elsewhere, Hessel profiles the post-WWI birth of Dadaism and how its "fearless" female adherents such as German Hannah Höch, known for her political collages, and multidisciplinary Swiss artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp were "unafraid to poke fun at political figures and caricature their male contemporaries." Sections on the 19th century cover female contributors to movements such as impressionism and surrealism, and discuss key themes, including civil rights art and queer art. While Hessel touches on the barriers that kept female artists from mainstream success, she devotes most of the book to analyzing their works, contending, for example, that 20th-century Welsh-born painter Sylvia Sleigh "repossess the male-dominated" conventions of art history by depicting "men in provocative and Venus-like poses." Hessel makes room for an impressively wide array of art forms, including fiber works and quilting, and is careful to situate her subjects within social and political contexts, instead of framing them as "the wife of, the muse of, the model of" more celebrated male contemporaries. The result is a vital and necessary corrective. Photos.
