Ask anyone to name a famous artist and you may hear the same name repeated over and over again: Leonardo da Vinci, Picasso, Monet, Degas... The list goes on and on. What are you unlikely to hear? A woman's name.
Despite the fact that women make up more than 50% of the visual artists currently working. As in all other fields, there is a gender gap in the art world — and of course the pay gap. Women are not recognized by their work directives, and they often find their work classified behind the scenes and in secondary galleries, rather than being juxtaposed with the art of their male counterparts. Art museums and galleries have begun to realize the problem, and many are actively working to correct it, but change won't happen overnight. Despite the creation of masterpieces that truly changed the industry, many female artists remain unknown.
We've put together a list of 25 female artists of the 20th century you should know about. Using art encyclopedias and museum websites, it curated a list of women who have influenced the art world in many ways. From creating new styles (such as abstract art) to inspiring political movements such as the Black Women's Movement, these powerful ladies are as talented and important as the men they share in the gallery space.
Agnes Martin's Friendship was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City on November 13, 2020.
One of the most important painters of her generation, Agnes Martin was an abstract artist who created minimalist paintings driven by her transcendental and Buddhist beliefs. Moving from Canada to the United States as a young woman, she spent the rest of her life shuttling between New Mexico and New York, occasionally disappearing from the art world altogether before returning in a slightly altered style. She died in New Mexico in 2004.
Augusta Savage viewed two of her sculptures in 1937
Through her sculptures, Augusta Savage transforms everyday moments in black American life into high art. An important figure in the Harlem Renaissance, Savage trained in Paris before returning to New York, where she turned her studio into a community art center; offered free lessons — other famous artists such as Jacob Lawrence were students; and created commissioned projects, such as "Elevate Every Voice and Sing" for the 1939 New York World's Fair. The barbarian died in New York in 1962. She said she prefers the artwork she teaches to children than anything she makes herself.
Barbara Kruger's screen print photography in 2018 titled "I Shop, So I'm In"
Collagist Barbara Kruger began working in the design department of Condé Nast's Mademoiselle magazine. In the mid-1970s, she began making large-scale works that mixed photographs she found with pithy proverbs written in Futura Bold fonts, criticizing multiple cultural structures such as power, identity, gender, and sexuality. The artist divides her time between New York City and Los Angeles, and while she still occasionally creates new works, much of her energy today is focused on teaching and writing.
Betye Saar's artwork was exhibited on October 26, 2017 at the Take A Stand Center at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.
Political activist Angela Davis has credited Betye Saar's work to the launch of the black women's movement. Saar works primarily in assembling — though she was also an accomplished printmaker — challenging stereotypes that revolve around the intersection of race and femininity. Her most famous work is The Liberation of Aunt Jamma. She currently lives in Los Angeles, and although she is 95 years old, she says she hasn't finished her job yet.
Artist Bridget Riley, 1963.
A leading figure in the Op Art Movement, Bridget Riley created some of today's most famous optical illusion paintings. Her work combines clean lines, geometric precision and color theory to create canvases and murals that captivate, soothe and confuse the viewer's eyes. Riley, now in her 90s, lives in London, where she enjoys semi-retirement.
Dorothea Lange, California, 1936
Documentary photography as we know it today would not exist without the work and influence of Dorothea Lange, a Great Depression-era photojournalist known for his profound and touching photographs of migrant workers and families. Her photographs, though very intimate, manage to tell universal stories of struggle and pain, giving them a timeless quality. Lange died of esophageal cancer in 1965, and a retrospective of her work debuted a few months ago at the Museum of Modern Art.
Ellen Gallagher, September 27, 2018 at the Art Forum at the People's Palace in Berlin, Germany.
Finding her footing in the art world at the end of the 20th century, Ellen Gallagher commented on issues of race and gender through her multimedia work. In particular, she pointed out how these two issues have long been suppressed and ineffective by the media, and how this has shaped American history. In his 50s alone, Gallagher worked and lived in New York City and Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Sculpture by Eva Hesse at Craig F. Starr Gallery in New York in 2018
Although her career lasted only a decade, the sculptor Eva Hesse undoubtedly left her mark on the art world, pioneering the post-minimalist art movement in the 60s. Her work is often made from off-the-shelf materials such as latex, fiberglass, plastic and rope, and often addresses women's issues in a non-political way. The Jewish artist fled Germany as a child during the rise of Nazism and died in 1970 in her adopted hometown of New York City at the age of 34.
Frida Kahlo photographed a self-portrait titled "I Twice" on October 24, 1939
The surrealist painter Frida Kahlo is one of the few female artists with a global reputation. Many of her 200 works are self-portraits, or at least autobiographical, exploring issues of gender, identity, class, and race. In 1954 — years in poor health after a bus accident in 1925 — Caro either died of a pulmonary embolism or, as publicly reported, by suicide, which has long been considered her true cause of death.
In 1960, Georgia O'Keefe stood outdoors adjusting the canvas of her "Pelvic Series – Red and Yellow"
What do flowers, the skyscrapers of New York City and the landscape of New Mexico have in common? They are the most common subjects in Georgia O'Keeffe paintings. Often referred to as the "mother of American modernism," O'Keeffe has truly changed the face of American art during her 80-year career. She died in 1986 at the age of 98 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
In 1969, Abstract Expressionist artist Helen Frankenthaler was working on a big work.
When she died in 2011, Helen Frankenthaler's obituary said she helped shape a movement. This is not an exaggeration. An abstract expressionist, Frankenthaler created works that have evolved over sixty years, although her most famous work is the color gamut style she invented.
Hilma Af Klint exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery in London, UK, 2 March 2016
Hilma af Klint, considered the progenitor of abstract art, painted in an unrepresentative way before her male counterparts such as Piet Mondarin and Wassily Kandinsky became widely known. Born in Sweden in 1862, af Klint was obsessed with psychicism and for at least 10 years regularly led a group of female artists to séances in an attempt to contact the "Higher Masters". Her work can best be understood through this lens as a way to explore and express complex spiritual thoughts. She died in a car accident in 1944, and her work has only been exhibited a few times.
Artist Jenny Holzer stands in front of an installation at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in January 1990
Ranked in the best category for new concept artists, Jenny Holzer produces large-scale text works such as posters, electronic signage, and carved marble benches. As part of the feminist art movement and a member of collaborative projects with artist groups, Holzer has participated in many rebellious art exhibitions aimed at democratizing art, such as the famous Times Square exhibition. She currently lives and works in New York, but her output has slowed sharply in recent years.
In November 2015, Joan Mitchell's painting "Edrita Fried 1981" at the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, Germany, was exhibited
In the second half of the 20th century, the New York Artists Institute produced a group of important and influential visual creators. Among them was Joan Mitchell. An abstract expressionist, Mitchell once said of her colorful work, "My paintings repeat the feeling of Lake Michigan, water, or fields... It's more like a poem... That's what I want to paint. One of the few famous female artists of her time and in her genre, Mitchell died of lung cancer in Paris in 1992.
Judy Chicago in 2007 at the Brooklyn Museum in New York, Elizabeth M. Details of the "Dinner" (1979) of the A. Sackler Feminist Art Center
As the founder of America's first feminist art project, Judy Chicago used her massive installations to spark conversations about gender politics and the place of women in society. Her multimedia work is often collaborative— her most famous work, "Dinner Party," was made with the help of 100 volunteers — and is often an image of birth or creation. She currently resides in New Mexico and continues to work with her husband, Donald Woodman.
Sculptor June Leaf and photographer Robert Frank attend the opening ceremony at the Tisch Gallery in New York City on January 28, 2016
Family, childhood and true love are the main themes that inspired June Leaf's paintings, paintings and sculptures. As an abstract artist, her work is often allegorical in nature and features recurring characters that have been evolving since the 1950s. Leaf is a member of Monster Roster, a group of 1940s Chicago artists. Before settling in New York City and Nova Scotia, she also worked and studied in Paris for many years, to this day.
Leonora Carrington's "El gato" was exhibited during Christie's Latin American Art Auction Preview in New York on May 24, 2010
Surrealism is the best word to describe the work of Leonardora Carrington. One of the last members of the Surrealist movement and one of the few women to seriously participate in it, the Mexican-British artist painted mainly narrative landscapes. In 2011, she died of complications of pneumonia in Mexico.
"Mom" in Hamburg, Germany, March 2012
French-American artist Louise Bourgeois cannot be fully classified in any particular category. Best known for her oversized sculptures and installations – such as the 8-meter spider "Mama" – she also creates paintings and prints covering the abstract expressionist, surrealist and feminist art genres. In 2010, she died of heart failure in New York City.
Exhibition at the School of Contemporary Art, Boston, Marlene Dumas, "One Hundred Models," 1994
When Marlene Dumas sold her painting The Visitor for $4.2 million in 2015, she broke the record for the most expensive work sold by a living artist. Her work, made up primarily of portraits, is a study of duality – an extension of her reality as a South African artist living in the Netherlands – and what it means to live in our bodies. Dumas, who is still active today, lives in Amsterdam.
Natalia Goncharova (1881-1962), Russian painter, sculptor and decorator, circa 1920, in her paris studio
An integral part of the avant-garde movement, Natalia Gosharova developed a new form of rayonism called abstract painting in 1912 and the following year she became the first woman in Russia to have a comprehensive review, which featured more than 700 works of art, in styles ranging from Cubist to Abstract to folk art. She died in Paris in 1962 with severe arthritis and total poverty.
The largest ever retrospective of Portuguese visual artist Paula Rego in the UK opened on 5 July 2021 in London, UK
Over the past seven years, the often underrated Anglo-Portuguese artist Paula Rego has created a series of works based on fairy tales and folktales. Although their subject matter may seem sweet, the paintings carry some serious weight, conveying a political message in a timely manner and conveying heavier emotions such as anger and pain. Rego, now in her 80s, lives in London, and although she is too weak to paint, she was able to enjoy a retrospective of her work at the Tate Museum in early 2021.
Tamara de Lempicka was at her easel
"The Baroness with a Paintbrush", Tamara de Lempicka was a Polish artist known for depicting portraits of the elite of that era. Her photographs, a blend of Cubist and neoclassical styles, exude a sensual feel that is still very chic to this day. Over the years, many of them have been reprinted in fashion magazines such as Harper's Bazaar. She fled Europe for the United States before the start of World War II. De Lempicka died in Mexico in 1980.
Artist Vija Celmins exhibited her work at the Hammer Museum in West Los Angeles in January 2007
The New York Times best said it when it called Vija Celmins's work "a precise, painstaking illusion of reality." Her natural graphite and paper paintings—including the ocean, the night sky, cobwebs, and rocks—are very detailed, realistic works that range almost overwhelmingly, forcing the viewer to really slow down and patiently accept them. Born in Latvia, Celmins now lives in New York and remains active.
In the exhibition "My Eternal Soul" at the Tokyo National Center for the Arts on February 21, 2017, she was next to her 2016 work "Flowers Blooming Tomorrow."
Once the center of New York City's avant-garde and pop art scene, Yayoi Kusama is known for its use of polka dots and its intense large-scale environment. Born in Japan, Kusama spent her most productive years in the United States, where she used everything from nudes to the interior of her room as a canvas. In the early '70s, Kusama returned to her home country, where she voluntarily lived in a mental hospital for the past four years, and although her devices and shows became increasingly popular due to social media apps, she almost completely withdrew from society.
Artist and singer Yoko Ono was shot in London in 1967
Yoko Ono's art, both in performance and visual, is a two-way mirror that throws the audience's reaction back to them and reveals some truths deep within the audience. Involved in New York's avant-garde scenes, she collaborated with other artists and created her own work, such as her famous 1964 "Cut Piece," hoping to unease and inspire those involved. Now in her 80s and in poor health, Ono still lives in a Dakota apartment in New York City where she shared a room with her husband, John Lennon.