A wonderful compliment to the BMA exhibition is Katy Hessel’s 2022 book The Story of Art Without Men. Hessel’s book is a much-needed correction to the status quo given that the two most widely referenced art history books, The Story of Art by E.H. Gombrich, first published in 1950, and H.W. Janson’s The History of Art, first published in 1962 (and the text this author used in college in the 1960s), did not include a single female artist in their original printing. Although subsequent editions of these male dominated texts have added a few women, much work still needs to be done.
In her Great Women Artists podcast, Hessel asks, “Was it a conscious decision to write women out of art history?” We can only conclude the answer, on some level, is “yes.” In a PBS interview coinciding with the publication of her book Hessel declares, “Women artists are not a trend.” She challenges museums to, “Bring the one percent of art by women out of storage and show it.” Hessel is not shy about declaring her goal to alter the path of art history. She is working hard to build a legacy for future generations very different than the story about art that was told to the talented women featured in Making Her Mark. Today, Hessel echoes the challenge boldly stated by Artemisia Gentileschi in 1649, “I’ll show you what a woman can do!”
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has mounted a show of women artists with a narrower focus. Strong Women in Renaissance Italy, which is currently on view, and this month will see the reopening of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, in Washington, D.C., making this fall an unprecedented season of riches for women artists.
Making Her Mark. is co-organized by the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Co-curated by Andaleeb Badiee Banta, Senior Curator and Department Head, Prints, Drawings & Photographs at the BMA, and Alexa Greist, Curator and R. Fraser Elliott Chair, Prints & Drawings at the AGO.
