Challenging the Male Artist as Default
Interview with Katy Hessel by Augusta Atla. 24th October 2025 @ ARTMATTER
Published in Danish @ ARTMATTER
British art historian Katy Hessel has done remarkable work in uncovering a new artistic canon, shining a light on the countless women artists in the history of art. Through her trailblazing efforts, she has inspired us all to discover and celebrate women artists’ extraordinary work like never before. Not just overlooked, women artists have even been erased and hidden from art history.
Augusta Atla interviews the art historian Katy Hessel as part of a broader conversational project in which key figures in contemporary art are interviewed about artistic, academic, and professional perspectives. The project seeks to insist on innovation in art today, and to contribute to a re-evaluation of the historical understanding of women artists.
In the same debating conversational format, Augusta Atla has previously interviewed Camille Morineau, founder of AWARE (published in Magasinet Kunst), Valeria Napoleone, art collector in London (published in Dagbladet Børsen), and the Danish Minister of Culture (published in Art Matter).
This interview with Katy Hessel, a key figure whom Augusta Atla has followed for years, is also to highlight the lack of a national online archive for Danish women artists, just as one already exists for Danish women architects. Such an archive online would help to revisit art theory and help inspire others to dig into the lives of women artists – biographies that were often marked by extraordinary hardship.
The Female Perspective
In 2022, Katy Hessel’s groundbreaking book, The Story of Art Without Men, was published, brilliantly bridging the gap between academic research and the wider public. It takes readers on a vibrant journey through a timeline of over 300 works by women artists from diverse regions, spanning from 1500 to the present day.
The Story of Art Without Men challenges the traditional canon of art. Like Caroline Criado Perez’s Invisible Women, it serves not only as a new archive but also as a bold activist statement, questioning the very nature of the archive and the myth of “man as the default artist”. This runs deep. We all know the Vitruvian Man. But there is no Vitruvian Woman.
Katy Hessel’s book The Story of Art Without Men and her Instagram profile @thegreatwomenartists are a transformative force in public education about gender and art history. Her success highlights the urgent need for this debate in the public sphere—a debate that goes beyond art history and its theory to encompass artistic freedom, feminism, and gender equality at large.
Katy Hessel has not only archived women artists and published the new classic in art education, The Story of Art Without Men, but also tirelessly delivers talks and events, gives interviews on TV and radio, curates exhibitions, lectures, and leads guided tours in museums worldwide, all with a focus on women artists’ perspectives. Furthermore, she hosts her own podcast series, interviewing or documenting the lives of women artists.
Even if great feminist classics by Germaine Greer, Griselda Pollock, and Linda Nochlin, and many other great scholars at universities across Europe on women artists and gender theories, it was Katy Hessel who opened Pandora’s box to the broad public. Things have improved since the early 2000s, thanks in part to Katy Hessel’s groundbreaking work.
As an art historian, how, why, and when did you start being interested in the work of women artists?
“It was ten years ago, in October 2015, when I had a sort of epiphany as I went to an art fair, and I realized that among all the works around me, I didn’t see a single artwork by a female artist. Originally, it was not a need to address this problem generally; it was instead a personal thing. I said to myself, ‘Could I name 20 women artists?’ And I couldn’t. I thought that couldn’t be right and wanted to investigate it. And so, that’s why it actually came from within. That is how I started my research and eventually the @thegreatwomenartists profile on Instagram. Ten years on, I still run the Instagram because I continuously find new artists and because I love it.”
I recently watched an interview with the American artist Judy Chicago, who said that when she was pursuing her art education in the 1960s, there were simply no women artists. Knowing the vast number of women artists, as your book represents, was not common knowledge in the early 2000s either. Can you give some examples of women artists who had successful careers in their lifetime?
“When you look at one of the most famous surveys of art, Ernst Gombrich’s The Story of Art (published in 1950), there were no women artists in the first edition. A great example of a woman artist who achieved success in her lifetime is Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1653). I’m still discovering her works today.”
How did you come up with the fantastic title for The Story of Art Without Men, and how has it been received?
“The title and the idea of revisiting the art canon as a book came about because Tate Modern asked me in 2018 to create a timeline of women artists from the past thousand years. I went to revisit Gombrich’s The Story of Art, looked at his timeline, and realised that he only included one woman artist in the sixteenth edition. So I thought, ‘Nobody’s talking about this.’ And that’s where my title was born. It turned out that many people felt the same as I did—a huge hunger and longing to know more about women artists. Our understanding of the past is constantly evolving, and that certainly applies to art education too.”
Knowing what you know now, after writing and researching women artists, how has it changed your own perception of art history?
“I’m also trying to understand why women have never really been taken seriously in art, and it’s likely because they’ve never really been taken seriously as subjects within the artwork. Take Venus, or Medusa, Witches or the Virgin Mary. What are we looking at? Are we looking at glorified scenes of sexual exploitation or violence? Yet nobody really talks about this.”
“Drawing inspiration from John Berger’s book and TV series Ways of Seeing from 1972 and his idea of ‘starting a process of questioning,’ I explored the evolution of these female figures: their origin stories, how male artists in history ‘perceived’ them (perhaps by upholding a certain narrative), and how, when viewed from a woman artist’s perspective, we see them anew. Perhaps it’s time to spark a debate about whether art-historical works glorify a kind of exploitation of women’s bodies through the centuries?”
“I’ve given lectures at Pallant House Gallery dedicated to biblical and mythological female figures often depicted in Western art history, from witches to the Virgin Mary, Medusa, Eve, and Aphrodite. I’m currently working on a new book, due out in 2027, based on these lectures I gave at Pallant House Gallery, focusing on the female figure.”
Is it too early to create a new total art canon that “weaves” your book together with Ernst Gombrich’s The Story of Art?
“I believe it’s important to expand the canon rather than replace it. Weaving perspectives together could be valuable, but it’s a gradual process to ensure all voices are included thoughtfully.”
For me, looking at women artists is not about excluding or erasing the traditional art canon of men, but rather about seeing history in a broader and more accurate context and critically reassessing it—do you agree?
“Yes. I think we should actually address what we’re looking at. As I’ve said, I’m inspired by John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, which encourages us to question how we view art and its historical context. It’s not about erasing history but about revisiting it. Although my book is the story of art without men, I don’t want men to be erased from the traditional canon; it’s about a broader context in which art history should be understood. That’s all.”
Is it important to change permanent museum collections to include more women artists?
“I think it’s an interesting question, because I don’t believe we should collect women’s art just for the sake of it. Museums are temples of deep time. You can’t rush these things, and if you do, you’ll be worse off in the future. Museums need to work slowly. There are many ways to approach this. I find what the Rijksmuseum did interesting: in 2021, they placed works by Judith Leyster, Gesina ter Borch and Rachel Ruysch in their renowned Gallery of Honour.”
We don’t have an online archive for Danish women visual artists, but we do have one for Danish women architects. A national online archive could preserve their legacy. Could it be a good idea to create a national online archive for Danish women artists?
“There’s a connection between the rise of women artists and the advent of the internet. So why not use it? I love that idea.”
How do you ensure that your book and research aren’t forgotten in twenty years?
“I believe things are changing now, especially in London. There are so many more women in leadership roles, and I think people are aware of the need to address this, and I’m optimistic. I also believe that younger generations are very conscious of these issues. The educational aspect is something I’ll fight for my entire life. This, and public enlightenment, is fundamentally my life’s project.”
Last year, I wrote an article in Berlingske about women artists who had male muses. Drawing on André Breton’s surrealist manifesto, a footnote in Second Manifesto of Surrealism (1930) states, “the problem of woman is the most wonderful [merveilleux] and disturbing problem there is in the world,” suggesting a persistent notion that women are muses for men. But isn’t it absurd that in art history today, there’s still the notion that a man can’t be a muse? It’s a huge blind spot. Why shouldn’t women have and use men as muses?
“I see no reason why men can’t be muses. I think the outdated idea of only women as muses for men speaks to the so-called tradition that men act and women appear—exactly as John Berger theorised in Ways of Seeing. So, it’s not hard to reverse that.”
I wonder why the BBC, Hello Sunshine (Reese Witherspoon’s initiative to feature women in TV series and Hollywood films), or another TV or online network hasn’t asked you to make a TV series on women artists? It would spark feminism worldwide, align with the fourth wave of global feminism, and reflect the value of igniting artistic freedom.
“It would be amazing!”
We know of so many feature films about male artists; it would be great to see a feature film on the life of Marisol, Tarsila do Amaral, or Niki de Saint Phalle. We’ve already had films released, like those about Lee Miller and Hilma af Klint. Could this be a form of education through feature films?
“Yes. And I think there are far more documentaries being made now about women artists, which is so wonderful and powerful.”
Thank you.
ABOUT AUGUSTA ATLA
Augusta Atla is a Danish visual artist, poet, writer, art critic, and feminist activist within the arts. She has exhibited extensively throughout Europe since 2006. After Atla’s education, she went on an eight-year-long Odyssean travel through Paris, Venice, Rome, and Athens to view Western masterpieces and study museum collections and their representation. Since returning to Denmark, alongside her exhibiting practice, Augusta Atla has been an active debater and writer within the arts to help spur change and awareness of feminist thinking within the arts. She has published opinion pieces and columns in Danish media, appeared in numerous Danish podcast episodes and television programmes about art and politics, and was co-editor and concept developer for a published magazine (Magasinet Kunst, issue: Women Artists 2021). She has also given public lectures and participated in live debates on art, politics, and feminism. She had own column on feminism, politics and art in ART MATTER (previously Kunsten.nu). Atla is a member of AICA international and Akademiraadet.
Augusta Atla’s art practice explores: “What is the female gaze?” and “Is my sexuality represented in the art canon?” Atla believes that we cannot see or transform cultural archetypes (Venus, painting’s ideas about women), nor advance gender equality in society generally, without knowing the full archive of art that includes women artists. Not far from the idea of Aby Warburg, just a feminist optic on not only the content of the archive but also the methods of selecting.
Atla is inspired by the artist Monica Ross created the Women’s Art Library, an archive and library in 1983 at Goldsmiths College, which revisits archiving methods in Western art. In a similar vein and with the same idea, Augusta Atla launched her own online platform (@womenpainters) in 2018 as part of her artistic practice.