The Great Women Artists

I am so excited to say that my guest on the GWA Podcast is Maria Balshaw. Currently serving as Director of Tate, a position she has held since 2017, Balshaw began her career as an academic and lecturer in cultural studies. At the dawn of the 2000s, she swapped this to become Director of Creative Partnerships, a government programme that aimed to develop creativity in young people by bringing schools and artists together, which was sadly cut after the Labour Government was replaced by the coalition. In 2006, she became the director of the Whitworth Art Gallery, and in 2011, took on the additional role of director of Manchester City Galleries, and, to cement her reign in Manchester, she was made Director of culture, while also earning herself a CBE. But it’s been under her premiership at Tate – as the historic institution’s first ever female director – where we’ve seen some of the most groundbreaking shows take place in recent years. From Women in Revolt, that explored the trailblazing work of feminist communities in Britain; Now You See Us: Women Artists 1520–1920, that essentially rewrote art history from a female perspective – and even introduced me to hundreds of names I hadn’t heard of; or Life Between Islands: Caribbean British Art from the 1950s to today. There’s been solo shows of Yoko Ono, Paula Rego, Zanele Muholi, Sarah Lucas, Cornelia Parker, and so much more – and… I’m sure more to come. Tate today is fizzing with great shows, an institution no doubt unrecognisable to when Balshaw first visited aged 16 when she came down to London on the train from her hometown, Northampton in search of modern art. Though she found the dizzying world of Bridget Riley, it was mainly the Picassos on the wall. And while that’s still good art, representation of different communities, cultures, genders and classes, is important. And there is no denying that having people in charge who are invested in the importance of this, has a huge impact on how art history has been and is being written – which Balshaw is at the centre of shaping. And, I am excited to say, she has just published a book, Gathering of Strangers, about museums: their origins, roles, and complexities, and the future of what they mean today. Here is a link to her new book! https://www.waterstones.com/book/gathering-of-strangers/maria-balshaw/9781849769136 -- THIS EPISODE IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY THE LEVETT COLLECTION: https://www.famm.com/en/ https://www.instagram.com/famm_mougins // https://www.merrellpublishers.com/9781858947037 Follow us: Katy Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel Sound editing by Nada Smiljanic Music by Ben Wetherfield

Remembering the great Audrey Flack (1931–2024). Earlier this year, I interviewed Flack over a series of interviews before she passed away on 28 June 2024. Audrey was a force, and I hope you enjoy listening to her powerful and moving words. If you want to learn more, I highly recommend her memoir: With Darkness Came Stars: A Memoir (https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-09674-2.html) -- I couldn’t be more excited to say that my guest on the GWA Podcast is the esteemed American artist, sculptor, photo-realist painter, and native New Yorker, Audrey Flack. Hailed for her sculptures of divine goddesses and Biblical characters; her paintings evocative of Old Masters that explore the historic subjects but with pop imagery; and abstract canvases, made in the 1940s and 50s, filled with swathes of movement, colour, and vigour – Audrey Flack, has been at the forefront of the art world. Brought up in New York City, Flack studied at Cooper Union and then Yale, where she was one of the only women and was taught under Josef Albers – in the early 1950s Flack found herself amongst the burgeoning downtown art scene, where she frequented the Abstract Expressionist haunt, the Cedar Bar, and hung out with her friends who included Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Grace Hartigan. Audrey Flack knew them all. At the onset of Pop, she turned to photorealist painting, capturing in it distinctively feminist subjects, such as traditional objects associated with femininity and beauty, and then it was to sculpting female archetypes, taking back ancient-old stories steeped in misogynism, and reworking them for a 20th and 21st century audience. Whilst she paints and sculpts – and is in the collections of museums such as the Met and MoMA, – Audrey also takes the role of lead vocals and banjo with her band “Audrey Flack and the History of Art Band”, where she centres her songs around female injustice, the most recent being about the French sculptor, Camille Claudel. At 93 years old, you can often find her wearing t-shirts emblazoned with slogans such as Feminist AF, posing in front of her large-scale works, and wearing sunglasses inside. Flack has written it all down in a memoir – With Darkness Came Stars, one of the most moving, extraordinary books I’ve ever read. Not just for her artistic insights and incredible first-hand analogies of those who she knew in the 20th Century New York artworld, but, for writing, in such genuine words, the truth of what it’s like being a mother, a mother and an artist, and a mother to an autistic child. I was moved to tears a number of times. It made me realise, so acutely, how women and mothers have been treated with such injustice, yet had so much resilience to fight for their voice, their art, their children, and their path. I couldn’t recommend it highly enough. -- THIS EPISODE IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY THE LEVETT COLLECTION: https://www.famm.com/en/ https://www.instagram.com/famm_mougins // https://www.merrellpublishers.com/9781858947037 Follow us: Katy Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel Sound editing by Nada Smiljanic Music by Ben Wetherfield

This is a (Halloween special!) bonus episode that explores the image of Witches in Art, as told by Professor Lyndal Roper! What is a witch? Where does it stem from? Why is she so often an old woman, who is harmful and evil? How did this perpetuate the way women were treated in history? What is a witch today? Roper, a regius professor of History at the University Oxford, is one of the global experts on the history of witchcraft. She is the author of: Witch Craze, that examines in-depth the trials of women accused of witchcraft, and argued that the craze sprang from a collective fantasy, of which many were older, infertile women who were accused of harming infants and destroying fertility in the natural and human world: https://yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300119831/ The Witch in the Western Imagination, which looks at the many different visualisations of witches, which in Germany found its “fullest exploration” thanks to the invention in the late 15th century, which in a way, changed the distribution of art forever: https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/4260/ And many more! -- THIS EPISODE IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY THE LEVETT COLLECTION: https://www.famm.com/en/ https://www.instagram.com/famm_mougins // https://www.merrellpublishers.com/9781858947037 Follow us: Katy Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel Sound editing by Nada Smiljanic Music by Ben Wetherfield

Merve Emre, an acclaimed writer and expert on Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group, dives deep into the fascinating lives of sisters Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf. They discuss how family tragedies, like the death of their brother Toby, propelled their artistic paths and shaped the Bloomsbury Group. Emre illuminates their collaborative spirits, contrasting their artistic styles and influences. The conversation also touches on the sisters' break from Victorian norms, their shared struggles, and their lasting impact on the modernist movement and women's representation in art.

Emerson Bowyer, an esteemed curator at the Art Institute of Chicago, shines a light on Camille Claudel, a pioneering French sculptor. They discuss Claudel's ability to convey deep emotions through marble in a male-dominated field. Highlights include her tumultuous relationship with Rodin and her innovative techniques that deserve recognition. Bowyer emphasizes Claudel's struggles for legacy and identity, serving as a poignant reminder of the barriers faced by women artists in the 19th century.

I am so excited to say that my guest on the GWA Podcast is one of the most groundbreaking and era-defining artists around today, Nadya Tolokonnikova. A founding member of Pussy Riot, the feminist art-collective and performance group, active since 2011, Nadya is an artist, activist, and musician, who has dedicated her life to fighting for freedom, confronting the dangers of the far-right and Putin with his distorted power. Born in 1989 in the industrial city of Norilsk, Russia, Nadya moved to Moscow aged 17, where she studied philosophy. “Since childhood” as she has said, “I’ve loved finding myself in extreme situations. I’ve always lacked unusual things in my life”. In Moscow, she immediately got involved with the radical activist-art collective, Voina – which translates to ‘war’ in Russian – who hit back at far-right Russian politicians with their mocking commentary performances. And from 2011, she joined Pussy Riot, with whom she performs highly outspoken and daring guerrilla gigs in public in opposition to President Putin. Global fame for Pussy Riot came in 2012, after their protest-performance in a Moscow church entitled “Punk Prayer: Mother of God Drive Putin Away”, which calls for the Virgin Mary to help them get rid of Putin. Following this, Nadya was imprisoned, where she was separated from her daughter and experienced horrific conditions. But since her release, she has continued to fight through art, in and outside of Russia, such as her attacks on President Trump and the controlling of women’s bodies. Her recent film, Putin’s Ashes saw her and 11 members of Pussy Riot burn – in a ritual – a picture of Putin, which she then transformed into artworks. I am in awe of Nadya, her spirit, her ability to fight on a global scale, and her constant openness to sharing her courage – after all, she has stated that any one of us can join the Pussy Riot movement, through her belief that the power of collective action can overcome all. -- -- THIS EPISODE IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY THE LEVETT COLLECTION: https://www.famm.com/en/ https://www.instagram.com/famm_mougins // https://www.merrellpublishers.com/9781858947037 Follow us: Katy Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel Sound editing by Nada Smiljanic Music by Ben Wetherfield

I am so excited to say that my guest on the GWA Podcast is Sophia Jansson – niece of Tove Jansson, the legendary Swedish-speaking Finnish writer, artist, novelist, illustrator, and children’s book author, best known for creating the Moomins. Born in Helsinki in 1914, Tove grew up immersed in art from a young age. It was thanks to her artist parents, who raised her and her brothers in a home filled with plaster dust, clay, paintings, and floor-to-ceiling books – known to be (quote) “a box with endless secret compartments…” It was even thought she slept on the shelf at one point! But, growing up in the 1910s and 30s, it was also a time wracked by war. Turning to art, Tove made paintings – in a style influenced by the post-Impressionists – and conceived of imaginary worlds, steeped in nature – from forests to the sea – perhaps to escape the imploding world around her. Jansson’s books for children and her novels for adults are just as much great stories as they are philosophies on life as she wrote: “before the war I used to think the purpose of life was to act as justly as possible; after the war I thought the purpose of life was to be as happy as possible.” And there is no shadow of a doubt that Jansson and the Moomins, the large-snouted trolls, can show us the true meanings of life. ENJOY! -- THIS EPISODE IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY THE LEVETT COLLECTION: https://www.famm.com/en/ https://www.instagram.com/famm_mougins // https://www.merrellpublishers.com/9781858947037 Follow us: Katy Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel Sound editing by Nada Smiljanic Music by Ben Wetherfield

Katy Hessel, an author celebrated for her insights into art history and dedication to highlighting female artists, dives into the world of Abstract Expressionism. She unveils the contributions of women like Lee Krasner and Janet Sobel, revealing the hurdles they faced in a male-dominated sphere. Hessel also explores the poignant journey of a key female figure in the movement, showcasing her artistic evolution and the personal tragedies that shaped her work. This discussion spotlights the deep emotional resonance and lasting impact of women's art in history.

I am so excited to say that my guest on the GWA Podcast is the author, poet, scholar, and scientific researcher Cat Bohannon. Now, while this episode is not going to be centred totally on art, it is going to be looking closely at women’s bodies – and what might have contributed to the lack of knowledge about women in wider history. Because Cat Bohannon is renowned for her acclaimed book “Eve” that revolutionises our understanding of the female human body, and how a focus on male subjects in science has left women “under-studied and under-cared for”. Spanning from the Jurassic period to the present day, Eve hones in on the impact of what females’ exclusion from scientific research has done for our bodies (and world). Through chapters headed under womb, foot, brain, or milk, it recasts the traditional story of evolutionary biology, by placing women at the centre. Because, as she argues, it’s not just a case of sexism – that we don’t know enough about the female body – it’s because the data actually isn’t there. For example, general anaesthetics weren’t tested on women until 1999. I’m interested in getting to the root of these issues, as well as speaking about how art might correspond to this. Because as well as being a holder of a PhD from Columbia University in the evolution of narrative and cognition, Bohannon has published widely, including essays and poems for Science Magazine and the Georgia Review. And I can’t wait to find out more. -- Cat's book: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/446844/eve-by-bohannon-cat/9781529156171 https://www.waterstones.com/book/eve/cat-bohannon/9781529151237 -- THIS EPISODE IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY THE LEVETT COLLECTION: https://www.famm.com/en/ https://www.instagram.com/famm_mougins // https://www.merrellpublishers.com/9781858947037 Follow us: Katy Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel Sound editing by Nada Smiljanic Music by Ben Wetherfield

I am so excited to say that my guest on the GWA Podcast is the world expert in myths, folklore, and occultism in art, Dr. Amy Hale speaking on the great surrealist Ithell Colquhoun! An Atlanta based writer, curator and critic, Hale’s interests range from contemporary magical practice to the history of art, culture, women and Cornwall. She has helped crack open this side of art history, and that is why I am so excited to be speaking with her today – and focussing on the artistic polymath, Ithell Colquhoun, who, as well as being the most brilliant painter – creating scapes of dreamlike worlds, with organic, bodily-like shapes – was a novelist, poet, essayist, and more. Her output was always concerned spiritual transcendence. Born in 1906 in India, before studying at the Slade, Colquhoun became involved with the Surrealists in the 1930s – making dazzling paintings of sea monsters – and it was at this moment that her interest in the occult soared. In the 1940s, she relocated from London to Cornwall, and invented a way of working that connected her to the earth, and ancient times. Colquhoun, according to Hale, had a “magical mind that never stopped” – and Hale has dedicated her career to writing her noted biography Ithell Colquhoun: Genius of the Fern Loved Gully (Strange Attractor) and, more recently, the collection Sex Magic: Diagrams of Love, and is editing a selection of her esoteric essays. So I couldn’t be more delighted to find out more! -- LINKS: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/ithell-colquhoun-931 Amy's books: https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/stock/ithell-colquhoun-genius-of-the-fern-loved-gulley-amy-hale https://shop.tate.org.uk/sex-magic-ithell-colquhouns-diagrams-of-love/28593.html Ithell's paintings: https://artuk.org/discover/artists/colquhoun-ithell-19061988 -- THIS EPISODE IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY THE LEVETT COLLECTION: https://www.famm.com/en/ https://www.instagram.com/famm_mougins // https://www.merrellpublishers.com/9781858947037 Follow us: Katy Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel Sound editing by Nada Smiljanic Music by Ben Wetherfield