Will I love The Story of Art Without Men?

The provocative title and sheer ambition of this project caught my attention.

Hessel leads us through the history of art, but an alternative version which systematically edits out the men. The result is both enlightening and enthralling. Through the pages, I reconnected with some familiar names, and also met some new ones. The book moves chronologically, offering a series of little windows onto individual artists’ lives.

I listened to the audiobook, which brought the added advantage of hearing the author’s own passion for her topic. This is infectious, and it carried me along, making it ‘unputdownable’. Granted, this isn’t a… show more.

As a regular visitor to art galleries, I noticed the scarcity of old paintings by female artists. In this rather cheekily titled book, the author explains the reasons for so few artworks by women in our museums and galleries.

She illustrates women’s artistic talent and the incredible and often physically violent struggles they have endured in order to be recognised.

I learned so much, and it’s rekindled my determination to keep riding my motorbike! Now, you may think motorcycle travel and art history have nothing in common, but not so! There is still a belief that women are not as… show more.

The story of art history that most of us are taught is superficial and incomplete, but it can be a non-trivial task figuring out who else (and which sub-movements) should be looked into, and how to find more information about those people and happenings when so much of the field’s scholarship has been aimed at one group of people.

This book does a great job of expanding the lens so that more people (and their work and other contributions) become visible and legible, and though not everyone could receive as much attention as they should arguably get (the book is… show more.