Feminist Artists Whose Work You Need To Know

Here we explore some of the key artists during that time and beyond, as well as the artists whose work acted as a precursor to the movement.

She created one of the most iconic works of this period. Titled The Dinner Party (1979), the installation saw 39 place settings arranged along a triangular table for various mythical and historical women. The piece functioned as a symbolic history of women in Western civilization.

Working since the 1970s, the photographer often toys with female stereotypes but Sherman has never outrightly said she’s a feminist artist, rather she wants the work to speak for itself. She once said: “The work is what it is and hopefully it’s seen as feminist work, or feminist-advised work… But I’m not going to go around espousing theoretical bullshit about feminist stuff.”

Smith's later work has become centered on the human body and she creates uncomfortable artworks that focus on the body or parts of it in great detail inspired by women from mythology and folklore as well as referencing her Catholic upbringing. Smith was one of the first artists to distinguish figurative work within the art world after years of Abstraction and Minimalism had dominated the scene.

Kahlo is mostly known for her deeply personal self-portraits, and she often translated her own life experiences onto the canvas. Her work is retrospectively seen as feminist because the artist made it legitimate for women to outwardly display their pains, frustrations and passions, and therefore made steps towards making sense of and understanding them. Her conviction and raw talent, has meant she’s become a role model for many.

Simpson is best known for her photo-text installations and photo collages which often unpick the perception of African-American women within American culture. The pieces combined portrait images of the female figure with typed words or small sentences to create a powerful dialogue to challenge the viewer.

So groundbreaking was her work that Judy Chicago gave the artist a prominent place in her The Dinner Party artwork. While she was praised by her contemporaries, O’Keeffe refused to join the feminist art movement or co-operate with any “all-women” projects. She disliked being called a “woman artist” and instead wanted to be considered an “artist”.

The Guerilla Girls remain anonymous and to conceal themselves members wear gorilla masks and use pseudonyms that refer to deceased female artists. One of the reasons behind this is that the group believes the issues they are fighting against are bigger than their individual identities.

Lucas is concerned with the casual misogyny of everyday life. For instance in her piece Two Fried Eggs and A Kebab (1992), the artist reflects the way British men sexualize the female body in vulgar slang. The misogynistic terms are represented literally – fried eggs represent breasts and the kebab meat evokes a vagina. The work implicates the viewers and once they acknowledge that two fried eggs and a kebab resemble a women, they are forced to recognize this derogatory perception of women.

Hiller’s work is informed by the visual language of Minimalism and Conceptual art and now cites Minimalism, Fluxus, Surrealism and her study of anthropology as major influences on her work. Though her work doesn’t explicitly deal with themes of gender or sex, her experience as a woman and her feminist ideals have shaped her approach towards her career as an artist.

Though the artist was an active feminist, she rejected the idea that her own art was feminist. She often depicted the feminine body and during the 1960s her imagery become more sexual as she explored the relationship between men and women. In the 1970s, the artist used to hold gatherings at her home where she invited young artists and students to share their work and she often encouraged them to create art that was feminist in nature.

Walker is best known for her room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes against a white wall, which address the history of American slavery and racism through violent and unsettling imagery. Part of the later waves of feminist art, Walker aims to rewrite history in order to “recognize herself” within it.