Almost every aspect of our culture is plagued by inherent and systemic sexism, and unfortunately the artworld is not immune to the toxicity of the patriarchy. It is important to celebrate the work of minority artists who have throughout history been marginalised and discredited by a hugely male and ruthless industry that confined the ‘weaker sex’ to traditionally female mediums like textiles and photography. In this article I will list just a few female artists who throughout their lives were outshined by their partners of the opposite sex.
Frida Kahlo
The iconic Mexican master of self-portraits lived her life out shadowed by her husband Diego Riviera: a skilful painter of wall murals. Kahlo’s story is an interesting one, however, as her star began rising posthumously and she is now considered one of the most famous artists of all time in spite of her little-found success during her life. Kahlo painted over 3,500 self-portraits and her faces has been noted as being one of the most instantly-recognisable in the world. And rightly so. Kahlo broke a stale and conservative mould in the art world with her ravishing masterpieces that explored illness, sexuality, gender and heritage.
Lee Krasner
Despite being an inventive and talented artist in her own right, Krasner felt herself to have been considered the “Dame” in the art-world i.e. a supportive wife to her husband (Jackson Pollock). She worked alongside Pollock in the Abstract Expressionist Movement and would often be called-upon by her husband and his agent for her keen eye to detail and constructive criticism that helped Pollock to become the revolutionary that he was. Moreover, she worked tirelessly to have his compositions exhibited at the MoMA and many other galleries after his death. If Pollock was the King of the abstract movement, then it is only fair that Krasner be named Queen for her bold and expressive forays into collage and abstract landscapes that never shied away from being too aggressive or daring with colour.
Elaine de Kooning
Finally gaining more deserved notoriety in the 80s with retrospectives held at the National Portrait Gallery in DC, for example, Kooning was a remarkable figure painter with an innate talent in painting that she fostered at the Leonardo de Vinci school in Manhattan where she met her future mentor and partner Willem de Kooning. Her paintings were such a beautiful merge between portraiture and abstract expressionism that they caught the eye of President John F. Kennedy and President Truman who commissioned Kooning to paint them in portraits that hang in their presidential libraries respectively. Elaine de Kooning was also a realist and acutely aware of the way the patriarchy had poisoned the male-dominated art world - having once said about a show she agreed to do along with her husband and other artist couples: “It seemed like a good idea at the time, but later I came to think that it was a bit of a put-down of the women. There was something about the show that sort of attached women-wives to the real artists.”
