In Spinster Salt's Collection 1989

Lubaina Himid (b.1954)
New Hall Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge
Self Portrait in a Straw Hat after 1782

Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755–1842)
The National Gallery, London
Cane River Cotton Gin c.1960

Clementine Hunter (1887–1988)
American Museum & Gardens

Art Matters is the podcast that brings together pop culture and art history, hosted by Ferren Gipson.

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On this episode of Art Matters, we speak with Katy Hessel, the woman behind the Instagram account The Great Women Artists. We discuss how digital tools can help champion women artists, and how social platforms offer a voice to underrepresented communities. With this year marking 100 years since women began to gain voting rights in the UK, and International Women’s Day approaching on 8 March, it’s the perfect time to highlight and celebrate great, overlooked women artists.

This episode's guest

Katy Hessel is the woman behind the Instagram-based blog @thegreatwomenartists. Having completed a BA in Art History at UCL in 2015, Katy began the account in October 2015 to highlight and celebrate female artists through daily posts. The women featured range from emerging artists to lesser-known women artists from the Baroque and Renaissance periods, as well as well-known female artists like Frida Kahlo.

The Great Women Artists seeks to reinsert women back into the art historical narrative in an accessible way, and Katy has written this subject for numerous publications including i-D, It's Nice That, and Dazed. In November 2017, Katy curated her first exhibition, ‘The Great Women Artists: Women on Instagram’ at Mother London, showcasing a range of women artists who use Instagram as a platform for their artistic careers. Katy lives and works in London.

The Great Women Artists Instagram

Explore more

Do you know these five trailblazing women artists?

The women artists obscured by their husbands

Artist in focus: Clementine Hunter

Sisters, in and out of art: Hazel King-Farlow and Peggy Guggenheim

Leonora Carrington: the artist who ran away to Mexico

Listen to our other Art Matters podcast episodes