(Ukraine-France, 14/11/1885 - 05/12/1979) Born Sarah Stern in what is now Odessa, Ukraine, she was adopted by her affluent uncle following her parents’ death in 1890 and moved to St. Petersburg, where she received a private education and early exposure to the arts. At the age of 16, she began taking formal drawing classes where her notable talent was first noticed and led to her enrollment at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe, Germany. In 1905, Delaunay moved to Paris whe

(Ukraine-United States of America, 31/05/1893 - 11/11/1968) Janet Sobel was a Ukrainian-born American painter whose pioneering approach to Abstraction positioned her as a vital yet long-overlooked figure in twentieth-century art. Born Jennie Lechovsky in Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipro), Ukraine, Sobel immigrated with her family to the United States in 1908, settling in Brooklyn, New York. For much of her early life, she devoted herself to family and domestic duties, only beginning

(Czechia, 21/09/1902 - 09/11/1980) Born Marie Čermínová in 1902 in Prague, Toyen was a founding member of Czech Surrealism and a radical innovator within both the avant-garde and feminist traditions, she forged a visual language that defied conventions of gender, sexuality and politics. Adopting the gender-neutral pseudonym ‘Toyen’ (believed to derive from the French ‘citoyen’, or ‘citizen’) and using masculine grammatical forms in Czech, she fashioned her own identity in a c

(England, 09/11/1881 - 1937) Often overlooked by the canon of art history, Layng’s luminous compositions and quiet psychological depth place her among the most intriguing artists of early twentieth-century Britain. Working at the intersection of classical training and modern sensibility, Layng brought a distinctive sensitivity to the representation of women’s lives, balancing intimacy and restraint with a subtle modernity that reflected the shifting roles of women in her era.

(Switzerland, 30/10/1741 - 05/11/1807) Born in Switzerland in 1741, Kauffman’s father, the Austrian painter Johann Joseph Kauffman, recognised her gifts early and became her first teacher, providing rigorous instruction in drawing and painting. The family’s frequent travels through Switzerland, Austria and Italy exposed her to a breadth of artistic traditions and developed her prodigious talent, and, by her teenage years, she had already began receiving commissions from membe

(France, 31/10/1883 - 08/06/1956) Born and raised in Paris, Laurencin began her artistic education at the age of 18, enrolling in porcelain painting classes at the renowned Ecole de Manufacture de Sèvres before taking private classes in fine art painting at l’Academie Humbert in Paris starting in 1904. Here, she met Francis Picabia and Georges Braque, and established connections that placed her squarely within the orbit of the emergent Cubist milieu. After receiving her first

(France-United States of America, 29/10/1930 - 21/05/2002) Encompassed painting, sculpture, installation, performance, architecture and public art, Saint Phalle’s audacious innovation allowed her to engage deeply with social and political themes central to the Feminist art movement and forge a unique artist language where intimacy and monumentality meet. Born Catherine-Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint Phalle in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, her childhood was spent between France and the

(France, 25/10/1894 - 08/12/1954) Born Lucy Schwob in Nantes, France, Cahun, was a pioneering photographer, writer and performance artist whose radical self-portraits and gender-defying persona anticipated many of the concerns central to contemporary art. Throughout her life, Cahun challenged the conventions of identity, sexuality and representation, forging a body of work that continues to resonate with artists and activists alike. Cahun was born into an intellectually engag

(Sweden, 26/10/1862 - 21/10/1944) A long-overlooked pioneer of Abstraction and non-representational art, af Klint’s work profoundly complicates the canonical history of modernism. Born near Stockholm in 1862, af Klint’s father, a hydrographer, introduced her to the precision of scientific study and, for much of her childhood, his huge nautical charts were the only images she consistently encountered, as such, they would go on to have a deep influence on her art. Af Klint bega

(Hungary-Mexico, 12/05/1912 - 19/10/2000) Born Katalin Deutsch in 1912 to an affluent Jewish family, Horna came of age during a period of sociopolitical upheaval and the artistic experimentation of European avant-garde movements that would profoundly shape her life and work. Her multiple experiences of exile shaped her humanistic vision and allowed her work to translate across languages and borders and transcend the boundaries between artistic expression and activism. In 1932

(France, 08/12/1864 - 19/10/1943) Claudel occupies a singular position in the history of modern sculpture, bridging the late nineteenth century’s academic traditions and the emergent expressiveness of modernism. Born in 1864 in Fère-en-Tardenois, Claudel and her family relocated to Paris in 1881, enabling her to pursue formal studies with Alfred Boucher and at the Académie Colarossi, where her formidable technical ability and uncompromising vision quickly distinguished her am

(Hungary, 18/10/1922 - 02/08/2020) Born in Budapest to a Jewish family of art-dealers and antiquarians, Perlman began assisting in the family’s gallery by sorting postcards featuring the work of master artists, an experience she later described as foundational to her visual consciousness. Describing painting as “at once a sensuous and philosophical process, revealing something about the ancient nature of your soul”, her work is not simply urban scenes depicted in lively colou

(Spain, 16/12/1908 - 08/10/1963) Exploration of the Sources of the Orinoco River (1959) To enter the Surrealist world, and learn its new...

(France, 16/04/1755 - 30/03/1842) Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat (1782) While her foundational art knowledge came from her father, Vigée Le...

(Japan, 22/03/1929 - ) The Hope of the Polka Dots Buried in Infinity Will Eternally Cover the Universe (2019) Growing up in post-World...

(Brazil, 01/09/1886 - 17/01/1973) Anthropophagy (1929) Widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in Latin American Modern...

(Australia, 18/11/1901 - 09/09/1989) Self-Portrait (c.1934) A significant figure in twentieth-century Australian art, Craig’s career...

(Poland, 16/05/1898 - 18/03/1980) La Tunique Rose (1927) Born as Maria Gorska to a wealthy family and raised in early-twentieth-century...

(Italy, 02/02/1532 - 16/11/1625) Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola (1559) Regarded as one of the first prominent and most...

(Italy, 12/01/1673 - 15/04/1757) Self-Portrait Holding a Portrait of Her Sister (1715) As the first woman to definitively instigate a new...