In art history, and Western society in general, external beauty is equated with moral, social, economic and political success, with the qualifying features for what is considered beautiful being determined by, and for, the male gaze. Given that art’s spectator is presumed to always be a man, his idyllic gaze is pandered to in artworks that, to be considered art, must always agree with his definition of beauty. It is for this reason that in portraits of men, beauty is drawn fr

(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) Encompassing 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 th

(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