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Katy Hessel

November 2025

  • Painting accessories in the studioBusy studio of a painter, messy brushes and paint all over the studio, Nikon Z7

    Drink tea, tidy up and take action! Can advice from artists really improve your life?

  • Self-Portrait With Bandaged Ear by Vincent Van Gogh (1889) on display at the Courtauld Gallery in London, 2021.

    The Guardian view on art and health: the masterpiece can cure the body as well as the soul

February 2025

  • All about the optics … part of Ayesha Singh’s new work for the India Art Fair.

    The great women's art bulletin
    Blinded by the light: the visionary, forgotten women who reshaped our worlds so thrillingly

    Ever heard of Emilia Lanier? She rewrote the crucifixion from a female point of view – in 1611! Her lack of recognition is exactly what Indian artist Ayesha Singh seeks to highlight today with her eye-popping, perspective-shifting art

November 2024

  • Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels in Utah

    The great women's art bulletin
    See the light pour through: how art can free us from the exhaustion of smartphone addiction

    As tech giants hook us into endless scrolling, we are becoming less engaged, less creative, less connected, less human. Art reminds us to look outwards at the things that truly matter

September 2024

  • A black and white archive image of ruined manor house.

    In brief: Small Bomb at Dimperley; The Revelation of Ireland 1995-2020; The Story of Art Without Men – review

    A well-structured postwar romance; a fascinating Irish history; and saluting female artists painted into the margins

August 2024

  • Composite image of best paperbacks August 2024

    This month's best paperbacks
    This month’s best paperbacks: Katy Hessel, Jesmyn Ward and more

    Looking for a new reading recommendation? Here are some brilliant new paperbacks, from a fresh history of art to a 21st century fairytale

June 2024

  • Working-class background … two works by Lee Krasner.

    The great women's art bulletin
    One vision, 4000 artists and a country transformed: why the next British PM must copy Roosevelt

    Roosevelt’s New Deal gave artists like Alice Neel and Lee Krasner a lifeline during a time of crisis – and it changed the face of America. Whoever wins the UK election should take heed

May 2024

  • Welcome to nana land … Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden in Tuscany, which she lived in for seven years.

    The great women's art bulletin
    Thrill me, hide me, restore me: what can we learn about artists from their gardens?

    From the spectacular Tarot Garden Niki de Saint Phalle built in Tuscany to Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture oasis in St Ives, artists’ green spaces are about so much more than plants and pruning

April 2024

  • Literally embracing nature … Surrounded Islands in Miami by Jeanne-Claude and Christo.

    The great women's art bulletin
    From Banksy’s green leaves to Miami’s pink islands, public art’s a party – and everyone’s invited!

    Yoko Ono hung wishes from trees. Jeanne-Claude and Christo coated entire coastlines. But their work had one thing in common: it made us think about what we should cherish – and what we are losing

March 2024

  • A rare sight … Cleopatra depicted with her clothes on, by Angelica Kauffman.

    The great women's art bulletin
    Why does Cleopatra always have to die nude? Male titillaters – and the artist who stood against them

  • Lucie Rie with a pot

    Museums Without Men: audio guides to celebrate dozens of female artists

February 2024

  • Charging ahead … The Horse Fair by Rosa Bonheur, which hangs in a room mostly full of female nudes.

    Museums Without Men: my project to end their shocking gender imbalance

  • Powerful image … Judy Chicago’s Birth Tear, which appears in Unravel.

    The great women's art bulletin
    You can’t ban embroidery! Why Arts Council England’s crackdown is a stitch-up

January 2024

  • Katy Hessel

    The great women's art bulletin
    double quotation markThe monstrous old master: how Succession’s Rubens lays bare the Roy family’s brutality

    Katy Hessel
    The 17th-century painting The Tiger Hunt depicts a visceral battle for power that perfectly sets up the HBO series – and paintings on the walls in other TV shows hold hidden messages

December 2023

  • A detail from Echo and Narcissus: The Embrace by Karon Davis.

    The great women's art bulletin
    ‘Beauty must suffer’: the artist lifting the barre on ballet

    Karon Davis’s sculptures chart the emotional and physical effects of pushing one’s body beyond its limits – and asks what it takes to be Black in a white Eurocentric industry

November 2023

  • Clara Peeters’s Still Life of Fish and Cat

    The great women's art bulletin
    Seems fishy: why can’t all galleries be more like the National Museum of Women in the Arts?

  • Still surprising … Judy Chicago’s Herstory.

    The great women's art bulletin
    ‘What if women ruled the world?’ Judy Chicago’s latest show feels very timely

October 2023

  • Katy Hessel

    The great women's art bulletin
    double quotation markIn this neverending news cycle of violence, art speaks to our shared humanity

    Katy Hessel
    From crushed fathers and their waiting children to haunting stacks of empty chairs, art can tell us about the true nature of suffering in ways that headlines never can

September 2023

  • Marina Abramović

    The great women's art bulletin
    Marina Abramović’s shocking Rhythm 0 performance shows why we still cannot trust people in power

  • The official portrait of Theresa May.

    The great women's art bulletin
    Is Theresa May cosplaying as Napoleon? What this portrait tells us about powerful women

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