Sunday Art Dialogue: Who Gets Remembered?

Women, power and value in the art world

In 1989, the Guerrilla Girls famously asked:

"Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?"

Their provocative poster revealed a striking imbalance: less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art sections of the Metropolitan Museum were women, while 85% of the nudes were female.

More than 35 years later, the picture has changed - but perhaps not as much as we might think.

According to the Art Basel & UBS Global Art Market Report 2026, women represented 45% of artists represented by dealers in 2025.

Yet at auction, women accounted for only 8% of the total value generated by the top 200 artists.

So representation and recognition are not necessarily the same thing.

And look back through the history of modern art and we find women who were not absent at all.

Jessica Dismorr and Helen Saunders were central figures within Vorticism.

Camille Claudel was a remarkable sculptor in her own right, yet her story has often been told primarily through Rodin.

Lee Krasner was a significant Abstract Expressionist whose career has too often been overshadowed by Jackson Pollock.

Charlotte Perriand made an important contribution to modernist design, yet her work was for many years discussed largely in relation to Le Corbusier.

And there are many others - Barbara Hepworth, Sonia Delaunay, Elaine de Kooning and Hilma af Klint, among them.

WHO DECIDES WHAT MATTERS IN ART?

Museums.

Critics.

Dealers.

Collectors.

Auction houses.

Art historians.

The Guerrilla Girls have been asking these questions for more than forty years.

This Sunday, I am looking at some of the women who helped shape modern art, the work that has sometimes been overlooked, and the continuing difference between recognition, representation and financial value.

HOW MUCH HAS REALLY CHANGED?

I'd love to hear what you think! Please comment.

More in-depth articles to be published soon so follow me.