From a landmark Tracey Emin show at Tate Modern to the first female painter in the Royal Academy’s main space, the art world is finally catching up
“D
o women have to be naked to get into the Met Museum?” the feminist art collective Guerrilla Girls asked in their famous 1989 poster. It pointed out that fewer than 5% of the artists in the modern art sections were women, but 85% of the nudes were female. They could have asked the same question of any major art gallery in the world. Four decades later, this year’s biggest UK exhibitions finally show a different picture.
Dame Tracey Emin might be naked in many of her self-portraits, but that isn’t what got her into Tate Modern for a landmark retrospective. Rose Wylie, 91, is the first female painter to have a solo exhibition at the Royal Academy. The Colombian artist Beatriz González (who died, aged 93, in January) is at the Barbican. And that is just this week’s openings.
From Chiharu Shiota at the Hayward Gallery, Gwen John at the National Museum Cardiff and 94-year-old Bridget Riley in Margate, to Frida Kahlo and Ana Mendieta at Tate Modern this summer, female artists from all over the world can be found across the country. Lubaina Himid will be the second black woman to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale in May (Sonia Boyce was the first in 2022). The list goes on.
