Essential Reading for International Women’s Day & Month
March 8 marked International Women’s Day — and as a passionate advocate of women in the arts, I want to take a moment to honor the creators, trailblazers, and storytellers who have shaped culture on their own terms. The following seven books celebrate women across every artistic discipline: their struggles against exclusion, their hard-won breakthroughs, and the indelible marks they have left on the world. Whether you are an art lover, a history enthusiast, or simply someone who believes women’s stories deserve to be told, these titles offer something powerful and necessary.
1. Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death
by Laura Cumming (2023)
Critic Laura Cumming weaves together the life of 17th-century Dutch painter Carel Fabritius with intimate details about her own artist father, exploring how art can shape a view of the world. Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Nonfiction.
2. Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art
by Lauren Elkin (2023)
An in-depth examination of how experimental artists like Eva Hesse, Carolee Schneemann, and Kara Walker expressed women’s bodily experiences, blending serious scholarly criticism with memoir.
3. Portrait of a Woman: Art, Rivalry, and Revolution in the Life of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard
by Bridget Quinn (2024)
A biography rescuing Neoclassical artist Adélaïde Labille-Guiard from obscurity — official portraitist of the French royal court, Académie Royale member, and devoted mentor to younger women artists.
4. The Art Spy
by Michelle Young (2025)
The gripping story of French art historian and resistance hero Rose Valland, who risked her life to protect hundreds of renowned paintings from Nazi looting during World War II.
5. Vanessa Bell: A World of Form and Colour
By Rebecca Birrell (2025)
Tracing the work of pioneering modernist and Bloomsbury Group founder Vanessa Bell — once called “the most important woman painter in Europe” — across painting, design, furniture, ceramics, and beyond.
6. The Power of Magical Women
by Connie Boyd (2025)
A groundbreaking, critically acclaimed anthology celebrating 70+ women in magic — their struggles, breakthroughs, and triumphs. A long-overdue tribute to the women who made history disappear and reappear on their own terms.
7. Mary Cassatt Between Paris and New York: The Making of a Transatlantic Legacy
by Ruth E. Iskin (2025)
A richly researched study of how Mary Cassatt built her reputation across two continents, reframing her enduring transatlantic legacy.
Here’s to the women who made history — and to those still writing it.