Articles
Women In Art
RA Exhibitions
12 months ago
Who was Whistler’s Woman in White?
Take a tour of the exhibition ‘Whistler’s Woman in White: Joanna Hiffernan’ with its curators, and delve into the life of the artist’s principal model.
RA Exhibitions
> 1 year ago
The truth in Francis Bacon’s work
Ahead of the exhibition ‘Francis Bacon: Man and Beast’ Jenny Saville RA reflects on the profound impact Bacon has had on her life and work.
RA Exhibitions
> 1 year ago
Hélène Binet’s otherworldly photographs
As Hélène Binet’s enigmatic photographs of buildings go on show at the RA, Fiona Maddocks asks the artist about the meeting between light and line, and mood and memory in her works.
Our Collection
2 years ago
Naked truth: the story of female life models at the RA
What does a 230-year-old household bill tell us about life modelling in the 18th-century? Here, we explore the historical role of the female nude life model at the RA.
Our Collection
2 years ago
Mary Moser and Angelica Kauffman: the RA’s founding women
Angelica Kauffman and Mary Moser were the only two female founders of the Royal Academy. Here, we take a closer look at their careers and the challenges they faced within the RA.
Our Collection
2 years ago
Victorian women and the fight for arts training
19th-century women faced an uphill struggle to get equal access to training at the Royal Academy Schools. Here, we delve into the RA Archive to learn more about women’s fight for equality.
RA Recommends
2 years ago
Eileen Gray: an architect and designer you should know
A designer of decorative furniture and Modernist architecture, Eileen Gray found recognition aged 94. As part of our International Women’s Day programme, here’s our guide to the life of this overlooked master, and her infamous seaside villa, E-1027.
Artists
2 years ago
“Like a portrait painter with their sitters, I have the feeling of a real relationship with the flowers I paint”
100-year-old artist Diana Armfield RA writes about the joy of painting the flowers in her garden.
RA Recommends
2 years ago
Ruth Asawa: the pioneering American sculptor you need to know
This International Women’s Day, we celebrate an artist once dismissed as a “San Francisco Housewife” who refused to see parenthood as an obstacle.
Artists
2 years ago
In the studio with Joy Labinjo
Joy Labinjo is quietly changing the course of art history from a small studio in south London. Writer Fiona Maddocks meets Labinjo to discuss her ambitious paintings, and the next steps in her career.
RA Exhibitions
> 2 years ago
Cristina Iglesias: the artist who transforms public space
Cristina Iglesias, whose sculptures bring out the otherworldliness of the cobbles, stones, bricks and mortar of cities, speaks to Debika Ray about winning the 2020 RA Architecture Prize.
RA Exhibitions
> 2 years ago
Munch’s influence on women artists
Art historian Patricia Berman traces Edvard Munch’s surprising influence on women artists, from Tracey Emin RA and Marlene Dumas Hon RA, to Louise Bourgeois and Maria Lassnig.
Inside the Academy
< 5 years ago
A “female invasion” 250 years in the making
The RA started out with two female Academicians, then took over a century to elect any more. As we celebrate our 250th anniversary, we take a look back at the women who fought the odds to be a part of our history – and the ones helping to secure our future.
Artists
< 6 years ago
The International Women’s Day art quiz
Know your O‘Keeffe from your Kahlo? For International Women’s Day, we’re celebrating a few of the great female artists who deserve a wider audience. Take the quiz and let’s see how much you know.
RA Recommends
> 6 years ago
Three female gallerists who changed the course of British art
Despite the image of art dealing as a man’s world, women played a crucial role in the display, promotion and sale of 20th-century British art. Gill Hedley profiles three female gallerists who promoted British artists.
Opinion
> 6 years ago
Hidden from history: the Royal Academy’s female founders
While the past decade has seen more female artists becoming Academicians, they have been a rare sight for much of the RA’s existence, and were even excluded from Zoffany’s famed painting of the Academy’s founders. Historian Amanda Vickery delves into the archives to discover the pioneering women who wielded the brush.
Opinion
< 7 years ago
Podcast: Women in focus
Does being a female artist influence how a work is created and perceived? Our panel discuss.
Opinion
7 years ago
10 inspirational women in the arts
To mark International Women’s Day, we asked some of the great women in the UK art world, from artists to editors, where things stand when it comes to equality. Here’s what they said.
Opinion
< 8 years ago
Podcast: Women in today’s art world
At an event celebrating International Women’s Day, a panel of female Academicians and students discuss their experience as 21st-century artists.
Opinion
< 9 years ago
Should there be positive discrimination towards female artists?
Eileen Cooper RA and Helena Morrissey discuss whether art institutions need to prioritise women to achieve gender equality or whether positive discrimination is counter-productive.