Curating women artists

The V&A has work by many successful women artists, like painter Margaret Sarah Carpenter, actress Sarah Siddons and potter Margaret Thompson. They all received recognition during their lifetimes but were excluded from later art histories written by men.

Since the 1970s, research into women artists has brought them renewed attention. Curators sometimes choose, like here, to group the work of women artists with unrelated practices in a way not often done for male artists. This is useful for highlighting previous exclusions but risks flattening their individual art practices.

Written by: Rosalind McKever and Adriana Concin, Curator and former Assistant Curator of Paintings and Drawings
Published: May 2025

Collecting Stories