Modern Women at MoMA and a tribute to a Grande dame, Louise Bourgeois

Modern Women : A partial history

The Museum of Modern Art owes a large share of its success to women. The Museum was the idea and creation of three women, and from those founders of 1929 to the associate director and president of the Museum today, women have been instrumental in the development of the institution’s mission, program, and collection. 

Modern Women, Women Artists at The Museum of Modern Art
This groundbreaking publication examines MoMA's collection by highlighting the work of modern and contemporary women artists whose diversity of practices and contributions to the avant-garde movements of the twentieth century have been enormous, if often underrecognized. Featuring fifty illustrated essays by many of the strongest voices in current research on art and gender,Modern Women: Women Artists at The Museum of Modern Art presents a variety of generational and cultural perspectives and examines both canonical figures and lesser-known artists.

Richly illustrated with works from MoMA's collection, Modern Women offers a lively discourse around gender and the production of meaning in art, one absolutely necessary for a more complex understanding of the art of our time. Includes 400 illustrations.

Eva Hesse

Elizabeth Catlett

Frida Kahlo

Atsuko Tanaka

Barbara Hammer

Gillian Wearing

Howardena Pindell

View more works from the book

Courtesy of MoMa

This is a tribute to Louise Bourgeois, a Grande dame of American and European art, and to all those great women's artists who are no longer with us.

Louise Bourgeois best known for her spider sculptures

Maman, the giant sculpture at the National Gallery in Ottawa, Canada

Cell (Eyes and Mirrors)

Untitled and Femme Volage at the Pompidou, Paris

Fabric Drawing