Founder of the influential platform The Great Women Artists, Katy Hessel is an acclaimed art historian, curator, and broadcaster who spotlights the female artists who have shaped visual culture across centuries. Through her writing, exhibitions, podcast, and award-winning book "The Story of Art Without Men", Hessel offers a vibrant, inclusive perspective on the art world today. To coincide with the launch of her new book "How to Live an Artful Life" on 6th November, we asked Katy about her personal style, taste and inspirations...
Shop Katy Hessel's Edit here
Style Notes
Write or scribble?
Write, but when I'm in front of an artwork I have to download everything I see and feel, otherwise I will never get those thoughts back. I have to catch them in the moment!
Debate or declare?
Debate - it's too much fun hearing someone else's perspective.
What book changed your life and how?
Olivia Laing's The Lonely City – it showed me that art can be written about through any lens.
What work of art would you most like to hang on your wall?
An Alice Neel portrait from the 1970s or 80s; or, if I had the space, a Joan Mitchell painting from the 1960s. I recently went to The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and loved their Untitled from 1961. To have an Artemisia Gentileschi, like a Magdalene or Saint Catherine of Alexandria would be pretty spectacular, too! And then a Louise Bourgeois 'Maman' for the garden...
What female artist seems most relevant today?
Alice Neel. She understood – or tried to grapple with understanding – people, and that will never, ever go away.
What’s your favourite gallery or museum that most inspires you?
I love the Louisiana Museum in Denmark, but recently I visited the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth Texas, that really blew me away. Of course I will never get bored of The Met.
What is your first rule of personal style?
How is this a riff on the school uniform?
Who is your style icon?
Madeline (from the 1998 film)... but also Bella Freud, David Bowie, Egon Schiele, Diane Keaton as Annie Hall. Essentially: sharp tailoring with a punky-London Ossie Clark flair!
Minimal or maximal?
Maximal within minimal. So a lot of objects in a minimal space (if that makes sense!).
Lifetime treasure or throwaway?
Treasures. I hold onto everything. But I need a better filing system.
What’s your favourite bar and your drink of choice?
Dirty Martini (vodka) in the bar of the Chelsea Hotel, New York.
Where would be your ultimate place to sleep?
Philip Johnson's Glass House in Connecticut (you can actually rent it, for a hefty price).
Stillness or madness?
Madness: always ask a busy person something to do.
Chaos or zen?
Both: but never at the same time.
Katy Hessel's new book How to Live an Artful Life is available to buy here
