The Artists: Berthe, Paula, Julie, Barbara, Sofonisba

The artists here have been selected from various lists we found online from Google searches. We learnt so much during these searches and realized how much work needs to be done in terms of equality, not just gender but also race. We have a long way to go.  

Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot (January 14, 1841 – March 2, 1895) was a painter and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists. In 1864, she exhibited for the first time in the highly esteemed Salon de Paris. Her work was selected for exhibition in six subsequent Salons until, in 1874, she joined the "rejected" Impressionists in the first of their own exhibitions. In February 2013, Morisot became the highest priced female artist, when After Lunch (1881), a portrait of a young redhead in a straw hat and purple dress, sold for $10.9 million at a Christie's auction. The painting achieved roughly three times its upper estimate. Read more about Berthe here: The Art Story 

Dame Paula Rego (born 26 January 1935), is a Portuguese visual artist who is particularly known for her paintings and prints based on storybooks. Rego’s style has evolved from abstract towards representational, and she has favoured pastels over oils for much of her career. Her work often reflects feminism, coloured by folk-themes from her native Portugal. She was the first artist-in-residence at the National Gallery in London. She lives and works in London. Read more about Paula here: Artnet.com

Julie Mehretu (born 1970 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) is an artist, best known for her large-scale paintings and drawings and her technique of layering different elements and media. Her canvases overlay different architectural features such as columns, façades and porticoes with different geographical schema such as charts, building plans and city maps and architectural renderings for stadiums, international airports, and other public gathering hubs, seen from different perspectives, at once aerial, cross-section and isometric. Her drawings are preparatory to her large paintings, and sometimes interim between paintings. Read more about Julie here : Artnet.com

Barbara Kruger (born January 26, 1945) is an American conceptual artist and collagist.  Much of Kruger's work pairs found photographs with pithy and assertive text that challenges the viewer. Her method includes developing her ideas on a computer, later transferring the results (often billboard-sized) into images. Much of her text calls attention to ideas such as feminism, consumerism, and individual autonomy and desire, frequently appropriating images from mainstream magazines and using her bold phrases to frame them in a new context. Read more about Barbara here: The Art Story

Sofonisba Anguissola (c. 1532 – 16 November 1625), was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Italy. Her most distinctive and attractive paintings are her portraits of herself and her family, painted before she moved to the Spanish court. In particular her depictions of children were fresh and closely observed. In later life, she also painted religious themes, although many of her religious paintings have been lost. In 1625, she died at age ninety-three in Palermo. Anguissola's example, as much as her oeuvre, had a lasting influence on subsequent generations of artists, and her great success opened the way for larger numbers of women to pursue serious careers as artists. Read more about Sofonisba here: Art History.Net

All excerpts from Wikipedia, thanks Wiki!