Here we list all the new books about women artists—from the past, and also from the present—that have come to our attention, published in the second quarter of 2026. Each description is drawn from the blurb on the publisher’s website. Do you know of other titles that should be on this list? Please let us know by comment or by email (Erika@artherstory.net).
For Young Readers
Elise Forrest Harleston, by Maria Ausherman, illustrated by Jeanne Conway. Publisher: TBM Books, 2026.
The first African American woman to co-own a portrait studio with her artist husband, Elise Forrest Harleston of South Carolina took photographs outdoors too, making her work distinctive. In this book, children can discover the life and work of the pioneering American artist!
Adult non-fiction
Hildegard von Bingen: The Fountain of Wisdom, by Sara Salvadori. Publisher: SKIRA, 2026.
In 1173, the German abbess, mystic and composer Hildegard von Bingen completed her Book of Divine Works. She entrusted her spiritual insights not only to written words, but also to painted images. The Fountain of Wisdom compiles these late painted images, uniting original format reproductions of the two Bingen codices with new images, never seen before, that have been hidden within the miniatures. The volume’s three sections chart the process through which Hildegard received and articulated her divine images. The first section addresses the emission of visions through the cosmos, the sphere of creation, to the sphere of the soul; the second elucidates Hildegard’s process of writing and composing these obscured images; the third demonstrates how the mystic employed sapiential code to construct her illustrations through the arts of quadrivium, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy.
Anne Vallayer-Coster, by Kelsey Brosnan. Publisher: Lund Humphries, 2026; North American publisher, Getty Publications.
Anne Vallayer-Coster (1744–1818) was one of just four female academicians admitted to the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in the late 18th century. She made her debut at the Paris Salon only a year after joining the academy with her outstanding still lifes. Later, she secured Queen Marie Antoinette as a patron. This book, the first English-language publication in over 20 years dedicated to this artist, provides a fresh, feminist re-evaluation of her biography and artistic context. Exploring the wide range of objects, materials and textures which the artist depicted—from food and flowers to guns and game—this study offers a new, synaesthetic framework for experiencing the visceral qualities of Vallayer-Coster’s still-life paintings as they were understood in her own time.
Michaelina Wautier, by Katlijne Van der Stighelen. Publisher: Lund Humphries, 2026; North American publisher, Getty Publications.
Active in Brussels in the middle of the 17th century, Michaelina Wautier is now regarded as one of the foremost female artists of her time, although for many years her work was misattributed to her male contemporaries. In this book, the world’s leading Wautier expert highlights Wautier’s originality and the complexity of her oeuvre. Considering how Wautier navigated restricting gender norms to stake out a productive career as a painter, the author places her work in the context of other European artists, both female and male. Incorporating recently discovered biographical information, this volume offers a comprehensive and in-depth overview of Michaelina Wautier’s life and work.
Lakota Women’s Arts: Quillwork and Beadwork, by Marsha C. Bol with Thomas Haukaas. Publisher: Museum of New Mexico Press, 2026.
Historically, very little scholarship has addressed Lakota women and their art forms. Lakota Women’s Arts recognizes the significant contributions made by Lakota women—particularly through their quillwork and beadwork embroidery—in supporting and maintaining the foundational values of traditional Lakota society. The author explores the underlying motivations that have impelled Lakota women to practice these arts over many centuries, with particular focus on the decades since 1820. Lavishly illustrated, the volume provides today’s Lakota artists unprecedented access to historical examples of quill- and beadwork that are tucked away in museums and private collections.
O’Keeffe-isms, Edited by Larry Warsh. Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2026.
Drawn from her published writings, letters, interviews, and other sources, the quotes in O’Keeffe-isms provide insights into her artistic philosophy, creative process, and profound connection to the desert landscapes of New Mexico and the American Southwest. Poetic, fearless, and introspective, O’Keeffe-isms provides a vivid window into the mind of a beloved modernist artist who forged her own path.
Cut Out: A Feminist History of Photo Collage, Montage and Assemblage, Edited by Fiona Rogers. Publisher: Thames & Hudson, 2026.
Cut Out explores the relationship between photography and feminist collage, foregrounding the use of femmage—a radical reclaiming of craft traditionally associated with women—as a resilient method within feminist and political art. Tracing a lineage from 19th-century makers to contemporary practitioners, this fascinating volume covers Victorian album makers; modernist, surrealist, and Dadaist innovators; and radical, second-wave feminist artists. Thematic sections include profiles written by expert contributors on key individuals, including Hannah Höch, Dora Maar, and Lorna Simpson. Looking to the future as much as the past, Cut Out also reveals how the pioneering work of contemporary and digital artists continues to subvert dominant narratives and foster ever-expanding forms of photographic collage.
Dorothea Tanning: A Surrealist World, by Alyce Mahon. Publisher: Yale University Press, 2026.
Born on the day of a hurricane in Galesburg, Illinois, Dorothea Tanning (1910–2012) would become a figure at the very heart of the avant-garde, among a close circle of contemporaries including Joseph Cornell, Max Ernst, Lee Miller and Man Ray. Her art and philosophical ideas reveal her transformative impact on post-war Surrealism, and her life story reveals how she skilfully navigated her role as a woman artist on the international stage. Alyce Mahon maps Tanning’s extraordinary seventy-year career—from Chicago and Arizona to Paris and Seillans, through to her final years in New York—and traces how these landscapes were reshaped into kaleidoscopic imagined worlds in her paintings, sculptures and writings.
Frida Kahlo at Home, by Suzanne Barbezat. Publisher: Frances Lincoln, Quarto Books, 2026.
Frida Kahlo at Home reveals how the places she inhabited—and especially the famed Blue House—nurtured her creativity, identity and extraordinary body of work. This compelling visual biography traces Kahlo’s life through the places she loved, from her childhood in Coyoacán and her student years in Mexico City, to her time in the United States and her final return to La Casa Azul. Drawing on archival photographs, family images, personal artefacts and Frida’s own paintings, the book uncovers how home was not merely a backdrop but a central force in her art and self‑expression.
Kahlo: The Bigger Picture, by Inès Boittiaux. Publisher: Prestel, 2026.
Bringing together approximately 90 works, this book traces the full arc of Frida Kahlo’s career—from early self-portraits to paintings shaped by love, politics, physical suffering, and fierce independence. The often full-page or double-page reproductions and details of the works encourage close looking, allowing readers to move between Kahlo’s commanding compositions and the quieter details that carry emotional and symbolic weight. The accompanying texts integrate biography with visual analysis, clarifying how Kahlo’s art absorbed the realities of her body, her relationships, and her political beliefs. Saturated with color and brimming with insight into Kahlo’s oeuvre, this sumptuous book presents her art in all its intensity, detail, and visual power.
Casa Kahlo: Frida Kahlo’s Home and Sanctuary, by Mara Romeo Kahlo, Mara de Anda Romeo and Frida Hentschel Romeo. Publisher: Rizzoli International Publications, 2026.
Casa Kahlo offers an intimate new portrait of Frida Kahlo through the lens of the Kahlo family home that stayed in the family’s hands for nearly 100 years. Drawn from the memories, stories, and private archives of Frida’s great nieces, the book reveals what Casa Kahlo meant to the now world-famous artist and cultural heroine. Readers encounter Frida not only as an artist and icon, but as a daughter, mentor, teacher, political thinker, and fiercely loyal family member whose creative life was inseparable from the homes and people around her. With its blend of personal testimony, cultural history, and never-before-shared family perspectives, Casa Kahlo reintroduces Frida Kahlo in a way that feels revelatory and profoundly human.
Surrealist Women Artists and Mental Illness, Edited by Jenny Anger. Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2026.
To date there has been no comprehensive study of the lived reality of women surrealist artists with mental illness. How did women’s experience and their work intersect with this romanticized vision? Was the masculine dream of feminized, “mad” genius prohibitive or productive for these women artists? After establishing the ideological field within which these women worked, Surrealist Women Artists and Mental Illness turns to case studies of well-known and some lesser-known artists, including Ángeles Santos, Leonora Carrington, Dora Maar, Claude Cahun, Frida Kahlo, Meret Oppenheim, Sonja Sekula, and Unica Zürn. This collection of essays contains a wide range of responses, revealing surrealism’s generative as well as restrictive force.
Emmy Bridgwater: Surrealism of Angst, by Silvano Levy. Publisher: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2026.
Born in Birmingham, Emmy Bridgwater became associated with the Birmingham Surrealists in 1937 and joined the London Surrealist Group three years later. Her haunting imagery—sinister birds, savage cats, scenes of mutilation and violation—forms a visual language of disquiet and emotional intensity. In this groundbreaking study, Silvano Levy draws on extensive research to reframe Bridgwater’s role within Surrealism. Through detailed analysis of her visual and poetic work, he uncovers a depth of thought and feeling that challenges conventional narratives of Surrealism. This book reclaims Bridgwater’s place in the Surrealist canon, revealing a profound and often unsettling vision that is as innovative as it is affecting.
My Heart Is This: Tracey Emin on Painting, by Martin Gayford. Publisher: Thames & Hudson, 2026.
Known for her raw and irreverent artwork, Tracey Emin is one of the most widely admired artists working today. In a vivid and intimate portrait of her life and work, in her own words through conversation with author and art critic Martin Gayford, Tracey Emin reflects on painting—how she approaches it, why it matters to her, and how it connects to her life—and how everything changed after her cancer diagnosis. Richly illustrated with photographs of the artist and her work, this book is a beautifully captured record of Tracey Emin about her inspirations, her working environment, and her relationship with other artists from the past and present.
Art and Woman: The Life and Creative World of 100 Women Artists From Around The World, Edited by Charuka Arora. Publisher: Charuka Arora Studio / Arts to Hearts Project, 2026.
This stunning hardcover coffee table book showcases the lives and creative spaces of 100 inspiring women artists from across the globe. Each artist is featured in a beautifully designed 2-page spread that includes an in-depth interview and a glimpse into their creative environment.
Exhibition catalogs
Paula Modersohn-Becker: London Berlin Worpswede Paris, Edited by Frank Schmidt. Publisher: Hirmer Verlag, 2026.
This volume celebrates 150 years since the birth of the fascinating artist, who remains of the most important figures of the German avant-garde. Examining her artistic development in depth and presenting works from all phases of her career, this book places particular focus on her early work, which has hitherto received little attention or recognition. She was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, and her works influenced such major figures as Georg Baselitz and Chantal Joffe. But how did Paula Becker, born in Dresden in 1876, become the artist Paula Modersohn-Becker? Numerous works from renowned collections and private holdings illustrate this fascinating story and demonstrate that she was following her own artistic path even in her student years.
Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art, Edited by Sonnet Stanfill and Lydia Caston. Publisher: Abrams, 2026.
Elsa Schiaparelli sent shockwaves through the fashion establishment with her witty, ingenious, and artful designs. Lauded by Cristóbal Balenciaga as the “only real artist in couture,” she infused her collections with Surrealism and collaborated on pieces with contemporaries from the art world including Man Ray, Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dalí, and Alberto Giacometti. Her garments still look fresh today and, though provocative at the time, were eminently wearable, attracting many society and celebrity clients. Richly illustrated throughout, the book traces Schiaparelli’s enduring influence on fashion and visual culture, from the interwar years to the present day.
Anna Thommesen: Weavings, Edited by Dorthe Aagesen and Anders Gaardboe Jensen. Publisher: Strandberg Publishing, 2026.
Although Thommesen has long been an established name in Danish modernism, the global significance of her work has never been fully explored until now. This book is the first publication in English on the Danish weaver Anna Thommesen (1908–2004), who is best known for her minimalistic, geometric rugs. Lavishly illustrated, it presents a large portion of Thommesen’s oeuvre, examining it from different perspectives. The book offers a close look at Thommesen’s creative practice, delving into the connection of her work to nature, and examines her worldview and artistic position in the light of biographical material and other sources.
Ayeye! Ruth Baumgarte at the Iwalewahaus, Edited by Renée Gadsden and Sigrid Horsch-Albert. Publisher: Hirmer Verlag, 2026.
This new, richly illustrated book centers on how the German painter Ruth Baumgarte (1923–2013) depicted humanity, from her early works created during World War II to the vibrant paintings based on her travels to Africa in her later years. Over four decades, Baumgarte developed a distinct visual language born of existential urgency, ultimately culminating in her Africa cycle. She took more than 40 trips to Africa, where, with a keen eye for people and relationships, she engaged with post-colonial realities, social inequalities, and cultural identity. Presented as a dialogue with contemporary African artists, this volume explores Baumgarte’s biography and the global perspectives in her work.
Beatriz Gonzáles, Edited by Lotte Johnson and Diego Chocano. Publisher: Prestel, 2026.
This landmark monograph traces six decades of Colombian artist Beatriz González’s bold and radical reimagining of images, power, and memory through painting, sculptural assemblage, and largescale public interventions. Coinciding with her largest European retrospective to date, this striking exhibition catalog presents more than 100 works and 300 images, capturing a body of work that is urgent, unflinching, and deeply original. Richly illustrated and rigorously researched, this book situates González’s work within the history of Colombia while revealing how profoundly her practice resonates across global contexts.
Mary Sims: A Retrospective, by Marina Pacini. Publisher: Giles Ltd in association with Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Memphis, TN, 2026.
The works in this new volume span Sims’s entire artistic career: elegant intaglio prints made in the late 1950s; spare, optically flat portraits of isolated figures on monochrome backgrounds from the 1960s and 70s; monumental later-career religious paintings that use Old Testament stories and mythology as fantastical jumping off points; and riotous, and maximalist still lifes from the 1980s and 90s overflowing with flowers, animals, toys, and textiles.
Suzanne Adan: I’m No Spring Chicken, Edited by Scott A. Shields. Publisher: Hirmer Verlag, 2026.
California Pop and Funk meet Chicago’s Hairy Who in Suzanne Adan’s personal universes that combine fantasy, American vernacular culture, and autobiography. This publication assembles some 120 of her paintings, drawings, scratchboards, and ceramics, along with supplemental illustrations and photographs, making it the most comprehensive survey of her work. In word and images, this publication captures Suzanne Adan’s story and sardonic wit, with a twist of nostalgia that befits her practice.
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