In capturing women’s art and lives, there are historical corrections. Hessel tells how Mary Delany (1700-1788) was one of the first creators of collage, and imparts the story of Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (1874-1927) who likely created the most famous innovation of 20th century art: the readymade. Lauded as Marcel Duchamp’s invention, the Baroness never received any recognition in her lifetime. It’s no wonder, writes Hessel, that she became fond of saying “Marcel Dushit”.

In highly readable fashion, Hessel takes us through the advent of modern art in the 1800s, explaining that what made art “modern” was precisely the inclusion of women (bolstered by suffrage and education access). She chronicles women artists in 20th-century movements including Abstract Expressionism, the Harlem Renaissance and Surrealism, and relays the rise of performance and multimedia art — forms pioneered by women artists from the 1960s onwards — and the institutional critiques of artists such as Guerrilla Girls, artists of colour and queer artists in the late 20th century.

It ends in 2022: a time of revision, a return to figuration, and of decolonising art history. Here, Hessel emphasises that centring “women in art” isn’t a trend. It’s about “equality as normality”.

Hessel never condescends, softening information with a first-person delivery akin to writers such as Jennifer Higgie and Olivia Laing, illustrating what makes an artist or artwork genuinely meaningful. There are accessible cultural contexts for each artist while honouring the singularity of their lives, and despite an inevitably fleeting look at many artists, the book is clearly structured by movements and decades.

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Although largely Western focused, Hessel covers quilting to pottery to self-taught art, looking beyond Europe to Japan, Brazil, Russia, India and more. Further space, however, could be afforded to Indigenous women artists.

This book is also a correction. In 1950, The Story of Art by E.H. Gombrich was published. The first edition featured zero female artists, the 16th has one, and it eventually sold more than 8 million copies, becoming one of the most popular art books ever, ensuring art history became synonymous with male achievement.

When women are literally written out of history, Hessel conveys how radical, powerful and vulnerable their lives and art were — and still are. Through moments of rage and celebration, this story fundamentally centres creative freedom: the stifling of it, and the lengths endured to claim it.

The Story of Art without Men by Katy Hessel is published by Hutchinson Heinemann, $55.