It has been a fine year for looking at, hearing and smelling work by women artists. My highlights of the last 12 months include violent installations by Cornelia Parker; featherlight knotted wire sculptures by Ruth Asawa; old textile scraps animated by family bonds in the hands of Louise Bourgeois; Carolee Schneemann’s daring performances of sexuality, gender and sickness; Magdalena Abakanowicz’s fleshy woven sculptures; Allison Katz’s cerebral paintings; tapestries and tussocky mounds of coloured fibre by Sheila Hicks; and Vivian Maier’s sly street photographs.
There have been moments of triumph. Last week Veronica Ryan was announced as winner of the Turner prize from an all-female and non-binary shortlist. In April, Sonia Boyce won a Golden Lion for her British Pavilion exhibition at a Venice Biennale in which the magnificent central exhibition – Milk of Dreams – was dominated by women artists, current and historical.
