A 12-EPISODE VIDEO SERIES

Women’s Art History Explained

A journey of 45,000+ years through women’s creativity

From the cave walls of the Ice Age to the artists of today, this free video series follows women’s art across 45,000+ years in 12 short episodes, plus the complete film. Each episode is a starting point for curious viewers, students and teachers. Watch on Mikono Art’s YouTube channel, then scroll down to go deeper in the free textbook that inspired the series: Herstory: A History of Women Artists.
Psst: when you visit Mikono Art on YouTube, don’t forget to subscribe, because there you’ll find 100+ free videos about women’s creativity, past and present.

⬇️ Teachers’ Discussion Kit

The Teachers’ Discussion Kit goes with the 12-episode video series Women’s Art History Explained. Each episode has its own page with discussion questions and a link to the matching chapter of the free textbook Herstory: A History of Women Artists. (if you are based in the United States or Canada and would like to print the kit, a Letter-size version is available here: letter format)

new complete 1000 — **Complete Edition:** all 12 episodes in one film, from cave handprints to manga. 45,000+ years of women’s creativity in about 60 minutes.
▶ Click the image to watch.

ancient2 — **EP01:** Who painted the first art? The handprints on cave walls say women. And Iaia of Cyzicus out-earned the men in Rome 2,000 years ago.
▶ Click the image to watch
**Period:** Ancient Art, 45,000 BCE – 499 CE.
**Go deeper**: Herstory, Chapter 2
**Length:** 4:40 min

2 500 1600 — **EP02:** A woman sculptor carved 60 tiny heads into a single cherry stone. And she also once threw paint in a rival’s face.
▶ Click the image to watch
**Period:** Medieval Art, Renaissance & Mannerism, 500 – 1600 CE
**Go deeper:** Herstory, Chapter 3
**Length:** 4:53 min

new baroque — **EP03:** A successful Dutch painter ran her own workshop. When a student left for a male rival without paying, she took it to the guild and won. ▶ Click the image to watch
**Period:** Baroque, Dutch Golden Age & Asian Ink, 1600 – 1700 CE
**Go deeper:** Herstory, Chapter 4
**Length:** 4:44 min

new rococo 1000 — **EP04:** A basket could map a landscape. A dress could hold a family’s history. Indigenous women made art that was also knowledge. ▶ Click the image to watch
**Period:** Rococo, Neoclassicism & Indigenous Art of North America, 1700 – 1800 CE
**Go deeper:** Herstory, Chapter 5
**Length:** 4:02 min

new realism — **EP05:** One of realism’s female giants needed a government permit to wear trousers, just to paint horses.
▶ Click the image to watch
**Period:** Realism, Impressionism & Quilts, 1800 – 1900 CE
**Go deeper:** Herstory, Chapter 6
**Length:** 5:25 min

nyy fauvism, cubism expressionsim — **EP06:** A Serbian woman artist painted between nursing shifts in wartime hospitals, in swirls of red, purple and black.
▶ Click the image to watch
**Period:** Fauvism, Cubism & Expressionism, 1900 – 1940 CE
**Go deeper:** Herstory, Chapter 7
**Length:** 4:44 min

new 10000 bauhaus, harlem renaissance, surrealism — **EP07:** Frida Kahlo refused the surrealist label: “I don’t paint dreams. I paint my reality.”
▶ Click the image to watch
**Period:** Bauhaus, Harlem Renaissance & Surrealism, 1920s – 1940s
**Go deeper:** Herstory, Chapter 7
**Length:** 7:22 min

new again abstract expressionism & bay area figurative — **EP08:** Joan Brown painted dirty dishes and her son’s trousers falling down in the kitchen. Real life, not myth.
▶ Click the image to watch
**Period:** Abstract Expressionism & Bay Area Figurative, late 1940s – 1970s
**Go deeper:** Herstory, Chapter 8
**Length:** 4:47 min

1000 pop art, op art & minimalism — **EP09:** Warhol painted Marilyn as a sex symbol. Pop artist Pauline Boty painted her as a woman.
▶ Click the image to watch
**Period:** Pop Art, Op Art & Minimalism, 1950s – 1970s
**Go deeper:** Herstory, Chapter 8
**Length:** 5:43 min

feminism 2000 — **EP10:** Anonymous women artists put on gorilla masks to expose sexism in museums.
▶ Click the image to watch
**Period:** Feminist Art & Modern Indigenous Art, 1970 – 2000 CE
**Go deeper:** Herstory, Chapter 9
**Length:** 6:25 min

3000 modern sculpture & young british artists — **EP11:** Tracey Emin put her own bedroom in a gallery, as it was during an emotional collapse. And called it art.
▶ Click the image to watch
**Period:** Modern Sculpture & Young British Artists, 1970 – 2000 CE
**Go deeper:** Herstory, Chapter 9
**Length:** 6:21 min

10000 photorealism new thumbnail — **EP12:** Museums panicked when women picked up video cameras. Pipilotti Rist made video you can walk through.
▶ Click the image to watch
**Period:** Photorealism, Cinematographic Art & Manga/Anime, 1950s – 2000 CE
**Go deeper:** Herstory, Chapter 9
**Length:** 7:27 min

Herstory – the textbook behind the videos

These episodes are based on Herstory: A History of Women Artists, a free, open textbook by Deborah Gustlin and Zoe Gustlin. The videos are an independent Mikono Art production. Use them as a starting point, then read the full chapters.

▶ Read Herstory: A History of Women Artists (Gustlin)

Herstory: A History of Women Artists by Deborah Gustlin and Zoe Gustlin, Evergreen Valley College, is licensed under CC BY 4.0. These videos are adaptations of that work.
Not an official publication of the authors or Evergreen Valley College.