Katy Hessel studied art history at UCL. In 2015, she launched the Instagram account @thegreatwomenartists to increase the profile of female and gender-nonconforming artists worldwide; it now has more than 300,000 followers, and she hosts a podcast of the same name. Hessel has written and presented arts documentaries for the BBC and her debut book, The Story of Art Without Men, published by Hutchinson Heinemann, celebrates female artists from the past 500 years. It has just been named Waterstones book of the year.
1. Place
Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden in Garavicchio, Tuscany
This is an incredible, glittering sculpture park in the middle of Tuscany that hardly anyone knows about. The French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle worked on it for the last three decades of her life, and it’s full of these giant tarot figures covered in mirrored mosaics. I went there a few years ago but I’m going back in January. It’s sculpture park paradise.
2. Book
The Scent of Flowers at Night by Leïla Slimani
I read an advance copy of this book (out in April) by the author of Lullaby and it’s brilliant. It’s partly a memoir about writing, a bit like Deborah Levy’s living autobiographies, which are my favourite books. Slimani talks about addiction to writing, the power of words and what words can do. She writes brilliantly about the sacrifices that you have to make in order to complete a book.
3. Art
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Fly in League With the Night, Tate Britain
I’ve seen this exhibition three times already, and also when it was at the Tate in 2020. It was amazing to revisit it two years on, when the world is in a completely different place and all of us are too. I saw Yiadom-Boakye’s figures slightly differently this time, they seemed more contemplative and deep in thought. Initially, I thought they were more performative. Yiadom-Boakye is a master storyteller. I love artists who construct this other world for us.
4. Theatre
Orlando at the Garrick theatre, London
This new stage version of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando stars Emma Corrin in the title role, who was completely wondrous and transfixing. It follows an individual through time, from the 16th to the 20th century, and explores gender and time and society. It made me think about the treatment of women over those 400 years. I found it really joyous, it was like going to a party full of amazing costume changes.
5. Restaurant
I went one Friday night recently to this restaurant called Dorian in Notting Hill and bumped into a load of friends. It’s so good. I’ve seen it described as an elevated British bistro and wine bar but the food is a total mix. We shared lots of plates: rib-eye steak, turbot, beef tartare, crab rösti, liver parfait. The chefs kept coming over and giving us wonderful things to eat. It was such fun.
6. Film
The South Korean film Decision to Leave was a bit like being in a giant surrealist painting, with weird closeups of fish, and an ending where they made the sea look like a monster. It was such a captivating and a painterly film, and the storyline, about a detective investigating a suspicious death and getting obsessed with the victim’s wife, was gripping. But I loved it most for the visuals. It sort of reminded me of Dalí.
7. Fashion
Bella Freud suit
I just bought my first Bella Freud suit: three piece, dark-blue and double-breasted corduroy. It feels kind of rock’n’roll, but so elegant as well. I saw Bella Freud in conversation the other night with the artist Celia Paul, who used to sit for [Bella’s father] Lucian Freud. It was really interesting to hear them speak about what it was like to sit for a painter in a painting you know so well. I wore the suit to the talk. I love the idea that this fashion designer has an art history connection that she brings to her clothes.
