Action Alert | 36 of Evening Standard’s 50 ‘Best Paintings to See In London’ Were Painted by Men

Sunflowers, Vincent Van Gogh. 1888

As soon as we saw this tweet from Dr. Alke Groppel-Wegener, we knew what had to be done. Challenge accepted!

Sadly, there are not many women to be found on the Evening Standard’s “50 Best Paintings to See In London” list. The list consists of paintings created by 36 men and 12 women, only 2 of whom are women of color. Two paintings are listed as being by unknown artists, but our suspicion is that they likely weren’t women. It’s really difficult to fathom that, out of all the paintings housed in London, there are not more painted by women categorized as a “must see”.

We counted @standardnews’s “50 Best Paintings to See In London” list and — surprise, surprise — only 12 of them were painted by women. Time to print a revision, this time with better gender balance. h/t @alkegw #GenderAvenger https://www.genderavenger.com/blog/action-alert-evening-standard-50-best-paintings-london