Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? by Linda Nochlin

Nochlin’s message could not be more urgent: as she herself put it in 2015, ‘there is still a long way to go’. ‘Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?’ has become a rallying cry that resonates across culture and society. With reference to Louise Bourgeois, Cindy Sherman and many more, Nochlin diagnoses the state of women and art with unmatched passion and precision. Written in an era of thriving feminist theory, as well as queer theory, race and postcolonial studies, ‘Thirty Years After’ is a striking reflection on the emergence of a whole new canon. In this stand-alone anniversary edition, Nochlin’s influential essay is published alongside its reappraisal, ‘Thirty Years After’. Maybe this is implying that women have other things, or duties, that take up their time, like raising a family. For example, there have been no great women artists because they arent capable of the same kind of greatness as famous male artists. With unparalleled insight, Nochlin lays bare the acceptance of a white male viewpoint in art historical thought as not merely a moral failure, but an intellectual one. Nochlin implies that most of the answers to this question have been excuses in some sense. Instead, she dismantles the very concept of greatness, unravelling the basic assumptions that created the male-centric genius in art. The account, which was inspired by Linda Nochlin’s 1971 essay in Art News, Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists and artist activists like the Guerrilla Girls, has since amassed more. Nochlin refuses to handle the question of why there have been no ‘great women artists’ on its own, corrupted, terms. At once challenging and enlightening, it is never less than fully engaging, enticing the reader to question their own assumptions and to set off in new directions. It remains fundamental to any appreciation of art today. Linda Nochlin’s landmark essay heralded the dawn of a feminist history of art. Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists by Linda Nochlin Publication date 1971 Topics art, women, women in art, art history, nochlin Collection opensource Language English From Nochlin's 1988 book Women, Art, and Power.

Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? by Linda Nochlin