"Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" asked the prominent art historian Linda Nochlin in an intentionally provocative 1971 essay. Thirty-five years later, her insightful institutional critique serves as a benchmark against which the progress of women artists may be measured. In this book, four prominent critics and curators describe the strides made by women artists since the advent of the feminist movement and assess the changes that have occurred in their critical reception, commercial appeal, and institutional support. Following a comprehensive essay which looks back at the recent history of women artists, the authors examine in depth the careers of an international selection of artists - Marina Abramovic, Louise Bourgeois, Ellen Gallagher, Ann Hamilton, Jenny Holzer, Elizabeth Murray, Shirin Neshat, Judy Pfaff, Dana Schutz, Cindy Sherman, Kiki Smith, and Nancy Spero - and each artist's accomplishments and her influence on contemporaries and on younger men and women artists.
A preface by Nochlin reconsiders her provocative question and an introduction with extensive statistical documentation of how women artists' situation has changed, frame this compelling and fascinating work.