Women Artists: The Linda Nochlin Reader (2015)
Filed under book | Tags: · art criticism, art history, feminism, painting, realism, sculpture, women

“Linda Nochlin (1931-2017) was one of the most accessible, provocative, and innovative art historians of our time. In 1971 she published her essay “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?”—a dramatic feminist call-to-arms that called traditional art historical practices into question and led to a major revision of the discipline.
Women Artists brings together twenty-nine essential essays from throughout Nochlin’s career, making this the definitive anthology of her writing about women in art. Included are her major thematic texts “Women Artists After the French Revolution” and “Starting from Scratch: The Beginnings of Feminist Art History,” as well as the landmark essay and its rejoinder “‘Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?’ Thirty Years After.” These appear alongside monographic entries focusing on a selection of major women artists including Mary Cassatt, Louise Bourgeois, Cecily Brown, Kiki Smith, Miwa Yanagi, and Sophie Calle.
Women Artists also presents two new essays written specifically for this book and an interview with Nochlin investigating the position of women artists today.”
Edited by Maura Reilly
Publisher Thames & Hudson, London and New York, 2015
ISBN 9780500239292, 0500239290
472 pages
Reviews: Chris Kraus (NY Times, 2015), Publishers Weekly (2015).
Comment (0)Re/Search, 13: Angry Women (1991)
Filed under magazine | Tags: · feminism, interview, performance, race, sexuality, women

“In this illustrated, interview-format volume, 16 women artists address the volatile issues of male domination, feminism, race and denial. Among the modern warriors here are Diamanda Galas, a composer of ritualistic ‘plague masses’ about AIDS who refuses to tolerate pity or weakness; Lydia Lunch, a self-described ‘instigator’ who explains that her graphic portrayals of exploitation stem from her victimization as a child; and Wanda Coleman, a poet who rages against racism and ignorance. Goddess worshipper and former porn star Annie Sprinkle enthusiastically promotes positive sexual attitudes; bell hooks discusses societal power structures in terms of race and gender; Holly Hughes, Sapphire and Susie Bright expound on lesbianism and oppression; pro-choice advocates Suzy Kerr and Dianne Malley describe their struggles for reproductive rights.”
Interviews with Kathy Acker, Susie Bright, Wanda Coleman, Valie Export, Karen Finley, Diamanda Galás, Bell Hooks, Holly Hughes, Lydia Lunch, Kerr & Malley, Linda Montano, Avital Ronell, Sapphire, Carolee Schneemann, and Annie Sprinkle.
The magazine was later translated into German, Chinese and Japanese.
Edited by Andrea Juno and V. Vale
Publisher Re/Search, San Francisco, 1991
239 pages
PDF (138 MB)
Comments (3)Henry M. Sayre: The Object of Performance: The American Avant-Garde since 1970 (1989)
Filed under book | Tags: · art history, avant-garde, dance, feminism, land art, performance, performance art, photography

Looks at the development of American avant-garde art. Considers feminist performance, particularly by Laurie Anderson, Eleanor Antin, and Carolee Schneemann; dance and collaboration as a new form of Gesamtkunstwerk; poets of the vernacular landscape and the postmodern sublime; and the application of Roland Barthes’s theories to Sayre’s own concepts of the relationship between photography and live art (ch 7).
Publisher University of Chicago Press, 1989
ISBN 0226735575, 9780226735573
xvi+308 pages
Reviews: Roger F. Malina (Leonardo, 1992), George J. Leonard (LA Times, 1989).
PDF (93 MB, no OCR)
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