Feminist Art History

Feminist art history-A literature review

This paper aims at exploring the works of some famous feminist art historians such as Linda Nochlin, Norma Broude, Griselda Pollock, and Rozsika Parker, who focused their literature on the issue of women and art history from the 19th century through the 20th century.

Broude states that female feminist art history students are of the belief that they have to rewrite art (Broude & Garrard 1982, 183). However, Broude and Garrard challenges this assumption by inquiring the “what and how” female feminist art history students would go about achieving the task of rewriting art, and what led to this notion of rewriting the history of art and what they intend to achieve by rewriting the history of art (Broude & Garrard 1982, 183). The notion of rewriting art history can be obtained from the accounts of Pollock and Parker that there have been variance in the affiliation and which are a product of social structures (Pollock & Parker 2013, 3). Thus in order to expose these differences art history has to be revamped.

Feminist inquiry in art history began in 1971 with Linda Nochlin’s article “why have there been no great women artists” (Peterson & Mathew 1987, 325). To answer her question she stresses that, “art is not a free autonomous activity of a super endowed individual influenced by previous arts or social factors, but rather art is an integral element of structure and is determined by specific social institutions such as arts academics, patrons, patriarchal culture or the myth of the divine creator” (Peterson & Matthew 1987,325), which means that art is not for everyone who feel they are talented enough to hold a manipulate brush strokes. However...

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.... London: Chatto & Windus in collaboration with Channel Four Television Co., 1987.

Nochlin, Linda. Women, art, and power: and other essays. New York: Harper & Row, 1988.

Parker, Rozsika, and Griselda Pollock. Old mistresses women, art and ideology. New ed. London: I.B. Tauris, 2013.

Peterson. G, Thalia, and ptricia Mathew .T. "Feminist Critique of Art History." Art Bulletin 69 (1987): 326-357.

Pollock, Griselda. Vision and difference: femininity, feminism, and histories of art. London: Routledge, 1988.

Raven, Arlene. Crossing over: feminism and art of social concern. Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research Press, 1988.

Reckitt, Helena. Art and feminism. London: Phaidon, 2001.

Robinson, Hilary. Visibly female: feminism and art: an anthology. New York: Universe Books, 1988.

Robinson, Hilary. Feminism-art-theory: an anthology, 1968-2000. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2001.