Linda Nochlin: Feminist Art

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Feminist art is argued to be a limited subject and that it cannot be considered a separate style although art is conceived differently from a male to a female perspective. Compared to artwork made by the male gender, women artists are more inward looking, delicate and nuanced according to Linda Nochlin, the author of “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?”. In her essay, Nochlin begins by discussing the myriad amount of ways people have attempted to answer the question about the lack of great women artists. She emphasized the fact that although each of these activities is valuable to the study of Art history, they serve as mere excuses to hide the reality behind the fact that there actually have not been any great female artists. In addition, Nochlin also writes that there are no female versions of Michelangelo or Rembrandt or Picasso, which is indeed a fact. Also, the essay focuses on the idea of artistic genius, which according to Nochlin, is non - existent. Nochlin highlights the concept behind the reason being a whole system in place that excluded the female gender from creating the type of work that made artists like Raphael and Michelangelo famous artists. Women were excluded from taking classes or drawing
The subject matter in “Women, Art and Gender: A History” focuses on the societal changes which made women stand out in the world. This paper discusses Yoko Ono’s emergence as an example to prove Nochlin’s point about how female artists have been affected by society. A more thorough discussion will be included concerning Nochlin( Heller.1987) stating that only women who had famous male artists as family or relation were valued in the days. The second question raised in this paper is whether or not Yoko Ono’s fame was due to her talent or due to the fact that she was with John

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