The Feminist Critique of Art History

Abstract

Art criticism and art history from a feminist perspective are recent phenomena, emerging only during the last fifteen years. They have, in their short history, moved from a first generation in which “the condition and experience of being female” was emphasized, to a second generation, beginning in the late 1970s, influenced by feminist criticism in other disciplines and offering a more complex critique of both art and culture through an investigation of the production and evaluation of art and the role of the artist. In this survey, we propose, first, to outline the history of feminist art and art history, then to discuss the interrelated themes in each, and, finally, in the concluding and pivotal sections (IV and V), to discuss various feminist art-critical and art-historical methodologies.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Thalia Gouma-Peterson

Thalia Gouma-Peterson's research and writing have been concentrated in two distinct fields: Byzantine icons and frescoes (she is trained as a medievalist), and contemporary art. She has published in the Art Bulletin, Gesta, and Dumbarton Oaks Papers, and has organized exhibitions of the work of Miriam Schapiro and Faith Ringgold. She has also written on Joyce Kozloff and Elizabeth Catlett, and currently is guest curator for a retrospective of the work of Audrey Flack. [Department of Art, The College of Wooster, Wooster, OH 44691]

Patricia Mathews

As indicated by her recent publications on Aurier and Van Gogh in the Art Bulletin (LXVIII, 1986) and her book on Aurier (UMI Research Press, 1986), Patricia Mathews studies the relationships between art, theory, and criticism. She organized an exhibition of Virginia women artists (1985), has written criticism on May Stevens, Joyce Kozloff, and the question of what is female imagery, and currently is co-editing an interdisciplinary anthology, Female Sensibility. [Department of Art, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH 44074]