Art

This essay examines the ways in which art and art history, as disciplines, have been influenced by feminist scholarship and research into the areas of gender, sexuality, and race. It explains that before the interventions of feminist art historians and theorists of art, beginning in the 1970s, the history of art was conceived of and taught as a chronological sequence of masters and monuments in Western art. The essay goes on to note that a feminist history of art emerged in the 1970s, led by the publication of Linda Nochlin's essay "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" It explains that feminism, art, and arts activism have gone hand in hand since the early days of the contemporary women's movement. In 1980s feminist art history continued to investigate women's achievements, as well as focusing on challenging the traditional assumptions of art history itself; in the 1990s authors and publishers were attempting to include women artists in survey texts. The feminist perspective has also influenced pedagogy, leading to more interaction and collaboration between teachers and students. (Contains 125 references.) (MDM)