Book Review: Great Women Artists
Naming The Money © Lubaina Himid, Great Women Artists
By Quinn Kirby
Great Women Artists compiles some of the most poignant artists of the last 500 years, venturing to both recognize and blatantly ignore how gender has influenced the artist’s access within creative spaces.
In the book’s introduction, Rebecca Morrill opines on the history of artistic prestige and expresses how women and their intersectional identities have been the source of their traditional lack of artistic influence. Completely contrary to this statement, however, the writer imposes that the book is meant to recognize women for their work - and only their work - and implores the reader to consider the chosen pieces outside the social consequences of identity.
Imperial Nude: Paul Rosand © Sylvia Sleigh, Great Women Artists
The introduction features this explanation of this reasoning from Morrill: “Artists generally consider themselves as more connected to their contemporary creative peers – male and female – than to any kind of universal womanhood that stretches across time and place.”
She mentions the difficulty of picking about 400 artists to center in the publication out of the over 2000 originally considered, and choosing only four to speak about in a book review is about as difficult.
The book features a collection of Yael Bartana’s works as a filmmaker, focusing on the potency of Bartana’s video projections. The book’s brief on her history as an artist expands on awards she has won for her works, while explaining in-depth the artist’s inspiration, nuance, and atmosphere of her work as a whole.
Cultural Belongings © Dana Claxton, Great Women Artists
Another modern-era artist, Juliana Huxtable, is featured for her expression of life experiences through multiple media. Truly a renaissance woman, Huxtable is hailed in her brief for blending the aesthetics and impacts of multiple cultures across eons into her work. Though the book only features a piece from her photographic work “UNIVERSAL CROP TOP” the publication makes sure to mention the artist’s internet fame, fashion knowledge and work as a DJ.
The paintings of Sylvia Sleigh and her portrayal of the male form is highlighted as well. Her brief explains the revolutionary nature of her interpretation of nude men in her work, and mentions how the chosen piece features her subject in a traditionally feminine pose reminiscent of classical paintings of the goddess Venus.
Untitled (Psychosocial Stuntin') , Universal Crop Tops © Juliana Huxtable, Great Women Artists
Complication © Lynette Yiadom–Boakye, Great Women Artists
In a consideration of the widening scope of what qualifies as art, Great Women Artists includes The Guerrilla Girls in its collection. The artists’ brief includes the group itself as part of the art it creates, almost describing the anonymous collective as one would describe a work of performance art.
It would be a minimization of the immense amount of quality work created by female artists throughout centuries to refer to Great Women Artists as a dictionary of sorts, but the way the publication reads evokes the feeling one is poring over a visual dictionary. The chosen work and artist briefs allow the reader to be inspired and explore certain artists elsewhere, which heightens the work of the artist - a result book explicitly states as its purpose.
Great Women Artists is published by Phaidon and can be purchased here.
