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Visibly Female: Feminism and Art : An Anthology
Essays discuss feminist art, review sculpture, painting, and films, and examines the image of women in art
317 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1988
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December 14, 2015
This was the book that my professors should have handed me in college. I cried while reading it because I had really needed this.
I want to do a proper reread with the images provided in the text at the ready (either an academic art image website or even just google– assuming that all of the images are accessible.) It really needed full color images rather than the few small black and white selections. That can't be helped though. (It's very important to do a read through with these images and knowledge of the context.)
The sections on lesbians and art were particularly helpful, and had been some of the same questions I had been pondering. There aren't really good answers, but it's a relief knowing that other lesbian artists contemplate the same issues. The insights on figurative work and discussion about what is and what isn't objectifying were great (along with the tendency of straight feminists to consider work objectifying when that isn't the case, overextending the definition of objectification, although they weren't as specific in mentioning it was mostly straight feminists that do this.)
Some of the comments on book arts being unnsuccessful annoyed me, as did the fawning over Judy Chicago along with a few other things but for the most part it was just a really great and useful read.
(This review isn't the most coherent, but I read this book over breaks during shifts at work and am too lazy to run through the notes I made. It's also just coming from a perspective of applying theory in terms of usefulness to actually making art.)
I want to do a proper reread with the images provided in the text at the ready (either an academic art image website or even just google– assuming that all of the images are accessible.) It really needed full color images rather than the few small black and white selections. That can't be helped though. (It's very important to do a read through with these images and knowledge of the context.)
The sections on lesbians and art were particularly helpful, and had been some of the same questions I had been pondering. There aren't really good answers, but it's a relief knowing that other lesbian artists contemplate the same issues. The insights on figurative work and discussion about what is and what isn't objectifying were great (along with the tendency of straight feminists to consider work objectifying when that isn't the case, overextending the definition of objectification, although they weren't as specific in mentioning it was mostly straight feminists that do this.)
Some of the comments on book arts being unnsuccessful annoyed me, as did the fawning over Judy Chicago along with a few other things but for the most part it was just a really great and useful read.
(This review isn't the most coherent, but I read this book over breaks during shifts at work and am too lazy to run through the notes I made. It's also just coming from a perspective of applying theory in terms of usefulness to actually making art.)
Displaying 1 of 1 review