Women Artists and Writers: Modernist (Im)Positionings

by Bridget Elliott

Feminism & Feminist Theory, General, General ART & ART HISTORY, LITERATURE, WOMEN'S STUDIES H8223A 041505365X Book Women Artists and Writers: Modernist. ((((HARDCOVER EDITION))) Elliott, Bridget;Wallace, Jo-Ann Near Fine No Jacket Hardcover English 1st Edition Florence, Kentucky, U.S.A.: Routledge 1994 0 1 For Sale 35 This study re-examines women's literary and artistic contribution to Modernism. It explores the ways in which women such as Natalie Barney, Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell and Gertrude Stein responded to Modernism and created their artistic identity, and how their work has been positioned in relation to that of men. Bringing together women's studies, visual arts and literature, this text reveals how the academic departments of Art History and English Studies have marginalized the work of female Modernists." (Publisher)

Genres: Art, Feminism, Nonfiction, History

204 pages, Hardcover

First published October 12, 1994

About the author

Bridget Elliott specializes in the study of Western modernism from the 19th to 21st centuries with a particular emphasis on the decorative and the ornamental as well as on aesthetics of excess (e.g. decadence, art nouveau and art deco); intersections of ‘high’ art and ‘popular’ culture, including art’s role in everyday life and its connections to interior design and fashion; relationships between art and literature and art and film (especially in the films of Peter Greenaway); museums, collecting, archives and other heterotopic practices in the art world; as well as the gendering of artistic production and theory. Her most recent research project focuses artists’ houses and maison musées in nineteenth century England and France.

(from http://www.uwo.ca/visarts/about/facul...)

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent study of women who were part of modernism and their struggles for acceptance and equal treatment. There are those you would expect to be here; Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, Gertrude Stein and Djuna Barnes; others less expected; like Marie Laurencin and Nina Hamnett. Natalie Barney and Romaine Brooks also feature.
There are lots of ideas and references to follow up and a good analysis of how each of the women were appraised and received at the time. The analysis of domestic, private and metropolitan spaces is interesting. It isn’t an uncritical study and the human contradictions are explored: Barney’s retreat into fascism and Barnes’s long isolation. It is a reconfiguration of modernism, looking at the superficial analysis of the women involved in the movement that pervaded the contemporary reports and even more modern analyses.
There is a poignancy about each of the women who play a part, centred on the trials and tribulations and abuse they each underwent. Woolf, of course stands out and I knew most about her; her feminism was more thought out and based on her years as a labour activist. Hamnett I had heard of from the memoirs of Julian Maclaren Ross, who captured her sad later years. Her first memoir and I have managed to find and intend to read soon; I think her story is the most poignant. However they are all fascinating and stand out as women of genius.
The illustrations are wonderful and all in all it was a joy to read about eight wonderful women; there’s plenty to argue with and much to learn and follow up on. The tensions and battles with the background of patriarchy are set out carefully and the range of sources is impressive. Anyone interested in modernism should read this.