Women and Art: Contested Territory

by Judy Chicago, Edward Lucie-Smith

The works presented--from the prehistoric Venus of Willendorf to Michelangelo's Piet, to paintings by such artists as Picasso and lisabeth Vige-Lebrun, to Hannah Wilke's searing self-portraits of her cancer-ridden body, to photographic records of visceral performance pieces by Carolee Schneeman--are, by turn, beautiful, subtle, explicit, confrontational, and sometimes shocking.These images provoke a wide-ranging, spirited dialogue between the authors as they discuss the various ways women have been portrayed-as goddess, mother, victim, martyr, whore, seductress, and more-resulting in a book full of startling visual illumination that combines a vivid discourse on the female image with a triumphant celebration of the feminine. 200 color illustrations.

Genres: Art, Feminism, Art History, History, Womens, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published September 1, 1999

Reviews

[Jennifer]

An art book well balanced between words and images. The main text is by Edward Lucie-Smith (neat trick to have a male author with a female forename for a surname) and the collaboration between him and Judy Chicago seems a little clunky. Her contribution is by way of an extensive glossing on his text, with personal anecdotes and histories (and nothing wrong with that) I'd've liked more evidence of actual conversation between them but I liked the way they could agree and disagree. The book, about women as artists and women as subject matter, is divided into themes: from The Divine to the less expected Pissing and I appreciated the range of images chosen and the way in which it was done - allowing room for some to be large but including smaller ones so we could engage in comparisons for ourselves. A lot to think about... especially Chicago's sour postscript about how remarkably often it had been difficult for the picture researcher to get permission to use work.

[Carol]

Easy read, discuss many artworks but didn't have images of all. Divided into 10 chapters -- the Divine, the Heroic, Maternity, Daily Life, Asking for It?, Casting Couch and Brothel, I Paint therefore I Am, Body as Battleground, Household Vanities and Exploring Identities. Saw many works of art that I never saw before.

[HeavyReader]

Why did I get rid of this book? Sometimes I am not very bright.

This book is beautiful with so many color images and so much good information about women in art.

I should have held on to this book forever.