The Story of Art without Men
Katy Hessel
Having read it
★★★★☆
Fantastic, insightful and a well presented, typeset and written book that is confident in its perspectives and opinions about women making art now and through the ages.
Readers of it will better understand what was (and is) being faced by women making art and at its end be hopefully filled with a little optimism that the patriarchy-led institutions and opinion-setters are proactively being dismantled or at least continually mixed up, as tradition and heritage are overrated and as Faith Ringgold in 2005 said...
I became a feminist because I wanted to help my daughters, other women and myself aspire to something more than a place behind a good man.
Great work is shown throughout the book and I was personally impressed by the stories and work produced by: Judith Leyster; Cappa Marinetti; Mrinalini Mukherjee; Judith Scott; Lubaina Himid; Sonia Boyce and Fiona Yukhnovich and, as the author writes, her book is about
[...] exploring great art by great artists who fuel and expand our understanding of what art can mean and do for society. Art can be a performance, a reflection, a provocation, a question, and a call to action.
A good passage
While I have grouped each of the following artists within an ‘ism’ category, they are by no means restricted to it. Using categories is an artificial way of providing some clarity to artistic movements that were by their very nature fluid.
A second good passage
Although many of these artists [Yoko Ono, Marina Abramović, Anna Maria Maiolino in the beginnings of performing and body art] went on to play active roles in the 1970s Feminist movement – with some works achieving landmark status, such as Ono’s Cut Piece – most were working at a time when a feminist discourse was yet to be written. It fascinates me that ‘Body Art’ or ‘Performance Art’ is a genre dominated – and pioneered – by women. The female form has been commodified in art for centuries, so it seems apt that women would upend the very same tool and use it as a symbol of protest.