WHY HAVE THERE BEEN NO GREAT WOMEN ARTISTS?

DescriptionLinda Nochlin's seminal essay on women artists is widely acknowledged as the first real attempt at a feminist history of art. Nochli n refused to handle the question of why there had been no 'great women artists' on its own, corrupted, terms. Instead, she dismantle d the very concept of 'greatness', unravelling the basic assumptions that had centred a male-coded 'genius' in the study of art. Wit h unparalleled insight and startling wit, Nochlin laid bare the acceptance of a white male viewpoint in art historical thought as no t merely a moral failure, but an intellectual one. Freedom, as she sees it, requires women to risk entirely demolishing the art worl d's institutions, and rebuilding them anew - in other words, to leap into the unknown.