Women Artists: An Illustrated History

As the Los Angeles Times noted, "Anyone just now waking up to the fact that women have been missing from written art history would do well to begin withthis attractive, even-tempered survey of American and European women artists from the Renaissance to the present."

With its lavish color illustrations--the paintings and sculptures are all reproduced in full color--and numerous documentary pictures of the artists themselves, Women Artists: An Illustrated History provides an unprecedented wealth of visual material on the subject. This updated third edition adds several new international artists--including MonaHatoum, Kiki Smith, Carrie May Weems, and Rachel Whiteread--to bring the content up to the minute.

That centuries of women artists have created professional, provocative, and appealing work is no longer the well-kept secret it once was. Nonetheless, there are still many discoveries to be made, as this beautiful book makes clear by chronicling five centuries of women painters and sculptors, from Sofonisba Anguissola to Sandy Skoglund. Many of these artists achieved local or even international fame during their lifetimes. Marie-Louise-Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun was so renowned a court portraitist that she had to flee France the night Marie Antoinette was arrested in order to escape certain death on the guillotine. Another royal favorite, Lady Elizabeth Butler, won both fame and fortune with her monumental battle scenes; Queen Victoria had one installed for a private showing at Buckingham Palace, and when it went on public view, extra policemen had to behired to control the crowds rushing to see it.

Nancy G. Heller's text offers a lively overview of the obstacles that women encountered-restricted access to education and apprenticeship, social pressures to marry and mother, limited opportunities to travel and exhibit--but she most emphasizes the ingenious ways that generations of women artists circumvented these obstacles to establishthemselves as well-respected professionals. Many were the daughters or sisters of artists and eagerly absorbed all that their families could teach them. Many reversed tradition by painting to support their often extensive offspring while their husbands stayed home to run the household. And many overturned the prevailing restrictions to become members of previously all-male institutions. The stories of these talented, ambitious, and dedicated women fill this enlightening volume and enrich the history of art.

Other Details:207 illustrations, 152 in full color280 pages10 x 10"Published 1997