Voicing Our Visions: Writings by Women Artists - Softcover

This book begins with an admirable premise: to use the writings of selected 19th- and 20th-century women artists as illuminations of the unique problems they experienced. Although feminist art history has become an accepted canon in the field, scholarly works on women artists are still not plentiful, and the difficulties of women artists in a predominantly masculine art world continue even today. So what makes this new study so off-putting? The author's care in citing references creates dense sections that are unnecessarily difficult to read. The book was reviewed in manuscript, and hence not yet copy edited, but still the writing is uniformly choppy. Only when the text switches to the chosen artists' own words does the work come alive. It is therefore a pity that chapters are given to selected artists who happen to be "big guns" in their own right, with most of their writings published in other available sources. Rereading Frida Kahlo, Judy Chicago, Georgia O'Keeffe, or Barbara Hepworth is worthwhile only if the assembled viewpoints are thematically unique or offer new insights. This book is a disappointment, but it has a place in public and academic library collections that need more materials on women artists.
- Paula A. Baxter, NYPL
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.