Nochlin’s message could not be more urgent: as she herself put it in 2015, ‘there is still a long way to go’. I think the question was genuine and melancholy. ‘Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?’ has become a rallying cry that resonates across culture and society. During the height of the feminist movement, Linda Nochlin confronted her audience with a bold question: Why have there been no great women artists On the surface, it is a tongue-in-cheek arrangement of words, purely facetious, but I do not think Nochlin meant them that way. With reference to Louise Bourgeois, Cindy Sherman and many more, Nochlin diagnoses the state of women and art with unmatched passion and precision. Written in an era of thriving feminist theory, as well as queer theory, race and postcolonial studies, ‘Thirty Years After’ is a striking reflection on the emergence of a whole new canon. In this stand-alone anniversary edition, Nochlin’s influential essay is published alongside its reappraisal, ‘Thirty Years After’. This act in itself identified Chicago as an emancipated, independent woman who embraced her feminist identity. Born Judith Sylvia Cohen, Judy Chicago legally changed her last name after her husband’s death in 1970. With unparalleled insight, Nochlin lays bare the acceptance of a white male viewpoint in art historical thought as not merely a moral failure, but an intellectual one. No list of feminist artists would be complete without the inclusion of Judy Chicago. Instead, she dismantles the very concept of greatness, unravelling the basic assumptions that created the male-centric genius in art. Nochlin refuses to handle the question of why there have been no ‘great women artists’ on its own, corrupted, terms. Enticing the reader to question their own assumptions and to set off in new directions.
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