Best of
Art-History

1971

Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?


Linda Nochlin - 1971
    In her revolutionary essay, Nochlin refused to answer the question of why there had been no “great women artists” on its own corrupted terms, and instead, she dismantled the very concept of greatness, unraveling the basic assumptions that created the male-centric genius in art.With unparalleled insight and wit, Nochlin questioned the acceptance of a white male viewpoint in art history. And future freedom, as she saw it, requires women to leap into the unknown and risk demolishing the art world’s institutions in order to rebuild them anew.In this stand-alone anniversary edition, Nochlin’s essay is published alongside its reappraisal, “Thirty Years After.” 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. With reference to Joan Mitchell, Louise Bourgeois, Cindy Sherman, and many more, Nochlin diagnoses the state of women and art with unmatched precision and verve. “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” has become a slogan and rallying cry that resonates across culture and society. In the 2020s, Nochlin’s message could not be more urgent: as she put it in 2015, “There is still a long way to go.”

Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?


Linda Nochlin - 1971
    It is considered a pioneering essay for both feminist art history and feminist art theory.In this essay, Nochlin explores the institutional – as opposed to the individual – obstacles that have prevented women in the West from succeeding in the arts. She divides her argument into several sections, the first of which takes on the assumptions implicit in the essay's title, followed by "The Question of the Nude," "The Lady's Accomplishment," "Successes," and "Rosa Bonheur." In her introduction, she acknowledges "the recent upsurge of feminist activity" in America as a condition for her interrogation of the ideological foundations of art history, while also invoking John Stuart Mill's suggestion that "we tend to accept whatever is as natural". In her conclusion, she states: "I have tried to deal with one of the perennial questions used to challenge women's demand for true, rather than token, equality by examining the whole erroneous intellectual substructure upon which the question "Why have there been no great women artists?" is based; by questioning the validity of the formulation of so-called problems in general and the "problem" of women specifically; and then, by probing some of the limitations of the discipline of art history itself."

Rodin on Art and Artists


Auguste Rodin - 1971
    Auguste Rodin spoke candidly to his protégé, Paul Gsell, who recorded the master's thoughts not only about the technical secrets of his craft, but also about its aesthetic and philosophical underpinnings.Here is the real Rodin—relaxed, intimate, open, and charming—offering a wealth of observations on the relationship of sculpture to poetry, painting, theater, and music. He also makes perceptive comments on Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Raphael, and other great artists, and he shares revealing anecdotes about Hugo, Balzac, and others who posed for him. Seventy-six superb illustrations of the sculptor's works complement the text, including St John the Baptist Preaching, The Burghers of Calais, The Thinker, and many others, along with a selection of exuberant drawings and prints.

Jewels of the Pharaohs: Egyptian Jewelry of the Dynastic Period


Cyril Aldred - 1971
    Diadems, armlets, earrings, pendants, rings, bracelets, breastplates, amulets ...wrought in the rare and precious gems and metals that have stirred man's greed and wonder for centuries...Nubian gold, vivid lapis lazuli, bright-colored camelian. Cyril Aldred, one of the world's foremost Egyptologists, tells their enchanting and dramatic story...the myths and legends, the discoveries and thefts, that have marked each treasure's history. He explains the fascinating uses and significance of Egyptian jewels and describes the amazing techniques that created them.

Eugene Delacroix: Selected Letters, 1813-1863


Jean Stewart - 1971
    As edited by Jean Stewart, they are divided into four sections: the first letters were written in his teens and early twenties, and show the essential loneliness that would dominate his life; the second, stretching to the age of 35, detail the travels that indelibly marked him; the third group dates from his return to France in 1833, telling of his grand commissions and of his relationships with George Sand and Mme. de Forget; and last are the letters from his final years, a time of official acceptance and relations with such notable figures as Stendhal and Merimee. Intelligently edited and fluently translated, these Selected Letters bring to life, in his own words, one of the greatest artistic geniuses of the 19th century.

Picasso: His Life and Work


Roland Penrose - 1971
    "Intimate, yet objective; comprehensive, yet enthralling; this biography of the greatest artists of our century will rank with Vasari in the annals of European painting."—Sir Herbert Read

Apollinaire on Art: Essays and Reviews 1902-1918


Guillaume Apollinaire - 1971
    His rampant enthusiasms and antipathies, and his remarkable acumen, make him still today the most evocative commentator on the intellectual ferment of the time. He was one of the first to champion Picasso and Braque, and to identify the importance of Delaunay, Duchamp, and Rousseau; he coined the word "Surrealism" and almost single-handedly pushed Cubism into the mainstream. With a new preface by Roger Shattuck, this is the definitive edition of these seminal writings.

Painting In Italy, 1500-1600


Sydney Joseph Freedberg - 1971
    Indeed the roster of great names in painting of the Cinquecento, which only begins with those of Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael, appears to justify this grand claim. Professor Freedberg here discusses the individual painters and analyses the hallmarks of their work. He traces the classical style of the High Renaissance, the Mannerism that succeeded it, and the events, in North Italy especially, that resist stylistic categories. He has given order to this diversity, but at the same time has preserved the intense individuality of the works of art.