![]() ![]() ![]() 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 essay is published alongside its reappraisal, ‘Thirty Years After’. This leads to what Nochlin describes as a phony syllogism: (i) if women were blessed with individual artistic genius, it would have revealed itself (ii) but in fact artistic genius among females has failed to reveal itself (iii) therefore, females do not have the 'golden nugget' of artistic genius. Freedom, as she sees it, requires women to risk entirely demolishing the art world’s institutions, and rebuilding them anew – in other words, to leap into the unknown. With unparalleled insight and startling wit, Nochlin laid bare the acceptance of a white male viewpoint in art historical thought as not merely a moral failure, but an intellectual one. Instead, she dismantled the very concept of ‘greatness’, unravelling the basic assumptions that had centred a male-coded ‘genius’ in the study of art. Nochlin refused to handle the question of why there had been no ‘great women artists’ on its own, corrupted terms. When it comes to not beating around the bush, few can complete with the seminal (and self-avowed feminist) 1971 essay by Linda Nochlin, 'Why Have There Been No Great Womans Artists' (see here, being the 2015 version posted by the late author). Linda Nochlin’s seminal essay on women artists is widely acknowledged as the first real attempt at a feminist history of art. ![]()
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