Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?

Linda Nochlin. Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? ARTnews, Jan. 1971. Web. 30 April 2015. < http://www.artnews.com/2015/05/30/why-have-there-been-no-great-women-artists/>

Linda Nochlin’s article poses the question in order to pick it apart and describe, not only why the question itself carries with it incorrect assumptions, but also to describe the barriers which have hitherto prevented women equal or ready access to the art world. She explains that almost all the women artists which we do know of were born white, middleclass, most often to artist families. With this understanding we may predict that gender designation also would discourage acceptance of women in general in the arts, which have, with the exception of music, long been deemed a masculine pursuit. It is not because of a difference in subject matter, but because she was barred from artistic education and prevented access to nude models that woman was shackled from her artistic pursuit in the first place, expected instead to be primarily concerned with childrearing. Nochlin takes on the idea of “genius” which assumes something intrinsic, and notes that in most cases “genius” actually amounts to privilege and circumstance. With a few notable exceptions, mostly women have been prevented the position of “greatness” in the arts, not by internal inabilities, but rather by institutional shortfalls and inequalities.