« One is not born an artist, but rather becomes one. Since its beginnings, the history of art has been conceived, written, published, and taught by men. And when you are born a woman, being an artist is a perilous, never-ending fight, and physically, intellectually, and mentally exhausting. Today, the time has come to reframe and reexamine the creative works of those women who have had the courage to defy the rules in order to fulfill their calling. »
Laure Adler
This volume draws the portraits of sixty-seven fascinating women and their significant artistic achievements, from groundbreaking Renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi to the autobiographical photography of Nan Goldin today. Tracing the painters, sculptors, photographers, and performance artists who have shaped modern art, readers discover key figures and their signature works and styles, from Mary Cassatt's impressionist paintings to Sonia Delaunay's mastery of color and geometric shapes, from Eva Hesse's postminimal sculptures to the large-scale works of Georgia O'Keeffe, the « mother of American modernism, » and from the conceptual photography of Cindy Sherman to Rei Naito's nature-inspired installations.
Exploring the codes and archetypes of art history, this celebration of women in art analyzes their slow but steady achievement of artistic independence and the hard-won recognition for their creative work in a domain historically reserved for men.