ARTH 381 Feminism and Art History

• Wednesdays, 11:45 am-2:30 pm
• Instructor: Dr. Julia Skelly

This course will consider a range of different ways of writing feminist art histories, beginning with Linda Nochlin’s ground-breaking article “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists” (1971) and ending with recent queer/feminist/anti-racist art historical scholarship. We will examine the work of female artists who were, and continue to be, positioned as ‘other’ in relation to male modernists, as well as early feminist artists who used their own bodies and core imagery to create what is now known as essentialist feminist art. The theoretical framework for part of the course will be Mary Russo’s concept of the ‘female grotesque,’ a figure who exceeds gendered norms. Issues of race, gender, class, and sexuality will be central to our discussions, and we will attend to the importance of taking an intersectional feminist approach to work by Black feminist artists such as Faith Ringgold and white artists such as Prudence Heward. Broadly speaking, this course will take an intersectional, queer, feminist, and anti-racist approach to art and art history.