Little Feminist History of Art

An introduction to the feminist art movement: one of the most ambitious, influential and enduring artistic movements of the twentieth century. Emerging in the late 1960s as women artists struggled to `de-gender' their work to compete in a male-dominated arena, the feminist art movement has played a leading role in the art world over the last five decades. Using the `female gaze' to articulate socially relevant issues after an era of aesthetic `formalism', women artists, working in a variety of media, have called to attention ideas around gender, identity and form, criticising the cultural expectations and stereotyping of women, women's struggle for equality, and the treatment of the female body as a commodity. This little book is a short and pithy introduction to some of the most important artworks born out of this movement. Fifty outstanding works – from the late 1960s to the present – reflect women's lives and experience, as well as the changing position of women artists, and reveal the impact of feminist ideals and politics on visual culture. Exploring themes such as gender inequality, sexuality, domestic life, personal experiences and the female body, A Little Feminist History of Art is a celebration of one of the most ambitious, influential and enduring artistic movements to emerge from the twentieth century.