Editorial Reviews

With its lavish color illustrations--the paintings and sculptures are all reproduced in full color--and numerous documentary pictures of the artists themselves, Women Artists: An Illustrated History provides an unprecedented wealth of visual material on the subject. This updated third edition adds several new international artists--including MonaHatoum, Kiki Smith, Carrie May Weems, and Rachel Whiteread--to bring the content up to the minute.

That centuries of women artists have created professional, provocative, and appealing work is no longer the well-kept secret it once was. Nonetheless, there are still many discoveries to be made, as this beautiful book makes clear by chronicling five centuries of women painters and sculptors, from Sofonisba Anguissola to Sandy Skoglund. Many of these artists achieved local or even international fame during their lifetimes. Marie-Louise-Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun was so renowned a court portraitist that she had to flee France the night Marie Antoinette was arrested in order to escape certain death on the guillotine. Another royal favorite, Lady Elizabeth Butler, won both fame and fortune with her monumental battle scenes; Queen Victoria had one installed for a private showing at Buckingham Palace, and when it went on public view, extra policemen had to behired to control the crowds rushing to see it.

Nancy G. Heller's text offers a lively overview of the obstacles that women encountered-restricted access to education and apprenticeship, social pressures to marry and mother, limited opportunities to travel and exhibit--but she most emphasizes the ingenious ways that generations of women artists circumvented these obstacles to establishthemselves as well-respected professionals. Many were the daughters or sisters of artists and eagerly absorbed all that their families could teach them. Many reversed tradition by painting to support their often extensive offspring while their husbands stayed home to run the household. And many overturned the prevailing restrictions to become members of previously all-male institutions. The stories of these talented, ambitious, and dedicated women fill this enlightening volume and enrich the history of art.

Other Details:207 illustrations, 152 in full color280 pages10 x 10"Published 1997

Customer Reviews

Great first art book!, 2007-10-09
by No such thing as too many books! (Ithaca, NY USA)

This is the first art book I ever read and really enjoyed it.

The book includes sort of mini-bios of each artist with descriptions of her artwork and one representative illustration. I noticed details of each artists' work that I probably would not have noticed on my own, and the book made me want to look up a number of the artists in order to see the rest of their works - and to me, this is indicative of a good book - one they leads you on to want to know more!

Encyclopaedia of Women Artists, 2005-10-23
by Ines Sanchez (northeast of the USA)

I wanted a encyclopaedia like of women artists and this comes close to it. It is not all inclusive but it has a good number of entries, including the well known ones and the not so well known. I wish it had had more international women artists. I like the fact that it had good color illustrations. I am glad it is included in my art library. It is a good bargain for the price. This is a reference book.

Very good, 2000-06-29

This book is an excellent introduction to women artists throughtout the ages. I discovered some I had never heard of before and as a result bought other books to learn more. The only regrets I have is that it omitted some very interesting painters, like Tamara de Lempicka, and the section on contemporary artists was too heavy on US artists. Otherwise excellent with great illustrations.