Week 4: Women in Art (Linda Nochlin)

 

Blog Post topic:

"Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?"

by Linda Nochlin

The Studio of Jean-Antoine Houdon
Louis-Léopold Boilly, 1808
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Louis-L%C3%A9opold_Boilly_-_Houdon_in_His_Studio.jpg

Our latest reading was “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” written in 1971 by Linda Nochlin. This was quite an invigorating read as it challenges many institutional barriers I know well from the feminist movement. Seeing as this was written the year my mother was born and is now over 50 years old, it is (somewhat) surprisingly still very relevant and current for today. Nochlin starts by challenging the question itself and studying who has been considered a “great” artist in the first place. She finds that there are always examples of women-made artwork that compare to any of the recognized greats, but a the question is not worth answering in the first place because it doesn't address the apparent lack of access, resources, and training that limits what women can do. Something I learned is that even when women were lucky enough to have an artist dad or stumble across the means, they were strictly denied access to nude models. In "The Studio of Jean-Antoine Houdon"

painted by Louis-Léopold Boilly in 1808, we can see clearly in evident historical representation that women were disproportionately excluded from these studio opportunities. It has always been overwhelmingly the wealthy white male artists that are considered “great,” and through this investigation, she writes a famous line, “The fault lies not in our stars, our hormones, our menstrual cycles, or our empty internal spaces, but in our institutions and our education.”

Linda Nochlin wrote thoroughly of the many, many struggles women have been facing and still continue to face, mostly in art. Asking the question so bluntly as “Why are there NO Great Women Artists?” seems striking to me as I first read the title, as it made me wonder “is that true?” in a yes/no kind of way. I feel that this effect is part of the art of this piece of writing; why are we allowing it to be framed that way in the first place? Context is also important, so what IS a great artist? And that is exactly what this article does. It unfolds the disproportionate male dominance in the arts, and how that has been both influential in the world and harmful to women and their culture. The question is strange to ask, but that is the point and it seems effective.

In the past, great art has been defined by rigid and technical judgements, which was qualified by the same demographic of white wealthy men in power. Some of these rules have shifted over time, but the situation has hardly gotten better for women and especially other under-privileged communities like the Indigenous. We see the corrupted reach of white supremacy keeping our people under unfair conditions from never funding services for disadvantaged communities to over-policing people who need help. Fascism and the protection of a biased system is a multi-dimensional problem that touches everything in the Western world. Last but not least, no one can talk about art without mentioning structures like churches, mosques, and synagogues, and that makes organized religion a huge part of this issue. This oppressive force has not even spared religion, and what’s worse is that fascism has made a parasitic weapon of what should be considered a sacred and spiritual area. Talking about all of this is increasingly vital for all of society. Nochlin wrote about the importance of our great women to confront the situation we are in and unearth the institutional failings which we challenge. I found myself agreeing with much, if not all, of what she was saying and finding unity in her words.

Nochlin, Linda. “From 1971: Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” ARTnews.com, October 20, 2020. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/retrospective/why-have-there-been-no-great-women-artists-4201/.