Women, Art, and Society

A new edition of the groundbreaking book by Whitney Chadwick maps the complete history of women artists from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to today. Art historian Whitney Chadwick’s acclaimed bestselling study challenges the assumption that great women artists are exceptions to the rule who “transcended” their gender to produce major works of art. While introducing some of the many women since the Middle Ages whose contributions to visual culture have often been neglected, Chadwick’s survey reexamines the works themselves and the ways in which they have been perceived as marginal, often in direct reference to gender. In her discussion of feminism and its influence on such a reappraisal, she also addresses the closely related issues of ethnicity, class, and sexuality. This revised edition features a completely redesigned interior and full-color illustrations. With a new preface and epilogue from this emerging authority on the history of women artists, curator and professor Flavia Frigeri, this revised edition continues the project of charting the evolution of feminist art history and pedagogy, revealing how artists have responded to new strategies of feminism for the current moment.