Women Artists

Why are there No Great Women Artists?

In her momentous essay, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?,” Linda Nochlin attacks the conservative defense of the canon of high art, according to which the absence of female artists from it simply reflects that there have been no (or few) great women artists. Nochlin argues that the notion of greatness, like genius, is implicitly gendered and thus discriminatory against women, and that it is attached to certain styles and genres that have become emblematic of high art, rather than involving pure aesthetic judgment. Nochlin proceeds to explain how female art students have historically been led toward minor genres of painting, such as portraiture, landscape, and still life, precluding the possibility that they might ever be recognized as “great” because of the lower status of the genres in which they worked. Female students of painting were banned from attending life drawing sessions as late as the 1890s (during which period the model would more likely be male), on the excuse that their virtue as women had to be protected. Yet because the nude was already branded as the highest category of art, and with life drawing being a prerequisite for the genre of history painting too, depriving female students of this crucial part of training placed serious limitations on their future careers. In Old Mistresses, the punning title of which underscores how deeply gendered the notion of the “old master” is, Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollock pay closer attention to the innate masculinity of the artistic genius. They argue that the sexual division of labor that places men on the side of creation and women on that of procreation pervades art training and the art world, and that the elevation of originality and innovation into the litmus test for excellence is gender-biased. There are various reasons why women artists have not been perceived as stylistic innovators, including that they may have been deliberately reacting to their contemporary avant-gardes by reviving neglected or forgotten elements of past traditions, or that they may not fit into any of the artistic movements of their time, whether progressive or conservative. Most importantly, women artists are disadvantaged by their gender, by having a limited and pejorative notion of femininity projected onto their work; Parker and Pollock explain how the persistent association between femininity and weakness, grace, conformity and decoration informs the writing of both art critics and art historians, and keeps women artists in their (marginal) place, regardless of their actual skills or accomplishments.

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