Art and Feminism (Themes & Movements) Book

The First Volume to Present the Rich Diversity of Art Informed by Feminism; New Affordable Format.

As part of its critically-acclaimed "Themes and Movements" series Phaidon Press is pleased to announce the new edition of ART & FEMINISM, edited by Peggy Phelan and Helena Reckitt, a brilliant look at the complicated, contested and inspirational relationship between women's art and politics from the 1960s to the start of the 21st century. As one of the major cultural movements to have had a crucial impact on the late 20th century art, Feminism has inspired some of the most pioneering developments in sculpture, painting, performance, photography, film and installation. Widely acknowledged as both beautiful and intelligent, this book is the first major volume, in a new affordable format, to present the rich diversity of art informed by feminism.

Editors Peggy Phelan and Helena Reckitt present this heavy chronology as an accessible, exciting overview of four decades of women making art. The book presents works by more than 150 artists from the 1960s to the present from Alice Neel and Eva Hesse to Gillian Wearing and Coco Fusco. Not just a comprehensive history, this book juxtaposes works by many artists who are not usually shown or discussed together, opening up new connections between key figures. Some of the now acknowledged `great' artists it includes are Laurie Anderson, Louise Bourgeois, Cindy Sherman, Marlene Dumas, Nan Goldin, Jenny Holzer, Rebecca Horn and Barbara Kruger. Peggy Phelan, in a clear and lively survey, presents not one but several takes on the well-rehearsed history of feminist art, opening up new perspectives on the work of women artists from Georgia O'Keefe to Pipilotti Rist.

The works are sectioned chronologically and sequenced accordingly. Each image is accompanied by an extended caption.
*Too Much explores the significant role played by women artists in the development of new forms of art during the 1960s, such as Happenings, Fluxus and performance art.
*Personalizing the Political witnesses the birth of a recognized feminist art movement in the early 1970s, women-only exhibitions and activism.
*Differences shows the influence of psychoanalytical concepts of sexual difference on feminist artists in the late 1970s.
*Identity Crises looks at the effect of success and critical debate, of the intersection with racial and post-colonial identities, on feminist art, and it's positioning as `transgressive' during the culture wars of the late 1980s.
*Corporeality tracks the 1990's return to the body, to the object and away from theory.
*Femmes de Siecle is a snapshot of turn-of-the-millennium practice, including investigations of banal situations, liminal spaces; pushing the limits of gender identification in transition; and overall a sense of reflection, re-opening questions of history and the memorial.

From Simone de Beauvoir to Germaine Greer feminist theorists have variously influenced, inspired and infuriated women artists. The Documents section includes all the key critical texts of the last four decades - the polemics of Valerie Solanas' SCUM Manifesto (Society for Cutting Up Men); Lucy Lippard's critical framework for new women's art forms; feminist-derived contributions to the definition of Postmodernism from Craig Owens - as well as many previously unpublished artits' statements and interviews.

ART AND FEMINISM is page-turning collection of images that will refresh the most familiar and landmark works as well as introduce the reader to the latest art in feminist context. The new affordable format opens this essential sourcebook open to a wider audience and is the perfect gift for students as well as anyone with an interest in feminism, art, and art history.