Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? (Pochemu Ne Bylo Velikikh Khudozhnits)

Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? (1971) is one of the most celebrated art historical essays of recent times. In it, Linda Nochlin, exposing the false naivety of the eponymous question and laying the foundations for feminist criticism, explores the hidden social and psychological preconditions that have made it impossible for certain social groups, including women, to be accorded the status of 'artistic genius' throughout much of art history. This edition supplements the enduringly relevant 1971 essay with a 2006 revision by Nochlin, in which she analyzes the prospects for the revolution she envisioned, and with an introduction by contemporary art historian Catherine Grant.