Article Review

The essay, ‘Why have there have been no Great Women Artists?’, was written in 1917 by Linda Nochlin. It is one of the groundbreaking essays for feminist art history and theory. The primary argument of that essay is that there exist social, cultural, and political obstacles that bar women from participating in the art world in several ways.  That is, artistic male styles or aesthetics are not privileged over feminine forms. Instead, the women have been frozen out of the field , which keeps them away from art production and market.

Nochlin uses the works or quotes of other authors as evidence to support her main argument. The author asserts that women’s liberation is utterly emotional in the essence that it is personal, psychological, and subjective.  This liberation draws its approval by conforming to the intellectual and ideological basis of several intellectual and scholarly fields. She uses John Stuart Mill’s remarks, ‘women tend to accept everything as being natural’ to prove that women are a hindrance to themselves. Mills states that women view everything usual as natural. For example, the idea of women subjecting themselves to men is considered a universal custom, and any deviation from the norm is deemed abnormal (Nochlin 1).  Thus, women who have privileges perpetually hold on them.

Second, Nochlin uses historical events to prove that women have been kept away from art production as well as the art market itself. She argues that women have been excluded from art education to the extent that their artistic origins are neither documented nor discussed. For example, Angelica Kaufmann was never represented in person in Johann Zoffany’s group portrait entitled ‘The Academicians of Royal Academy’ because the scene portrayed a drawing of a nude male model (Nochlin 13). Alternatively, Kaufmann is represented in the form of a statue on the black wall.

Another example of a historical event that shows that women were frozen out from the arts is that of Elizabeth  Le Brun and Adelaide Labille-Guirad. These two Frenchwomen were considered rivals and subjected to disgraceful and false accusations to taint their reputation and discredit their artistic works. For example, Le Brun’s relationship with the scandalous French queen Marie Antoinette meant that she was targeted by critics (Nochlin 3). She was considered promiscuous, extravagant, and a traitor just like her friend Antoinette.  Nochlin argues that the success of women artists was not based on their artistic prowess but rather connections with renowned and popular male artists of that time.

In my opinion, Nochlin’s essay follows an apparent methodological approach as indicated in the conclusion of the essay. Nochlin has based her arguments on institutional and not individual failures in explaining the women under-representation in arts. That is, the art market as made institutionally impossible for women to achieve the same levels of success as men in the arts. Women’s under-representation in art is not, in any way, related to their lack of talent or genius but rather lack of institutional or system paradigm to support their ability. However, Nochlin’s essay clearly shows that she believes that there are people who have manipulated the art world for a long time. Her only failure is that she has not mentioned the identities of these people. Hence, some of her opponents have always pointed out the ambiguities in the essay and used them to discredit it.

Works Cited

Nochlin, Linda. “Why have there been no great women artists?.” The feminism and visual culture

 reader (1971): 229-233.