Linda Nochlin
Encyclopedia
Linda Nochlin is an American
art historian, university professor and writer. She is considered to be a leader in feminist art history
studies. She is best known as a proponent of the question "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists
?"
. She received her BA from Vassar College
, an MA in English from Columbia University
, and her PhD in the history of art from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University
in 1963.
, the Graduate Center of the City University of New York
(with Rosalind Krauss), and Vassar College
, Nochlin took a position at the Institute of Fine Arts, where she continues to teach. In 2000, Self and History: A Tribute to Linda Nochlin was published, an anthology of essays developing themes that Nochlin has worked on throughout her career.
Nochlin has also been involved in publishing other essays and books including Women, Art, and Power: And Other Essays (1988), The Politics of Vision: Essays on Nineteenth-Century Art and Society (1989), Women in the 19th Century: Categories and Contradictions (1997), and Representing Women (1999).
Her critical attention has been drawn to investigating the ways in which gender affects the creation and apprehension of art, as evidenced by her 1994 essay "Issues of Gender in Cassatt
and Eakins
". Besides feminist art history, she is best known for her work on Realism
, specifically on Courbet
.
Complementing her career as an academic, she serves on the Art Advisory Council of the International Foundation for Art Research
(IFAR).
In 1971, the magazine ArtNews published an essay whose title posed a question that would spearhead an entirely new branch of art history. The essay — "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" — explored possible reasons why "greatness" in artistic accomplishment have been reserved for male geniuses such as Michelangelo
. Nochlin argues that general social expectations against women seriously pursuing art, restrictions on educating women at art academies, and "the entire romantic, elitist, individual-glorifying, and monograph-producing substructure upon which the profession of art history is based " have systematically precluded the emergence of great women artists.
The thirty-year anniversary of Nochlin's ground-breaking inquiry informed a conference at Princeton University
in 2001. The book associated with the conference, "Women artists at the Millennium", includes Nochlin's essay ""Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" Thirty Years After". In the conference and in the book, art historians addressed the innovative work of such figures as Louise Bourgeois
, Eva Hesse
, Francesca Woodman
, Carrie Mae Weems
and Mona Hatoum
in the light of the legacies of thirty years of feminist art history, appeared in 2006.
Curator
Nochlin was the co-curator of a number of landmark exhibitions exploring the history and achievements of female artists.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
art historian, university professor and writer. She is considered to be a leader in feminist art history
Art history
Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...
studies. She is best known as a proponent of the question "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists
Women artists
Women artists have been involved in making art in most times and places. Often certain certain media are associated with women, particularly textile arts; however, these gender roles in art change in different cultures and communities...
?"
Early life
Nochlin was born in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. She received her BA from Vassar College
Vassar College
Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...
, an MA in English from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, and her PhD in the history of art from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
in 1963.
Career
After working in the art history departments at Yale UniversityYale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, the Graduate Center of the City University of New York
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
(with Rosalind Krauss), and Vassar College
Vassar College
Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...
, Nochlin took a position at the Institute of Fine Arts, where she continues to teach. In 2000, Self and History: A Tribute to Linda Nochlin was published, an anthology of essays developing themes that Nochlin has worked on throughout her career.
Nochlin has also been involved in publishing other essays and books including Women, Art, and Power: And Other Essays (1988), The Politics of Vision: Essays on Nineteenth-Century Art and Society (1989), Women in the 19th Century: Categories and Contradictions (1997), and Representing Women (1999).
Her critical attention has been drawn to investigating the ways in which gender affects the creation and apprehension of art, as evidenced by her 1994 essay "Issues of Gender in Cassatt
Mary Cassatt
Mary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She lived much of her adult life in France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists...
and Eakins
Thomas Eakins
Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins was an American realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator...
". Besides feminist art history, she is best known for her work on Realism
Realism (visual arts)
Realism in the visual arts is a style that depicts the actuality of what the eyes can see. The term is used in different senses in art history; it may mean the same as illusionism, the representation of subjects with visual mimesis or verisimilitude, or may mean an emphasis on the actuality of...
, specifically on Courbet
Gustave Courbet
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting. The Realist movement bridged the Romantic movement , with the Barbizon School and the Impressionists...
.
Complementing her career as an academic, she serves on the Art Advisory Council of the International Foundation for Art Research
International Foundation for Art Research
International Foundation for Art Research is a non-profit organization which was established to channel and coordinate scholarly and technical information about works of art. IFAR provides an administrative and legal framework within which experts can express their objective opinions...
(IFAR).
Women in Art
Nochlin deconstructs art history by identifying and rejecting methodological presuppositions. Across an arc of decades, she has been an advocate for "art historians who investigate the work before their eyes while focusing on its subject matter, informed by a sensitivity to its feminist spirit."In 1971, the magazine ArtNews published an essay whose title posed a question that would spearhead an entirely new branch of art history. The essay — "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" — explored possible reasons why "greatness" in artistic accomplishment have been reserved for male geniuses such as Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
. Nochlin argues that general social expectations against women seriously pursuing art, restrictions on educating women at art academies, and "the entire romantic, elitist, individual-glorifying, and monograph-producing substructure upon which the profession of art history is based " have systematically precluded the emergence of great women artists.
The thirty-year anniversary of Nochlin's ground-breaking inquiry informed a conference at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 2001. The book associated with the conference, "Women artists at the Millennium", includes Nochlin's essay ""Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" Thirty Years After". In the conference and in the book, art historians addressed the innovative work of such figures as Louise Bourgeois
Louise Bourgeois
Louise Joséphine Bourgeois , was a renowned French-American artist and sculptor, best known for her contributions to both modern and contemporary art, and for her spider structures, titled Maman, which resulted in her being nicknamed the Spiderwoman...
, Eva Hesse
Eva Hesse
Eva Hesse , was a German-born American sculptor, known for her pioneering work in materials such as latex, fiberglass, and plastics. -Early life:Hesse was born into a family of observant Jews in Hamburg, Germany...
, Francesca Woodman
Francesca Woodman
Francesca Woodman was an American photographer best known for her black and white pictures featuring herself and female models. Many of her photographs show young women who are nude, who are blurred , who are merging with their surroundings, or whose faces are obscured...
, Carrie Mae Weems
Carrie Mae Weems
Carrie Mae Weems is an award-winning photographer and artist. Her photographs, films, and videos have been displayed in over 50 exhibitions in the United States and abroad and focus on serious issues that face African Americans today, such as racism, gender relations, politics, and personal identity...
and Mona Hatoum
Mona Hatoum
Mona Hatoum is a video artist and installation artist of Palestinian origin, who lives in London.- Lebanon :...
in the light of the legacies of thirty years of feminist art history, appeared in 2006.
Curator
Nochlin was the co-curator of a number of landmark exhibitions exploring the history and achievements of female artists.
- 2007 — "Global Feminisms" (with Maura Reilly) at the Brooklyn Museum.
- 1976 — "Women Artists: 1550-1950" (with Anne Sutherland Harris) at the Los Angeles County Museum of ArtLos Angeles County Museum of ArtThe Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
.
Selected works
Nochlin's published writings encompass 156 works in 280 publications in 12 languages and 20,393 library holdings.- 2007 — Courbet. London: Thames & HudsonThames & HudsonThames & Hudson is a publisher of illustrated books on art, architecture, design, and visual culture. With its headquarters in London, England it has a sister company in New York and subsidiaries in Melbourne, Singapore and Hong Kong...
. 13-ISBN 9780500286760, 10-ISBN 0500286760; OCLC 174138772 - 2006 — "'Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?' Thirty Years After" in Women Artists at the Millennium, edited by Carol Armstrong and Catherine de Zegher. Cambridge: MIT PressMIT PressThe MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts .-History:...
. 10-ISBN 026201226X, 13-ISBN 9780262012263; OCLC 223446291 - 1999 — Representing Women. London: Thames & Hudson. 10-ISBN 0500280983, 13-ISBN 9780500280980; OCLC 185808272
- 1994 — "Issues of Gender in CassattMary CassattMary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She lived much of her adult life in France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists...
and EakinsThomas EakinsThomas Cowperthwait Eakins was an American realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator...
" in Nineteenth Century Art: A Critical History, edited by Thomas Crow, Brian Lukacher, Linda Nochlin and Frances K. Pohl. London: Thames & Hudson. 13-ISBN 9780500286838; 10-ISBN 0500286833; OCLC 137221626 - 1983 — The Imaginary Orient
- 1971 — "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" ARTnews January 1971: 22-39, 67-71.
- 1971 — "Realism." New York: Penguin BooksPenguin BooksPenguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
. Library of Congress 71-149557.
External links
- NYU: Linda Nochlin
- Linda Nochlin biography and c. v. provided by the Chinese University of Hong KongChinese University of Hong KongThe Chinese University of Hong Kong is a research-led university in Hong Kong.CUHK is the only tertiary education institution in Hong Kong with Nobel Prize winners on its faculty, including Chen Ning Yang, James Mirrlees, Robert Alexander Mundell and Charles K. Kao...
in conjunction with the International Congress on Culture and Humanity in the New Millennium: "The Future of Human Values", 8–10 January 2000, Hong Kong