Yet, it is not only white men who easily turn a blind eye on those who should by right be called masters. It makes me think about how the club of well established art historians is so keen to reject artists who have earned recognition and yet somehow lack what they like to call greatness - women artists. The amount of conversations I participated in and that followed exactly this procedure is disturbing. Soon after those heartfelt words of condolence, the funeral for the women buried by art history is over and the topic quickly changes to something more up-lifting. Sighing, they will list the reasons why women artists, historically, just were not able to achieve greatness in this man’s world and they will assure you what a shame it is that they did not have more chances and more rights, how these women were not supported and victims of the system. It is pity in the faces of your interlocutors. In the 2020s, Nochlin’s message could not be more urgent: as she put it in 2015, “There is still a long way to go.Whenever the topic of women in the arts arises during a conversation, you will see shaking heads and eyes looking down. “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” has become a slogan and rallying cry that resonates across culture and society. With reference to Joan Mitchell, Louise Bourgeois, Cindy Sherman, and many more, Nochlin diagnoses the state of women and art with unmatched precision and verve. In this stand-alone anniversary edition, Nochlin’s essay is published alongside its reappraisal, “Thirty Years After.” Written in an era of thriving feminist theory, as well as queer theory, race, and postcolonial studies, “Thirty Years After” is a striking reflection on the emergence of a whole new canon. And future freedom, as she saw it, requires women to leap into the unknown and risk demolishing the art world’s institutions in order to rebuild them anew. With unparalleled insight and wit, Nochlin questioned the acceptance of a white male viewpoint in art history. In her revolutionary essay, Nochlin refused to answer the question of why there had been no “great women artists” on its own corrupted terms, and instead, she dismantled the very concept of greatness, unraveling the basic assumptions that created the male-centric genius in art. Many scholars have called Linda Nochlin’s seminal essay on women artists the first real attempt at a feminist history of art.
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