The power of feminist art

Since its inception nearly 25 years ago the Feminist Art movement has presented a challenge to mainstream modernism that has radically transformed the art world. In The Power of Feminist Art, coeditors Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, professors of art history at The American University in Washington, D.C., bring together many of the influential art historians, critics, and artists who participated in the events of the 1970s.

Together, they have created this landmark volume, the first history and analysis documenting this fertile and dynamic period of artistic growth.

We learn about the first feminist art education programs, with artists Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro helping to lay the foundation; about the now legendary Womanhouse project; and about such banner exhibitions as "Women Artists: 1550-1950," organized in 1976 by art historians Linda Nochlin and Ann Sutherland Harris.

We follow the development of the movement as seen in the various feminist organizations, networks, exhibitions, and publications it generated; and most particularly in the emergence of feminist art. Performance art, social protest and public art, and collaboration; exploration of such formerly taboo aesthetic areas as "Pattern and Decoration"; and subjects such as divinity and the body viewed from female perspectives are among the multiple aspects of the Feminist Art movement.