Ferren Gipson

Women's Work: From Feminine Arts to Feminist Art, by Ferren Gipson, charts the change in acceptance of "feminine" materials over time, from (being considered "merely") crafts to artworks.

What I found most appealing in this work is the centering of the artists themselves, since it wasn't just the materials that were overlooked and underappreciated but the artists themselves. If one reads carefully (and not with an eye toward wanting to display one's own faux critical ability) one will see the connections and the arguments made. But it takes wanting to make that history out of the stories of these women, in other words, it takes active reading, not lazy looking for faults that aren't there.

The other wonderful aspect of centering the artists and their work is that any reader who is mainly interested in finding new artists can easily do so without wading through a history book where the names are almost secondary.

So this book can serve as a critique and history of women in art (for an active reader) while also serving as an excellent introduction to artists many people may have missed. For that reason, I would recommend this to any reader with an interest in both art history and the aesthetics of art. I might not recommend it to men who want to misuse quotes from women to misread the book, but they will take their (perceived) place at the podium anyway, even if they just blabber nonsense.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (more)