Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?

Even though this is a little late, here's my post about Linda Nochlin's article I read over break, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" Main summary of my experience with the article:

1. I annotated a L O T (i'll post a picture at some point, my english teacher almost wanted to PHOTOCOPY them! probably a little excessive note taking but it was helpful)
2. I could only read a page at a time (due to the annotation and dense writing)
3. I liked the piece more than I expected
4. Everyone else in the class did too... I honestly wasn't expecting an overwhelmingly positive reaction to the piece in class but we all thought it was decent, which made for good conversation. 

It's interesting to think that this is an excerpt from a book (I think it's chapter 7), because it was a well written essay on its own but struggled to come to a conclusion with substantial evidence but had overwhelming concession statements. Having this essay be part of a book would make the organization of the writing more effective for sure. 

The attitude towards feminism was intriguing too; by constantly referencing "the feminist view" Nochlin distanced herself from the group, but at times made feminists comments. In the beginning of my reading I was conflicted whether or not she was a feminist but by the end, and after our class discussion, I'm sure she isn't. 

One of my favorite parts of the piece was the references to the stereotypical "feminine" characteristics to a work of art, that as Nochlin proves, do not actually exist. Another part I enjoyed was when Nochlin was, sometimes subtly sometimes brusquely, that the environment and precedent people were raised with is directly correlated to their career as an artist. The part of this that was the most interesting to me was the emphasis placed on childhood influences. The third thing I really liked was her statements that problems were altered from actuality by people's views on them, such as the "women problem" and that the only way to solve this problem is to ask "the right questions," which confuses me a bit. 

The second half of the essay had a lot of basis in art history and though I found it interesting the actual use of language and her moral opinions did not catch my interest as much. I enjoyed the piece and thought it was a good thing to read!