A Response To "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?"By Linda Nochlin

Submitted by freefortermpapers on 06/24/2008 03:00 PM



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A Response To "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?"By Linda Nochlin

The article written by Linda Nochlin attempts to answer the question, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" Nochlin offers a variety of different possibilities in her quest to come to a conclusion, however, it seems that rather than coming to a single, viable answer, Nochlin leaves each possibility unanswered and open-ended.
After reading the article, I found myself feeling disturbed and confused and simultaneously enlightened. To successfully answer the question, "Why have there been no great women artists" a series of answers may be more suitable than a single answer. "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" opens by suggesting that "there are no great women artists because women are incapable of greatness." The article also states, "That there have been demonstrations which scientifically prove the inability of human beings with wombs rather than penises to create anything significant" In my opinion these observations seem sexist and not well thought out. This article gave me the opportunity to analyze the reasons and possibilities of the question, "Why have there been no great women artist" and after thought and research I have come to the conclusion that there are and were great women artists, yet, their greatness has been undermined.
To begin, I don't think that women artists are as well known as men because they have been overlooked for many centuries. It was stated in "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" that "women do not have the golden nugget of artistic genius," however, throughout the centuries women have had an immense amount of determination to produce art, such as weaving, pottery and decorative arts. Another reason women went many times unnoticed was due to the times in which they lived. Women were given the duty of bearing and caring for the children as well as the household. They also did not receive education, which hindered the amount of artwork produced by women. Social roles may have also had an...

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