Women Artists in History, From Antiquity to the Present. (Kitap Tanitimi/Book Reviews).(Book Review)

Slatkin, Wendy, Women Artists in History, From Antiquity to the Present, Third Edition, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Inc., 1985/1997. ISBN 0-13432873-6 267 pages

Students studying history of art are predominantly subjected to the work of male artists such as the works of lctinos, Lysippus, Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci, El Greco, Goya, Picasso or Dali during their whole education life. It is the same in the studies of Turkish art where there is almost no woman name mentioned in all courses except in 20th century art. Therefore, Wendy Slatkin has written this book entitled as Women Artists in History, From Antiquity to the Present as a textbook for the art history students studying at undergraduate level that may be used as an introductory text in junction with other art history books.

As the number of scholarly papers dealing with the women artist has increased, within the last two decades, it is now possible to discuss several female artists with well-known male artists in history of art courses.

Wendy Slatkin's book does not merely name the artists, but also deals with the evolution of women's art as part of the feminist movement. Therefore, since the book is designed as a textbook, the author introduces some important explanations as criteria for the evaluation of a successful artist and defines the importance of gender for the understanding of these artistic works. In her book, Slatkin discussed the difficult conditions experienced by female artists from the Renaissance until the mid 20th century. As she said:

"(...) to become a "painter," a "sculptor," or (in the case of Julia Morgan) an "architect" involved for women in the periods since 1550, acceptance of the rules of the game was essential. To enter the arena of painting was to challenge many of the fundamental assumptions on which the discourses of patriarchy were grounded. Since the Renaissance, art was a profession, and women who entered this professional arena produced works that could only be judged by the criteria of excellence of its institutional matrix, whether it was the French Royal Academy of the eighteenth century or the New York art world of the 1940s and '50s. There were no alternative systems of evaluation. Quite obviously, these institutions and their critical discourses were dominated by men. Most artists were men, most patrons were men, most writers of critical texts were men. The criteria of excellence were invented and perpetuated by men. But since they had fulfilled these requirements they were welcomed to the universe of art. So among th ese early artists, there were members whose contributions are rather great and even some of them introduced new styles and new methods or subjects in the art arena. (p.A)

Slatkin presents her material chronologically beginning from prehistory until today. She introduces her material briefly, explaining to the reader the social conditions for each period. The cultural, social and family background and education of the women artists in all of these eras, is also discussed to illustrate what influenced the themes and subjects of their creations. For example in the earlier periods women were involved with the crafts rather than paintings or sculptures. Paintings or potteries from antiquity usually depicted women with ceramic making or weaving textiles. Hatshepsut, the Egyptian Queen was an exception by supervising the construction of the mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri, which is the only example of a large-scale stone architectural monument built by a woman ruler.

In the Middle Age women of high aristocratic standing were involved with various crafts and book illuminations. It is interesting to note that they had established guilds while in Florence, during the Renaissance, women's membership in the guilds was restricted. Studying art was also difficult since art students were expected to visit different art centres during their education. (p. 63) Slatkin tried to show the reasons why few women become successful artists particularly during the Renaissance by not having sufficient practice in anatomical studies particularly with male figures. Women artists were usually the daughters ...