Women Artists: An Illustrated History

As the Los Angeles Times noted, this is an "attractive, eventempered survey of American and European women artists from the Renaissance to the present."
Firmly established as one of the premier histories of women in the fine arts, Nancy G. Heller's Women Artists returns in an expanded fourth edition. Its lavish illustrations—all the artists' works are reproduced in large-format color—and documentary pictures of many of the artists make this one of the most accessible and useful studies of women in the arts. Dr. Heller's lively text provides an overview of the obstacles that women have encountered, emphasizing the ways that women artists have ingeniously circumvented them, inventing new forms and bringing a distinctive perspective to traditional subjects. With coverage of the 1990s and the beginning of the new millenium, nearly half the volume is now devoted to the remarkable period from 1960 to the present, when women artists emerged as the most dynamic force in contemporary art.
New to this edition are innovative U.S. figures including sculptor and performance artist Janine Antoni and photographer Renee Cox, as well as major international artists including Iran's Shirin Neshat, Shahzia Sikander from Pakistan, British painter Fiona Rae, and the Icelandic sculptor and performance artist Katrin Sigurdardottir.
Other details: 220 illustrations, 160 in full color

Author Biography: Nancy G. Heller is Professor of Art History at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia. Dr. Heller has published numerous articles on the visual and performing arts; her most recent bookss are Women Artists: Works from the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the forthcoming Why a Painting Is Like a Pizza: A Guide to Understanding and Enjoying Modern Art. She has received awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Smithsonian Institution, and the American Association of University Women.