Art and Feminisms: Histories, Methods, and Legacies

Through an international cohort of contributors, this book examines the rich and diverse strands of artistic and cultural production from the nineteenth century to the present day that contribute to elastic and ever-expanding histories of feminist art. The contributions facilitate an understanding of the complex histories of feminist art, material, and cultural production for both new and inveterate students and scholars, while complicating feminist art’s canonization by engaging questions and issues of history-writing itself. An implicit concern throughout the volume is how feminist art history has both addressed and, at times, been complicit in its own systems of exclusion. Foregrounding political and social movements and developments in related fields such as critical race studies, Indigenous studies, trans studies, disability studies, and critical ethnic studies in recent decades, this volume looks beyond the canonical lineage of feminist art history toward an expansive view of feminist art’s pasts, pitfalls, and potentials. The book also goes beyond the traditional visual arts to consider vernacular and material cultures in our increasingly visually oriented world (which encompasses the social media and citizen journalism accelerated in the COVID era). The book will be of interest to scholars and students working in art history and gender studies.