Female Gazes: 75 Women Artists

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is also the
author of The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese Women’s Lives, Kurlek, and
Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Hom

Featuring high-quality reproductions and crisp essays on 75 women
artists, this delightful volume should lay to rest the notion that women
artists are few and far between.

The book follows a chronological arrangement. Each artist receives a
two-page spread—one occupied by biographical and critical text, the
other by a full-page illustration of a work. The art includes bronze
sculptures (Barbara Hepworth, Francis Loring/Florence Wyle), woodblock
prints (Elizabeth Catlett), quilting (Joyce Wieland), wearable sculpture
(Evelyn Roth), a stylized dinner party (Judy Chicago), and paintings in
various media.

Although there are (inevitably) exclusions one regrets, Martin and
Meyer have chosen well. Especially memorable are Mexican painter Frida
Kahlo’s Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird;
Pitseolak’s stone-cut print, Woman Hiding from Spirit; Emily Carr’s
oil, Forest, British Columbia; and German graphic artist Kathe
Kollwitz’s print, Solidarity—the Propeller Song.

This very accessible introduction to the lives and works of women
artists from the Renaissance to the present should appeal to art lovers
and all those interested in women’s achievements.