Dictionary of Women Artists » (Two volume set)

This remarkable book profiles some 550 painters, sculptors, photographers, and women in all areas of the arts. Each illustrated entry includes a biography of the artist, a bibliography and a signed interpretive essay by one of 300 contributors from 20 countries. Essays concentrate on the artist's work, discussing specific pieces that exemplify the artist's style and activity while placing her work in an historical context. Introductory surveys focus on training and the changing conditions for women artists since the Middle Ages.

Library Journal

Incomparably rich, monumental, and up to date, these two volumes present the finest scholarship on women in art "from the Middle Ages to the present day, in countries throughout Europe as well as America and Australia." More than 20 key survey essays preface the main body of the dictionary and contextualize the latest knowledge found in the biographical and bibliographical entries of 600 women artists born before 1945. Twenty-three specialist advisers and 330 contributing scholars have amassed the most unqualifiedly comprehensive work yet completed on women artists (with an admittedly Anglo-American emphasis, owing to the many studies in these areas). This work should be available to all who hope to teach the nuanced history of art as it is known today; others interested in women's studies should at least read the essay "Why a Dictionary of Women Artists at This Time?" One of the finest publications on women artists since Ann Sutherland Harris and Linda Nochlin's Women Artists: 1850-1950 (LJ 5/1/77), the first really substantial publication in this area, this indispensable set belongs on all library reference shelves.Mary Hamel-Schwulst, Towson State Univ., Md.