Bridget Quinn

The author writes charmingly of the female artists chosen and her own journey as a student of art history and a writer, making this both a book of biographical sketches and a bit of an autobiography. Her occasional analyses and explanations regarding the featured artists' work is concise and quite well informed and well-stated, although I perhaps was looking for something more about the art itself and less autobiographical and aimed at inspiration. Not that these features do not serve a role, and I can see how this book is a great introduction to the artists discussed. It seems obvious to me, although perhaps not always to all (?), that just because women artists have not heretofore received the acclaim of their male counterparts, does not mean that there were not women artists. There are good reference notes in the back for those who wish to explore further, such as myself. The book is no less valuable because it is as much about learning that there are and long have been great women artists, as it is about the art itself, although I suspect I am not the intended audience. I must admit, however, that it is the first book about art that I have read in a while that inspires in me a great need to get myself in front of some great art and really absorb the experience. This is not so much because of the historical aspects of the book, or the parallels and inspirations drawn between the life of the writer and her subjects, but due to her deft and powerful way of describing the art itself and her own reactions to it. Well done.… (meer)