Great! Witty vignettes about 15 incredible women-artists. Accessible enough for novice art lovers and detailed enough to please seasoned art historians. The author is endearing as she weaves her own experiences alongside the artists’. Quinn convinces that we should love and appreciate these women regardless of aesthetic preferences because of their life, passions, and service as exemplars of female experience. ( )

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. ( )

I really enjoyed this - it's a high level overview but a great jumping-off point! The biographical essays were well-written and engaging, and the selected art included in the illustrations made me want to see more. I look forward to seeing these women "in the wild" as I visit museums in the future! ( )

I enjoyed both Quinn's writing style and the biographies of these 15 artists, only two of whom I had heard of before this book. Quinn covers the artists' biographies and shows examples of their work, but includes just enough information to whet the appetite and send the reader looking for more art. The book isn't meant to be exhaustive; it is meant to show us a small taste of what we've been withheld in all those cookie-cutter art history classes that focused only on western, white, male artists.

Normally, I don't care for non-fic where the writer can't stop inserting herself, but Quinn's experiences and POV as an art history student and teacher are relevant to the material. ( )

Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History (In That Order)

by Bridget Quinn
2017
Chronicle Books
4.0 / 5.0

Many art books and overviews about Art or Art Movements and Styles, have marginalized, or not included, many of the major women artists. Many other women artists and their work were not considered serious, or important, pieces, simply because they were done by a female artist. Bridget Quinn, a long- time Art lover and an art history student, has found 15 women artists that have had amazing and incredible art work or works, that were popular, but little was said of the artist. Or the artists incredible lives.

For example, Quinn includes Rosa Bonheur, one of the first women granted permission to cross-dress in Paris, in 1850. She was labelled for her rebellious behaviors of smoking, cropping her hair and wearing pants. She was known for her paintings of horses and obsession with Buffalo Bill, and living with women all her life. Bonheur is just one of the 15 women whose life choices, and work have contributed to, shaped and influenced so many, in so many ways.

Each of the 15 women artists included have a short, but detailed bio of their influences for their art, and, of their personal lives. It is absorbing, the artists she has chosen, have lived irreverent and unusual lives. I really thought this was well done, with a great selection of women artists and hope this is the first of many more by Bridget Quinn. After reading this, there are many women artists I will be looking for more information on.

Short, absorbing and essential. ( )