Name: Women in the Picture
ISBN: 9781785785894

CATHERINE. MCCORMACK

Women in the Pictureis a fierce challenge to the ways we depict, and are taught to see, women's bodies. Plunging into the realms of art history, popular visual culture and advertising, McCormack opens our eyes to how archetypal depictions of women - as mothers, daughters, Venuses, whores or 'nasty women' - have encouraged us to objectify and subjugate, and to normalise violence towards them. Taking in classic works of art by the likes of Titian and Picasso, as well as contemporary representations of women in everything from Hollywood films to perfume advertisements to censored Instagram images, we'll reconsider the context in which images of women have been produced, displayed and reproduced - and the appeal to 'beauty' that has stopped us from seeing the misogyny of some of the world's 'greatest' artists and public figures. It's time to learn new ways of seeing.

What Culture Does with Women's Bodies and How We Can Learn to See Differently

Women in the Picture

Catherine Mccormack

Art historian Catherine McCormack challenges how culture teaches us to see and value women, their bodies, and their lives.

What Culture Does with Female Bodies

Introductory, juvenile writing style. Ideas are not all terrible, but they are not exactly revolutionary or even original. Albeit, it is a swift read: a mere 200 pages or so. Suppose you are familiar with feminist interpretations of art history to any extent whatsoever. In that case, you will not be particularly impressed by this book, although certain aspects may amuse you. That is not a sufficient impetus to spend half a day or so reading this book. 

Lizzy Jensen

This book was excellent. I really appreciated how consistently the author recognized her bias as a cisgender white woman, while still bringing in examples of sexism and racism in art.

Catherine McCormack

A bold reconsideration of women in art – from the ‘Old Masters’ to the posts of Instagram influencers A perfect pin-up, a damsel in distress, a saintly mother, a femme fatale ... Women’s identity has long been stifled by a limited set of archetypes, found everywhere in pictures from art history’s classics to advertising, while women artists have been overlooked and held back from shaping more empowering roles. In this impassioned book, art historian Catherine McCormack asks us to look again at what these images have told us to value, opening up our most loved images – from those of Titian and Botticelli to Picasso and the Pre-Raphaelites. She also shows us how women artists – from Berthe Morisot to Beyoncé, Judy Chicago to Kara Walker – have offered us new ways of thinking about women’s identity, sexuality, race and power. Women in the Picture gives us new ways of seeing the art of the past and the familiar images of today so that we might free women from these restrictive roles and embrace the breadth of women’s vision.

Women, Art and the Power of Looking

Sadie Hoffman

Emily McMeans

Katie Guo

Jenna Whitlow

Jules

taryn a.

A bold reconsideration of how we look at women, art, and power -- from the oil paintings of the Old Masters to athleisure ads Art has a reputation for being irrelevant, elitist. But we're constantly bombarded with images, many of which take their cues from museum exhibitions and gallery walls. And images of women -- as whores or hags, mothers or maidens -- have always been particularly pernicious and powerful. Art historian Catherine McCormack decodes these archetypes in her eye-opening book, Women in the Picture. Moving deftly from the work of Artemisia Gentileschi and Pablo Picasso to Uma Thurman in Kill Bill and Beyoncé's Instagram, Women in the Picture is a twenty-first-century update to John Berger's classic Ways of Seeing that slyly neutralizes the sexism of traditional art history. Sharp edged and stylish, Women in the Picture is essential reading for art enthusiasts, women's history buffs, and anyone looking to change how they see.

Women in the Picture What Culture Does with Women's Bodies and How We Can Learn to See Differently

Reviews

Highlights