Ruskin Refuted

As one who has had it up to here with Women’s Lib, especially the chip-on-the-shoulder kind that whines about male exploitation as the root of all our failings, I approached the much-publicized exhibition Women Artists 1550-1950 with what can only be described as misgivings. Artists are artists, and, on principle, I see no reason to single out the “woman artist” as essentially unique, any more than the “woman poet” or the “woman taxidriver” or the “woman cook,” all of whom perform their tasks for their own sake and not to compete with men.

Besides, it just didn’t seem plausible that, as the preliminary publicity for this show seemed to imply, through the ages women artists have been systematically and unjustly ignored because men (read male chauvinist pigs), who have always had the say-so in art matters, resented their chutzpah in trying to do a man’s job and thought they should stay with kinder, küche, . . . Well, I was wrong—or at least sort of wrong. Women Artists is indeed an important show, and I hope lots of art lovers in Los Angeles, Austin, and Pittsburgh saw it before its final stop at the Brooklyn Museum, where it will close November 27.

RB

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Ruth Berenson

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As one who has had it up to here with Women’s Lib, especially the chip-on-the-shoulder kind that whines about male exploitation as the root of all our failings, I approached the much-publicized exhibition Women Artists 1550-1950 with what can only be described as misgivings. Artists are artists, and, on principle, I see no reason to single out the “woman artist” as essentially unique, any more than the “woman poet” or the “woman taxidriver” or the “woman cook,” all of whom perform their tasks for their own sake and not to compete with men.

Besides, it just didn’t seem plausible that, as the preliminary publicity for this show seemed to imply, through the ages women artists have been systematically and unjustly ignored because men (read male chauvinist pigs), who have always had the say-so in art matters, resented their chutzpah in trying to do a man’s job and thought they should stay with kinder, küche, . . . Well, I was wrong—or at least sort of wrong. Women Artists is indeed an important show, and I hope lots of art lovers in Los Angeles, Austin, and Pittsburgh saw it before its final stop at the Brooklyn Museum, where it will close November 27.