Women in the Picture: What Culture Does with Female Bodies

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 Beyonc '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.