I picked this up because of the concept behind it and my wife’s background in art and art history. Often, we see photos of famous artists, scientists, or writers with a caption identifying them, but the women left unknown. The motivation behind this is rooted in sexism, laziness, and dismissiveness.

I am reminded of a discussion on Twitter about a science conference in the 1970s with an accompanying photo. Everyone was identified except one black woman. The determined researcher reached out to others who were identified in the photo and to conference organizers, but most could not place her. Many even dismissed her as someone’s secretary or even a passerby. This all played out live with her followers on Twitter participating. She uncovered that the woman was Sheila Minor, a researcher with her BA and MA.
(full article here:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/20/health...) So many like her are likely uncredited.

In Donna Seman’s work, she looks to uncover and re-discover women who had such a profound impact on modern art. Many of these artists would have their own retrospective exhibitions at the end of their careers, yet they were still lost to history or overshadowed by other artists. Seaman unearths, identifies and restores the artists to their proper place.

Artists Discussed:

Louise Nevelson created sculptures out of recycled and discarded objects mostly out of wood with a monochromatic finish.
Gertrude Abercrombie called "the queen of bohemian artists" and was friends with the jazz musicians Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parks, and Sarah Vaughn.
Louis Mailou Jones who worked in textiles and paint. She was influenced by the Harlem Renaissance. She wished to be known as an American painter with no labels.
Ree Morton associated with post-minimalist art movement out of the 1970s and feminist in nature
Joan Brown Figurative Painter based in San Francisco, the second generation of Bay Area Figurative Movement.
Christina Ramberg Associated with Chicago Imagists, a group of representation artists focused on the depiction of female body parts forced into submission
Lenore Tawney Influential figure in the development of fabric art

A thorough examination of these artists and their lives. She re-contextualized their contributions in the larger art movements we enjoy today.

Favorite Passages
The initial Abstract Expressionist movement was dominated by male painters, yet women artists, including sculptors, kept abstract art alive and thriving in the ensuing decades. In the third and final edition of his influential magnum opus, Art: A History of Painting, Sculpture, Architecture (1989), Hartt observes that abstract sculpture was “more exciting than recent painting in the richness of its development and the multifarious shapes of its creations,” and credits the ascendancy of abstract sculpture in great part to Nevelson, “who ranks as one of the best artists of the twentieth century.” P31

As the interview proceeds, the volume of the city soundscape rises and Morton has to compete with the churn and honkings of traffic and the calls and whoops and screeches of children playing, as though a school has just turned its students loose into a playground. She talks about the immediacy of working with materials, how tactile it is, how sensual. She is emphatic about the visual experience, about how she wants her work to have a visual impact, and no, she replies to a query, there isn’t one way for the viewer to respond. The work must speak for itself. “It should trigger associations that you have because of who you are and where you come from. I would have no idea about that. And that’s cool. I don’t want it closed, I want it open.” 164

This is a subject that I am very interested in and I am always looking for more about unknown artists, writers, and scientists for my library collection, but I thought that this book was poorly edited.

I love that there is an interest in figures who had previously been forgotten on uncredited in years past. This book sheds light on seven female painters who were not fortunate enough to become as famous as her contemporaries: Gertrude Abercrombie, portraitist Joan Brown; Ree Morton, Loïs Mailou Jones of the Harlem Renaissance, mixed mediaa artist Lenore Tawney, Christina Ramberg, and Louise Nevelson. Whether lovers of art or not, readers will find themselves drawn into each of their lives.

Recommended for: nonfiction readers, art history buffs, art lovers, and people who enjoy learning about "hidden figures."

This book is about seven women artists that that the author feels have not gotten the attention they deserve. She begins the book with a treatise that women still face discrimination in the art world. These seven women however did not allow their gender to get in the way of their art. The tackled their art and the art world on their own terms. I was familiar with these seven artists but most will be new to casual readers. The author does a very good job with writing the biographies and describing their artwork. A lot of research has gone into this book. All seven women are very different. They are from different times, places and produce different artwork but all do deserve their place in history. I do wish there were more illustrations of the artwork in the book. Anyone interested in art or women's studies will enjoy reading this book. Enjoy

I am, as always, knocked out by Donna Seaman's intellect displayed in her beautiful and cogent writing. It's such a pleasure for me to spend time with her as a reader. I can hardly wait for this fabulous book to be published so I can buy a printed copy and really get a good look at it. The screen version isn't big enough, I predict, for the massive beauty of both the text and images. However, even though I want to start the book again from the beginning in print, I so much appreciate you brightening these gloomy winter days by sharing with me. It's a point of delight to look forward to the book's pub date! Highly recommended.

(Lengthened review to come shortly... Stay tuned...)

My thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

I think this is a case of, it's not the book, it's me. I just didn't gel with the writing style at ALL. Which is very sad, as this is a very important topic. It is important to not discount any group of people, in this case women, from the contributions they made and make to the world, in this case, art.

The women were all amazingly interesting. The creative process, their history, how what they lived through shaped their lives and their art. It was fascinating to read.

What wasn't so fascinating? The copious overuse of adjectives and nouns to describe the artwork and influence on the artists. Seriously, 34 adjectives in a row in one sentence is a bit much. And it happens every other page or so. Editor, where were you?

What I found to be ironic, given the title of the book, was that many of the pictures in the book (of which there were too few for a book discussing artists and their works), had photographer unidentified.

To piggy back off of the pictures thing, I hope the finished copy has more pictures. Because the constant describing of the artwork or photographs was kind of annoying. This is a book about artists and their art. I want to actually SEE what is being discussed in the writing of the book. My imagination isn't bad, but it isn't equal to what was being discussed.

And the last artist was evil. After I got to her saying she used old, rare, beautiful books by ripping the pages out for her own artwork, I skipped past her section and have vowed to never read about her or look at her artwork EVER. Lenore Tawney. Book lovers, be warned.

So, the positives. This book discusses a very important topic, the fact that many women in the art world have been overlooked and forgotten. It makes one think about where others have been dismissed because they weren't white men. No offense white men, but you have been rather hoggish of the spotlight for most things in the past and maybe a smidge nowadays too.

When the author isn't just showing that she knows how to use a thesaurus and isn't attempting to describe a piece of art, the writing grabs the reader. It could be because the subject matter is so engrossing, but six of one, half-a-dozen of the other, it all gets and keeps the reader's attention.

I just couldn't ignore the endless lists of words and the describing of artwork I couldn't see unless I got off of my butt from my comfy reading chair and went into the room with the computer to look up what she was talking about. I just couldn't be bothered. It's COLD where I am right now, and getting up from my cocoon of warm blanket to go through two colder rooms, just to look up a piece of art, wasn't going to happen.

So one star deducted for the endless lists and one deducted due to describing what there were no pictures for. There may be pictures in the finished copy. This was an advanced read. Hopefully the finished copy will have more pictures. The artwork all sounded stunning. I will look it up, just not right now.

Three stars total. Not a bad book, but it didn't really grab me. I think it would probably be more interesting to those who have a serious interest in contemporary/modern female artists. I'm more into Renaissance art myself, so not quite my focus. Not bad, but not in my personal wheelhouse.