Women of Abstract Expressionism (The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities/Princeton University Press Lec)

At long last someone has moved to address the balance and mounted an exhibition of those women artists who were part of this movement! More to the point, we now have a quality, hardback volume that not only covers the 12 artists who were in the exhibition, but expands on that with the inclusion of biographies and examples of works by many others, documenting over 40 artists. The illustrations are very good, many of large size, some double-page spreads; there are around 138 in full-colour, supplemented by about 50 black and white illustrations and photographs. The texts consist of five illuminating essays and an interview with influential art historian/critic Irving Sandler; the book also scores highly by including West Coast artists in the mix, as San Francisco had an important art scene that paralleled New York. This volume is very timely given the current Abstract Expressionist show running at the RA - September through to 2nd January 2017; a reassessment of the movement and it's influence is long overdue – and it starts here, with fair acknowledgement of all those excluded by academics either by accident or design. This is an essential book to have if you are even remotely interested in abstract painting or the Abstract Expressionist period.

This is a lovely book, which features a lot of artists whose work I hadn't seen before, as well as more well-known painters, such as Joan Mitchell, Lee Krasner and Helen Frankenthaler. Lots of space given to the paintings as well as interesting information and articles.

What image is conjured up when you think of Abstract Expressionism? This is a wonderful book about this blind spot in art history that hid the creative talents of a very large number of women. For me the book helped me appreciate a richer constellation of abstract expressionist talent. Artistic creativity knows no bounds whether gender as in this case, or ethnicity and race. I think the one area that is now troubling is ageism -- emergent artists are not always young. Indeed, late-onset creativity is a power event for many older people who discover creativity later in life.

lovely book

A present for a friend - she loved it.

It's high time women AbEx painters got their dues. While the work of some of the men now looks over-promoted and overestimated (e.g. Clifford Still, Barnett Newman imho) that of many of the women has undoubtedly been under-exposed and undervalued. Joan Mitchell, Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning and Helen Frankenthaler have been widely celebrated, but art history (and the auction market) has yet to fully compensate many others for the relative obscurity they and their reputations endured in the shade of the macho blaze of mid-century American painting (and since). In addition to the above-named there's lots to impress and enjoy here, in particular (again imo) the work of Mary Abbott, Grace Hartigan and Sonia Getchoff, who seem to me to have been very fine painters indeed. Well-illustrated, comprehensive, informative, even if it's probably stretched a little too thin for the sake of inclusivity.

This is a fabulous book for any art lover. It’s the catalogue of a 2016 exhibition at the Denver Art Museum, entitled Women of Abstract Expressionism, a group of painters who have been to a large extent written out of art history, and overlooked compared to their male counterparts. There are more than 40 artists represented in this lavishly illustrated volume, with essays by experts and academics. I found it a real joy to discover so many women painters, and even though Abstract Expressionism isn’t my favourite genre by any means it was exciting to discover so much more about the movement itself and the women who were part of it.

Bellissimo e interessante.

Het zijn niet altijd de bekende artiesten die kunst maken. Een verademing , dit boek en dan nog prachtig uitgegeven.

This is a beautiful book although the color(print quality )of some of the reproductions is not good. The main strength of the book lies in the fact that it assembles a lot of important works of some great women artits. The photos are very large which is very important for this kind of books. Hope the print quality would have been better.

This lovely book came in perfect condition wrapped tightly in cellophane and is a luxurious visual and literary art history experience cover to cover! As a lifelong abstract expressionist lover and painter, this was a must have for my library, and one I will no doubt look through repeatedly for inspiration. Beautiful book — highly recommend!

L'expressionnisme abstrait masculin, beaucoup trop torturé et inutilement compliqué, devrait s'inspirer des ces merveilleuses créations féminines. Juste magnifique. C'est de l'oxygène pour l'intellect et un frissonnement d'émotion