Overview

Women in the Picture is 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.

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9781785785894

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Reviews

'I'm glad this book was written because it felt like the scales were falling from my eyes as I read it. Women will continue to be objectified in art and in popular culture, but the book sheds a generous amount of angry light on how we got here.' The Herald 'Essential reading ... gripping, inspirational, beautifully written and highly thought-provoking.' Dr Helen Gorrill, author of Women Can't Paint

'A call to arms in a world where the misogyny that taints much of the western art canon is still largely ignored' * Financial Times * 'I'm glad this book was written because it felt like the scales were falling from my eyes as I read it. Women will continue to be objectified in art and in popular culture, but the book sheds a generous amount of angry light on how we got here.' * The Herald * 'Essential reading . gripping, inspirational, beautifully written and highly thought-provoking.' * Dr Helen Gorrill, author of Women Can't Paint * 'Illuminating ... [McCormack] lucidly explains the ways in which women's bodies have become symbols of male desire, sex, and violence, their subjugation culturally treated as the unquestionable natural order of things ... This eye-opening work will leave readers with plenty to ponder.' * Publishers Weekly starred review * 'A timely, succinct, aesthetic inquiry into debates about sexuality, objectification, and representation.' * Kirkus Reviews * 'McCormack succeeds in the nearly impossible task of discussing both the representation of women throughout the history of art as well as how women artists have challenged these male-centric images. She writes beautifully and with an accessible voice, moving effortlessly from the Rokeby Venus to contemporary culture's narcissistic obsession with social media selfies.' * Kathy Battista, author of New York New Wave: The Legacy of Feminist Art in Emerging Practices * 'Terrifically smart ... On this grand tour of western visual culture, you couldn't ask for a better guide than McCormack, an art historian with attitude who offers a rousing new lens for looking beyond the exchange of seeing and being seen .' * Bridget Quinn, author of Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History (in That Order) *

Author Information

Catherine McCormack is an art historian. The founder and course leader of Sotheby's Institute of Art's 'Women and Art' programme, she also writes and lectures widely, including at Dulwich Picture Gallery, the V&A and London Art Studies.

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