The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art

Art Makers, Critics, Students, take note : Wimen have always made art , and they have been victimized and under appreciated for centuries. I’m grateful to have found this book. I’ve met the Guerilla Girls, suites up, at CAA conferences, and I thank them for staying with their mission to gain equality in the skewed Art World of America.

I use this as a supplimental text in my high school art history classes, and the students love the format, with its heavy dose of satire, comics and irreverent historical research. It is full of little gems. I especially love the Renaissance chapter and the GG's description of the true Renaissance Man. This book is also historically accurate, short and easy to read. It could even be used as a prime example of feminist scholarship and humor and the fact that the two are not mutually exclusive. Also, even though it was written twenty years ago, it is not at all dated- the students would never think it is aout of date.

This book takes you, with biting wit and humor, beyond the works of "accepted" masters (all of whom I deeply admire, by the way), showing you that for every renaissance man, there was an Artemisia Gentileschi. That among the plethora of still lifes from the 17th and 18th centuries, you that you would do well to study those of Rachel Rueysch, who captures every petal and leaf with intoxicating detail and color. They were able, even with my deep-seated resistance to "modern art", to instill in me a deep appreciation for works of impressionists, modernists, post-modernists and abstract artists. In short, an ideal starting point for those looking to delve into art history, yet still ideal for those academics with short attentions spans. I only wish it were longer!

The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside companion to the History of Western Art succeeds on several levels. First of all, it works on a visual level, with graphics that draw you in immediately. But after you are drawn in, one is equally impressed by the text, which is simultaneously informative and humorous. Between the David Letterman-like top 10 lists, the cartoons, and the collages, one is constantly entertained while simultaneously becoming outraged by outdated, demeaning quotes about women from well-known men. At the same time, one learns a lot about some female artists that have been ignored during our art history studies, and one sees a different perspective on some more famous female artists that were mentioned but treated with less admiration than they probably deserved.All in all, this book succeeds as an extension of the Guerrilla Girls performance art, reaching out to those of us who couldn't go to a New York opening and see it crashed by these women in Gorilla masks. Hopefully soon, partially thanks to books like this, more people will wonder why most of the nudes in museums are women, while so few of the artists represented in these museums are of that same gender.