Brushed Aside

Without patronizing, without flattery, without teary penitence, Noah Charney writes about women artists throughout global history, searching for the ‘herstory’ of art. Precise, informative, within context and with perspective, he is a witty and unreserved lover of art and a lover of creative women. This is a precious book, at once passionate and informative.

-- Svetlana Slapšak, professor of Classics, University of Ljubljana

With characteristic wit and élan, Charney takes us on a romp through centuries of art, focusing his scrutiny on the women who “have shaped the story of art.” This highly readable and engaging “herstory” of art offers a sweeping bird’s eye view, a personal and passionate panorama that introduces the reader to a wide range of artists, periods, and styles. Famous female artists are joined by myriad others, who have been forgotten or never properly acknowledged and yet, whose contributions deserve recognition. Charney also tells us about “influencers”: muses, patrons, collectors, critics, and scholars—women who each in their way have left a lasting mark on art. As we learn about their work and their lives, Charney regales us with a cornucopia of tasty—and memorable—tidbits.

-- Véronique Plesch, professor of art history and chair of the art department at Colby College

Feminist art historian Noah Charney broadens the landscape about the roles women have played in art history. Traversing time and location, Charney’s trailblazing globe-trotting narrative challenges the established and now settled tropes surrounding the feminist movement that developed in the late 1960s and 1970s. Inclusive of collectors, commissioners, curators, and critics, alongside the art makers themselves, Charney presents a narrative through a new lens which has formerly been the coveted domain of female art historians. Thus, his book is valuable by presenting a paradigm shift in terms of how art history is understood and delivered.

-- Penelope Jackson MNZM, author of The Art of Copying Art, Females in the Frame: Women, Art, and Crime, and Art Thieves, Fakers & Fraudsters: The New Zealand Story

The Herstory of Art is not only a brilliant volume, full of anecdotes straight from the art world, from which you won’t be able to tear yourself away, but it is also a game changer in how we look at the past. As we dive into Charney’s words, we are challenged to ask ourselves to what extent were men the protagonists of the realm of art: was it really Jackson Pollock the one who created the dripping technique? Or rather a female figure overshadowed by Pollock and almost entirely forgotten? Isn’t Artemisia Gentileschi at least as good as other celebrated baroque painters?

-- Anna Sumislawska, painter

One wonders what wonders she would have wrought," writes Noah Charney in his story of the herstory of art. At last we have a proper herstory! This book is an admirable, fully-fledged overview of great women in the story of art.

-- Meta Grgurevic, kinetic ar