WOMEN, ART, AND SOCIETY (World of Art) by Whitney ChadwickReview by: Edith L. CroweArt Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, Vol. 9, No. 4(Winter 1990), pp. 216-217Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Art Libraries Society of NorthAmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27948298 .

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216 Art Documentation, Winter, 1990

Museum this past spring and summer for which it would have been useful to have the dates (8 March-3 September 1990) given in the text. This book is the American version of the original publication by the British Museum. Although its primary function is to record the contents of the exhibition, this substantial volume is also a fascinating collection of ex tended considerations on fakes and forgeries, connoisseur ship and collecting, well illustrated by the objects selected for the show. Chapters correspond to sections of the exhibit. The range of fakes displayed dates from three millennia and in cludes artifacts from the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa, including the fine arts, collectibles, consumer goods, and doc

umentary materials. The diversity of the exhibition is mirrored by the diversity

of the contributors to the catalogue. The editor, Mark Jones, who is the new keeper of the Department of Coins and Med als at the British Museum, gathered about 100 specialists drawn largely, but not exclusively, from the staff of the British Museum and other London museums. The lengthy descrip tive entries are one of the volume's best features. As Dicken sian episodes in the world chronicle of fakery, these brief essays explain not only the genesis and life of the object but also the taste and temper of the times, the contemporary situation which lent itself to the production or "discovery" of the piece.

Certain themes are stressed. The primary thread which binds the entire project is the definition of a fake. This is discussed in terms of intentional qualities: e.g., are fakes made purposely to deceive and do they really have to hood wink the experts? Or can fakes simply be replicas or copies made with the original as an ideal model? Do fakes encom pass both high and low art? Definition of extensional quali ties is provided by the many examples in the show which illustrate how widespread are the practices and numerous the phenomena.

Scholarship, connoisseurship, and science are double edged swords. The same skills used to produce, identify, au thenticate, conserve, and restore original works are those used to make reproductions and fakes. Sometimes copies, replicas, or other objects emulating esteemed older styles did not originate as deceptions, but came to be confused with genuine works as more avid collecting of material cul ture conferred greater value on originals. Both the true or ostensible scarcity of authentic or older works heightened the value of the replications: an antiquarian variation on how absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Desire for direct access to real or genuine artifacts pro vides another stimulus to fakes' production and also leads to the public's gullible acceptance of them. Scholars with spe cialized knowledge, technicians and conservators who prac tice arcane methods, and connoisseurs who could recognize both originals and fakes paved the paths to be followed in the formation of museums and private collections. In our own time it is clear how the possession of this knowledge and

expertise can nourish the pure, intellectual worlds of scholar ship and museums, yet simultaneously provide launching pads for prices at auction sales and fill dealers' pockets.

Amid the various types of fakes and artifacts and explana tions of their fabricators, purposes, and functions are two indelible truths. The first is the antiquity of the practice of fakery. The fourth chapter, on Oriental art, discusses how fakes and forgery are closely bound to the development of a "rare art tradition." The making of artistic fakes followed upon forgeries of literary manuscripts in China around the third century A.D. Production of new collectibles which were based upon, or later passed for, antiques evolved with the investment of cultural and economic significance in certain identified treasures. Veneration of ancient art and a contem porary aesthetic based on standards supplied by older works provide a fertile field for forgers who may utilize the same techniques and rely on the same principles, not to mention the same artists and cognoscenti!

The second truth is found in the acknowledgment given to the pedigree of those behind the production and authentica tion of the fakes: priests, scholars, critics, and artists with equal time given to the heroes and the bad guys. The quality

of the fake is a tribute to the craft and knowledge of its author or maker. Its attribution or authentication is often the result of extensive scholarship or impressive connoisseurship. Rather than moralizing about the shame of fakery, the catalogue presents the phenomenon as an interesting one which may tell something about ourselves and our lust for material things. Some entries tell wonderful stories about the discov ery and promotion of fakes, illustrating that these maneuvers were well-planned ruses on a grand scale. In other cases the final word has not been spoken. No one has really figured out the mystery of the object's creation or its date.

The introductory essays and catalogue entries give proof of how tantalizing are the archives of this ancient, insuffi ciently documented realm, itself a satellite of the greater world of art. The craft of the forger is to play his art upon the contemporary romanticizations of the past so that what is faked is somehow recognizable, true to what each generation deems the spirit of the past. The stunning examples com bined with the wealth of information in the text make both the idea and execution of this show seem positively brilliant.

The catalogue's great strength is its historical treatment of the phenomena. Its only weakness is that all the items in the show are not reproduced. Since the show's contents com

prise 335 entries, probably this was physically impossible. This is not to say the catalogue is not well and heavily illus trated. It is more a comment on the show's largesse. Ranging over the major and minor arts, including historical docu ments, ethnographic artifacts, prints and photographs, mod ern consumer goods and parvenu collectibles, the encyclo pedic spread was overwhelming for an afternoon's perusal. The cure for either the intellectual indigestion caused by try ing to take it all in, or for frustration at not having made it to London this summer, is to be found in this catalogue. It is well written and edited to blend all the contributors' entries into a cohesive treatment of the subject. Artfully conceived,

wittily composed, and with extraordinarily full documenta tion in the entries and the bibliography, it is a pure pleasure to read, reread, rethink, and review.

Marcia Reed Getty Center

WOMEN, ART, AND SOCIETY / Whitney Chadwick.?(World of Art)?New York: Thames & Hudson, 1990.?384 p.: ill.? ISBN 0-500-18194-2 (cl); 0-500-20241-9 (pa); LC 89-50634:

$24.95 (cl); $14.95 (pa).

Whitney Chadwick's new survey of women artists is a wel come addition to the small but growing number of such books. Although several other surveys have been published, some recently (for example, Wendy Slatkin's Women Artists in History [Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1985] and Nancy Heller's Women Artists: An Illustrated History [New York: Ab beville, 1987], Chadwick's survey covers the ground from a different perspective. Sensitive to the move, in feminist art historical scholarship and criticism, away from unearthing women artists of the past to questioning the paradigms of art history itself, she constructs her book in a way that mini mizes the temptation merely to add "great women" to the canon while upholding the definition of art history as a col lection of "great artists." Her preface sets out a number of issues that recur through

out the text: the contradictory position of the woman artist, trying to be a subject in a milieu which casts woman as object; the questioning of art history itself as "neither 'neu tral' nor 'universal'"; critical theories from other disciplines that have been applied by feminists (and others) in an exam ination of art's history and current production?psycho analysis (particularly Lacan), semiotics, and the whole decon structionist/postmodern/poststructural constellation.

Those parts of the preface that discuss these critical theo ries, as well as the ending chapters on contemporary art in

which they appear most frequently, illustrate one of the prob lematic aspects of Women, Art and Society. Other surveys of

women artists have, for the most part, been quite accessible

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Art Documentation, Winter, 1990 217

to the general reader. Chadwicks text is more academic, with both the advantages and disadvantages this implies. It can be pretty heavy going?it may be impossible to discuss semi otics, even briefly, without causing the average reader to lapse into a temporary coma. The somewhat dry text, however, is densely packed with information and rewards persistence.

Covering the Middle Ages to the present, Chadwick's account seamlessly weaves together the lives and work of women artists and the social, economic, political, and philo sophical context in which they operated. Most surveys of women artists pay attention to these extra-artistic elements; it would be impossible to present a fair historical account of

women artists without making clear the limitations under which they worked. In most cases, the nonart context is pre sented as background for accounts of individual artists. Chadwick presents ttye context, artistic and otherwise, and uses the lives of particular women to illustrate the situation. For example, her account of Maritta Robusti (the daughter of Tintoretto) illuminates a critique of the "great man" mythos against the realities of workshop production in the 16th cen tury. Accounts of the popularity of the image of Tintoretto and his dead/dying daughter in the 19th century (she suc cumbed to childbirth relatively young) are used to illustrate the "bizarre but all too common transformation of the

woman artist from a producer in her own right into a subject for representation."

Chadwick admits in her preface that Women, Art and So ciety "provides neither new biographical nor archival facts about women artists." What it does do, and quite well, is "identify major issues and new directions in research." Pro spective thesis and dissertation candidates could benefit from a close reading of her text, since it is liberally sprinkled

with ideas for further research, pointing out areas where this is particularly needed. Unfortunately, the World of Art series format does not allow individual footnotes, but Chadwick has managed to ameliorate this lack to a considerable degree. A section on "Bibliography and Sources" is packed with refer ences, starting with a general listing and continuing chapter by-chapter. The references that apply to each chapter are further categorized by the names of particular artists covered in the chapter and by general topics covered as well. For example, the section covering Victorian England includes ref erences to the "cult of True Womanhood," prostitution, and "Women and the antivivisection movement." The many ref erences to sources outside art history are particularly

welcome. The more than 240 illustrations, about 50 of them in color,

are of good quality although not very large. For the most part, they are placed reasonably close to that portion of the text in which they are discussed, although a tendency to cluster the color illustrations often requires page flipping. The number of the relevant illustration is placed in the mar gin, but in some cases the text discusses several works at once, making it unclear exactly which one is illustrated with out turning pages to locate it.

The strong feminist slant, concentration on the context for the art and artists, and the detailed bibliography, make this book a must for academic and museum libraries. Although the text is less accessible to the general public than other surveys, public libraries should also consider its purchase for those readers with an interest in the subject.

Edith L. Crowe San Jose State University

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED (Subject to Later Review)

REFERENCE The Annual Exhibition Record of the National Academy of Design: 1901-1950:

Incorporating The Annual Exhibitions, 1901-1950 and The Winter Exhibitions, 1906-19321 Edited by Peter Hastings Falk.?Madison, CT: Sound View Press, June 1990?ISBN 0-932087-09-4; LC 89-061398: $89.00.

ARUS/UK and Eire National Co/lection Network for Art Exhibition Catalogues I Gaye Smith and Lotta Jackson.?(British Library Research Paper 87)? London: British Library Board, 1990.?146 p.?ISBN 0-7123-3236-7: n.p.

Art-related Materials in the Philadelphia Region, 1984^1989 Survey?Wash ington, DC: Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1990.? 62 p.?$10.00 (pa).

Bibliography of Ethnoarts Bibliographies, revised and enlarged ed. / Compiled by Eugene C. Burt.?(EthnoArts Index Supplemental Publication No. 5)? Seattle: Data Arts, 1990.?40 p.: $15.00 (pa).

Directory of Fine Art Representatives and Corporations Collecting Art, 2nd ed.? Renaissance, CA: Directors Guild Publishers, Apr. 1990.?224 p.?ISBN 0-98089907-8 (pa): $44.95 (pa).

Directory of Telefacsimile Sites in North American Libraries, 5th ed. / Edited by C. Lee Jones.?Buchanan Dam, TX: CBR Consulting Services, Inc., 1990.? 274 p.?$32.50 (pa).

Encyclopedia of Fads, vol. 1: Arts & Entertainment Fads I Frank Hoffman and William G. Bailey.?Binghamton: Harrington Park Press, 1990.?379 p.: ill.? ISBN 0-918393-72-8 (pa., alk. paper); LC 89-24571: n.p.

The Museum: A Reference Guide I Edited by Michael Steven Shapiro with the assistance of Louis Ward Kemp.?Westport: Greenwood Press, July 1990.? 400 p.?ISBN 0-313-23686-0 (cl., alk. paper); LC 89-26022: $65.00.

Native American Art: Five-Year Cumulative Bibliography, Mid-1983 through 19881 Edited by Eugene C. Burt.?(EthnoArts Index Supplemental Publication No. 4)?Seattle: Data Arts, 1990.?157 p.: $45.00 (pa).

SERIALS Australian & New Zealand Journal of Serials Librarianship, vol. 1, no. 1 (1990).?

Binghamton: Haworth Press.?ISSN 0898-3283; $32.00/year (pa). Journal of Interlibrary Loan and Information Supply, vol. 1, no. 1 (1990).?Bing

hamton: Haworth Press?ISSN 1042-4458; $24.00/year (pa). Sponsored Research in the History of Art 9, 1988-1989 and 1989-1990 I Com

piled and edited by Claire Richter Sherman.?Washington, DC: National Gal lery of Art, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, 1990?ISSN 0742-0242: $25.00 (pa).

Studies in the History of Art, vol. 24 (1990).?Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, distr. by the University Press of New England?ISBN 0-89468-115- ; ISSN 0091-7338; : $30.00 (pa).

Visual Resources: An International Journal of Documentation, vol. VI, no. 4 (1990).?(Special issue "On Professionalism")?New York: Gordon and Breach.?ISBN 2-88124-441-6; ISSN 0197-3762: $29.00 (special issue).

GENERAL WORKS & THEORY The Challenge of Art to Psychology I Seymour B. Sarason.?New Haven: Yale

University Press, Oct. 1990.?188 p.: ill.?ISBN 0-300-0475 1 (cl., alk. paper); LC 89-21479: $25.00.

Book Illustrations from Six Centuries in the Library of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute I Essay by Susan Roeper; catalogue by Sarah Scott Gibson, Susan Roeper, J. Dustin Wees.?Williamstown: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1990.?116 p.: ill.?ISBN 0-931102-29-4 (pa., alk. paper); LC 90-9992: $16.95.

Looking at the Overlooked: Four Essays on Still Life Painting I Norman Bryson.? Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990?192 p.: ill?ISBN 0-674 53905-2 (cl., alk. paper): $25.00.

Rethinking the Museum and Other Meditations I Stephen E. Weil.?Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, June 1990?191 p.?ISBN 0-87474-948-4 (cl., alk. paper); 0-87474-953-0 (pa); LC 89-21985: $22.50 (cl); $11.95 (pa).

Scenario for an Artists Apocalypse I Wayne Andersen.?Geneva: Fabriart, 1990.?56 p.: ill?ISBN 2-88388-000- (pa): $9.75 (pa).

ARCHITECTURE & LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE American Apocalypse: The Great Fire and the Myth of Chicago I Ross Miller.?

Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Apr. 1990.?287 p.: ill.?ISBN 0-226-52599-6 (cl., alk. paper); LC 89-20338: $24.95.

Architecture: Fundamental Issues I Forrest Wilson with Ron Keenberg and William Loerke.?New York: Van Nostrand, 1990.?255 p.: ill.?ISBN 0-442-23948-3; LC 89-29395: $18.95.

Architecture in Watercolor I Thomas W. Schaller.?New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990.?244 p.: ill.?ISBN 0-442-23484-8; LC 90-12139: $48.95.

Chinese Imperial City Planning I Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt.?Honolulu: Uni versity of Hawaii Press, June 1990 ?240 p.: ill.?ISBN 0-8248-1244-1 (cl., alk. paper); LC 89-20541 : $38.00.

For Every House a Garden: A Guide for Reproducing Period Gardens I Rudy & Joy Favretti.?Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1990 (orig inally published by Pequot Press, 1977).?137 p.: ill.?ISBN 0-87451-514-9 (pa); LC 89-24939: $10.95.

Freehand Sketching in the Architectural Environment I Kingsley K. Wu.?New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990.?147 p.: ill.?ISBN 0-442-00296-3 (pa); LC 90-30340: $26.95.

The Italian Renaissance Garden: From the Conventions of Planting, Design, and Ornament to the Grand Gardens of Sixteenth-Century Central Italy I Claudia Lazzaro.?New Haven: Yale University Press, Aug. 1990.?351 p.: ill.?ISBN 0-300-04765-7; LC 89-78473: $55.00.

Poetics of Architecture: Theory of Design I Anthony C. Antoniades.?New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990.?317 p.: ill.?ISBN (M42-23990-4; LC 89 36617: $34.95.

The Unromantic Castle: And Other Essays I John Summerson.?New York: Thames and Hudson, May 1990.?288 p.: ill.?ISBN 0-500-34112-5; LC 89-51571: $35.00.

Wall Street Christmas I Robert Gambee?New York: W. W. Norton, Sept. 1990.?272 p.: ill.?ISBN 0-393-02835-6; LC 89-39138: $49.95.

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