Published in 1993
368 pages
Joanna Frueh (1948-2020) was an artist, writer and feminist scholar. In 2008 she was awarded a Women’s Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award. Her book Monster Beauty: Building the Body of Love, dealing with the aesthetics of beauty, pleasure and the erotic in everyday life was published by the University of California Press. Her writing combined theory with autobiography, photography, and poetry to develop these concepts. She was also a performance artist.
Frueh received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in History of Culture. She was Professor of Art History Emerita at the University of Nevada, Reno, where she served from 1990 to 2006. Prior to that she was Assistant Professor of art history at Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, (1983-1985) and the University of Arizona, Tucson (1981-1983).
She authored and edited several books, notably Erotic Faculties (1996) and Hannah Wilke: A Retrospective (1989); and was coeditor of Picturing the Modern Amazon (2000), Feminist Art Criticism: Art, Identity, Action (1994), and Feminist Art Criticism: An Anthology (1991). She wrote articles and reviews for Art in America, Art Journal, AfterImage, High Performance Magazine, and New Art Examiner, among others.
What is this book about?
This follow-on from Feminist Art Criticism is an anthology using art as a basis for discussing a broad range of issues and problems at the forefront of the feminist movement. Using art and artists as a point of departure, the essays explore issues and problems of culture, language, identification, creativity, sexuality, gender, race and aging. Though diverse in style, perspective and theme, the articles share a common interest in feminism as a symbol of meaningful change and as a vehicle for intellectual exploration, and individual communication and understanding.
