Fine Arts - Review

By Tina Chan

March 2014

Library Journal Review

The Reckoning: Women Artists of the New Millennium

Prestel 2013 256p. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 9783791347592. pap. $39.95. Fine Arts

The work of 24 international female artists born after 1960 is covered here by the co-authors of After the Revolution: Women Who Transformed Contemporary Art (2007). Heartney (contributing editor, Art in America), Helaine Posner (Neuberger Museum of Art), Nancy Princenthal (former senior editor, Art in America), and independent curator Sue Scott organize the work into four sections—"Bad Girls," "Spellbound," "Domestic Disturbances," and "History Lessons"—and analyze how feminism influenced artists Janine Antoni, Jane and Louise Wilson, Cao Fei, Wangechi Mutu, Mika Rottenberg, Cecily Brown, and Pipilotti Rist and how their work impacts visual and performance art. The women confront issues of gender and race, home and family, history and globalization. While an extensive bibliography for general reference is included, for the individual artists, a bibliography contains their monographs, solo and group exhibition catalogs, and studies. Succinct essays on each person and complemented by color and black-and-white images of their output.

VERDICT 

Suitable for anyone who wants to learn about contemporary art by women, as well as undergraduate and graduate students, scholars, and researchers studying visual and performance art.