Synopses & Reviews
This handsomely illustrated book is a welcome addition to the history of women during Americaand#8217;s Gilded Age. Wanda M. Corn takes as her topic the grand neo-classical Womanand#8217;s Building at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, a structure celebrating modern womanand#8217;s progress in education, arts, and sciences. Looking closely at the paintings and sculptures women artists made to decorate the structure, including the murals by Mary Cassatt and Mary MacMonnies, Corn uncovers an unspoken but consensual program to visualize a history of the female sex and promote an expansion of modern womanand#8217;s opportunities. Beautifully written, with informative sidebars by Annelise K. Madsen and artist biographies by Charlene G. Garfinkle, this volume illuminates the originality of the public images female artists created in 1893 and inserts them into the complex discourse of fin de siand#232;cle womanand#8217;s politics. The Womanand#8217;s Building offered female artists an unprecedented opportunity to create public art and imagine an historical narrative that put women rather than men at its center.
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“Corn does an expert job. . . . Highly recommended.” JW Stamper
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and#8220;Corn produces a convincingly argued work that offers a fresh reading of art created by women for the Fair.and#8221;
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“Excellent. . . . Corns artfully argued monograph is a landmark contribution to American cultural studies.” Art Libraries Society Of North America
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"Offers valuable insight into the art of the fair and the criticism it generated. . . . This should be essential reading." Women's Art Journal
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and#8220;Corn does an expert job. . . . Highly recommended.and#8221;
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and#8220;Excellent. . . . Cornand#8217;s artfully argued monograph is a landmark contribution to American cultural studies.and#8221;
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"Offers valuable insight into the artand#160;of the fair and the criticism it generated. . . . This should be essentialand#160;reading."
Synopsis
"An erudite and spirited exploration of the Woman's Building at the 1893 Chicago fair and the unique opportunity it afforded American women to make public art, Wanda Corn's fully contextualized account is a critically important contribution to the ongoing and still crucial effort to rebuild and reclaim women's history."and#151;Norma Broude, author of Impressionism, A Feminist Reading: The Gendering of Art, Science, and Nature in the Nineteenth Century
About the Author
Wanda M. Corn, Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor Emerita in the History of Art at Stanford University, is the author of The Great American Thing (UC Press). Charlene G. Garfinkle is an independent art historian. Annelise K. Madsen recently completed the doctoral program in American art at Stanford University.