It is an issue of status, suppression and education. The reason that there have been no great women artists is the same reason, as Nochlin puts it, that there have been no great black artists, or great Eskimo tennis players for that matter. The reason is not that women are incapable, that women paint only feminine subjects, nor that women have been just as great but suppressed. Nochlin however, admits that regardless, there are no female equivalents of Michelangelo or Rembrandt. Other arguments have included giving examples of great women artists to stifle the question itself. The concept of natural skill, natural intellectual capabilities, and natural roles, gender roles or otherwise, has also been accepted as credible reasoning. Primarily, the issue has been that the Western white male viewpoint has been accepted as the correct and standard viewpoint in art history, and all history. Rather, her approach is centered on researching how it is that historically, all great artists are western, white males. Her means of approaching the question are not centered on defending women artists or their abilities, attempts that have been made countless times and which only address the surface. Nochlin takes a very strong, convincing approach to analyzing the question of why there have been no great women artists, before attempting to answer it. Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?, Linda Nochlin
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