Norma Clarke
Move Over, Michelangelo
The Story of Art without Men
By Katy Hessel
Hutchinson Heinemann 520pp £30
In bold orange on the spine and cover of this book are the words ‘The Story of Art’. The author’s name is in blue and also in bold. The cover is yellow, and it is only in a certain light and by holding the book at an angle that you see, faintly outlined in white, the words that make up the rest of the title: ‘without Men’. It’s a visual trick that illustrates Katy Hessel’s purpose in writing this book. For so long women artists have been missing in the history of art. Now the tables are turned.
What happens to the story of art if you take out the men? First of all, it makes you question the idea of there being a story of art at all. There are multiple stories. Hessel delivers a big, baggy compendium, beginning with Renaissance Europe and encompassing China, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, Africa, America and Australia. Her guiding principle has been not only to leave men out but also to resist the habits of thought that lead one to give men primacy. The women here are not presented as followers, imitators, lovers, spouses or children of men; we see them as originators, their work and ideas foregrounded. Just as few people missed the women when the story of art was told without them, so the story without men feels like a rich, interesting and complicated one.
Printed on glossy paper and profusely illustrated – there is a colour reproduction on almost every page – this is a generous introduction to some familiar and some less well-known artists. The organisation is roughly chronological (though there is the odd detour), running all the way up to the
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm