This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
An exploration of women artists through the ages in twelve case studies. Each artist has made a significant contribution to the history of art through their mode of making and critical concerns. The artists include canonical figures from across the globe, such as Guan Daosheng and Artemisia Gentileschi and artists who are known for innovations in a particular field, such as Meta Warrick Fuller and Marina Abramovic.
The lecture series is located within a broadly feminist, intersectional thematic which may include material practice, biography, body politics, sexuality, race, representation and performativity. A range of lecturers in Art History will contribute to the lecture and seminar series.
In the workshops, a multi-method feminist approach draws the artists closer through playful re-enactments of their practice, narrative and talk.
Total contact hours: 58
Total private study hours: 242
Total module study hours: 300
Main assessment methods
Short Essay (1,000 words) 20%
Visual Project 40%.
Long Essay (2,000 words) 40%
Reassessment methods
Like for like
The University is committed to ensuring that core reading materials are in accessible electronic format in line with the Kent Inclusive Practices.
The most up to date reading list for each module can be found on the university's reading list pages: https://kent.rl.talis.com/index.html
Indicative Reading List
Ater Renée. Remaking Race and History: The Sculpture of Meta Warrick Fuller, 1907–21, University of California Press, 2011
Burmann, Pauline. "The Thread of the Story: Two South African Women Artists Talk about Their Work" in Research in African Literatures 31, no. 4 2000 pp.155-65
Gabriel, Mary. Ninth Street Women, New York: Back Bay, 2019
Garrard, Mary D. "Artemisia Gentileschi's Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting" in The Art Bulletin 62, no. 1 1980 pp. 97-112
hooks, bell. "Women Artists: The Creative Process" in Art on My Mind New York: The New Press, 1995 pp. 125-132
Lippard, Lucy. The Pink Glass Swan: Selected Essays on Feminist Art New York: Prestel, 1995
Malloy, Judy. (ed.). Women, Art, and Technology. MIT, 2003
Mulvey, Laura. Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema Screen 16.3 Autumn 1975 pp. 6-18
Nochlin, Linda. "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" [1971] in Women, Art, and Power and Other Essays, London, 1988 pp. 145-178
Pollock, Griselda. "Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity" in Vision and Difference: Femininity, Feminism and the Histories of Art, London, 1988
Purtle, Jennifer. "The Icon of the Woman Artist: Guan Daosheng (1262-1319) and the Power of Painting at the Ming Court c. 1500" in A Companion to Asian Art and Architecture London, Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2012
Sandell, Renee. "Female Aesthetics: The Women's Art Movement and Its Aesthetic Split" in Journal of Aesthetic Education 14, no. 4 1980 pp.106-10
Thompson, Becky. "Multiracial Feminism: Recasting the Chronology of Second Wave Feminism" in Feminist Studies 28, no. 2 2002 pp. 337-60
The intended subject specific learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1 Distinguish, describe and interpret artworks by a range of significant women artists.
2 Demonstrate knowledge of women artists' contribution to art history, supported by art historical and theoretical evidence.
3 Place understanding of significant women artists within their relevant cultural, geographic and socio-political contexts, and produce a high-level intertextual (visual and written) portrayal of a woman artist.
4 Demonstrate critical engagement with women artists, including cross comparison of their artistic practice.
5 Evaluate the interrelation of women artists' practice across time and place.
6 Demonstrate knowledge of key debates related to gender, including feminist and intersectional theory.
The intended generic learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1 Demonstrate skills of visual, critical and historical analysis, together with generic intellectual skills of synthesis, summarisation, critical judgement and problem-solving, that will allow for the construction of original and persuasive arguments.
2 Demonstrate the skills of communication, improving performance, problem-solving, working with others and effective use of appropriate vocabulary and illustrations, ideas and arguments to a variety of audiences and/or using a variety of methods.
3 Appropriately use a range of learning and reference resources (including visual resources) within the Templeman Library and elsewhere, including the critical use of the internet and a range of primary and secondary texts.
4 Employ information technologies to research and present their work.
University of Kent makes every effort to ensure that module information is accurate for the relevant academic session and to provide educational services as described. However, courses, services and other matters may be subject to change. Please read our full disclaimer.
