Women Artists Together: Art in the Age of Women’s Liberation

A fresh perspective on collaboration, collectivity, and conflict in the women’s art movement of the 1970s

Women Artists Together is a thought-provoking study of how the women’s liberation movement galvanized a generation of women artists. It offers a fresh perspective on the history of the women’s art movement and considers how it was shaped by collaboration and togetherness. Retracing 1970s liberation politics, Amy Tobin emphasizes how artworks emerged from--and contested--feminist paradigms and contexts.

Taking class, gender, race, and sexuality as central concerns, the book includes examples of inspirational feminist activism as well as fallings out, disagreements, and antagonism. Across four chapters, Tobin looks at the work of UK- and US-based artists including Judy Chicago, Mary Beth Edelson, Rose English, Harmony Hammond, Candace Hill-Montgomery, Claudette Johnson, Suzanne Lacy, Howardena Pindell, Ingrid Pollard, Carolee Schneemann, Cecilia Vicuña, and Kate Walker. Groups include the Feminist Art Programme at Cal Arts, Women’s Workshop of the Artists’ Union, Where We At, Black Women Artists Inc., and the South London Art Group, publications such as Heresies and Chrysalis, along with writers and curators including Lucy R. Lippard and Arlene Raven.

Amy Tobin is an academic and curator at the University of Cambridge, where she is associate professor in the Department of History of Art, curator, Contemporary Programmes at Kettle’s Yard, and fellow of Newnham College.