Wet: On Painting, Feminism, and Art Culture

Taking aim at the mostly male bastion of art theory and criticism, Mira Schor brings a maverick perspective and provocative voice to the issues of contemporary painting, gender representation, and feminist art. Writing from her dual perspective of a practicing painter and art critic, Schor's writing has been widely read over the past fifteen years in Artforum, Art Journal, Heresies, and M/E/A/N/I/N/G, a journal she coedited. Collected here, these essays challenge established hierarchies of the art world of the 1980s and 1990s and document the intellectual and artistic development that have marked Schor's own progress as a critic.
Bridging the gap between art practice, artwork, and critical theory, Wet includes some of Schor's most influential essays that have made a significant contribution to debates over essentialism. Articles range from discussions of contemporary women artists Ida Applebroog, Mary Kelly, and the Guerrilla Girls, to "Figure/Ground," an examination of utopian modernism's fear of the "goo" of painting and femininity. From the provocative "Representations of the Penis," which suggests novel readings of familiar images of masculinity and introduces new ones, to "Appropriated Sexuality," a trenchant analysis of David Salle's depiction of women, Wet is a fascinating and informative collection.
Complemented by over twenty illustrations, the essays in Wet reveal Schor's remarkable ability to see and to make others see art in a radically new light.

Author: Mira Schor
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 02/21/1997
Pages: 280
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.06lbs
Size: 9.26h x 5.92w x 0.81d
ISBN: 9780822319153

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 02/24/1997 pg. 74

About the Author

Mira Schor is a painter and writer living in New York City. Coeditor of M/E/A/N/I/N/G from 1986 to 1996, she currently teaches at Parsons School of Design.