TY - BOOK ID - 5245207 TI - Contemporary women artists. PY - 1999 SN - 1558623728 PB - Detroit St. James Press DB - UniCat KW - Women artists KW - Art, Modern KW - Femmes artistes KW - Art KW - Biography KW - Dictionaries KW - Biographie KW - Dictionnaires anglais KW - kunstenaars KW - kunst 20e eeuw KW - vrouwen KW - 7.071 KW - Artists, Women KW - Women as artists KW - Artists KW - Affichistes (Group of artists) KW - Fluxus (Group of artists) KW - Modernism (Art) KW - Schule der Neuen Prächtigkeit (Group of artists) KW - Zero (Group of artists) UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:5245207 AB - Contemporary Women Artists examines the lives and works of over 350 of "the world's most prominent and influential" contemporary women artists. Entries often begin with a photo of the artist, then offer condensed facts about her birth, schooling, lifestyle, art career, and awards. Lists of solo shows and publications provide especially useful guideposts to the careers. When available, a short artist's statement concludes the introductory material, and an up-to-date, critical assessment concludes every entry. The husband-and-wife coeditors, who have put together encyclopedias on numerous subjects, have guided their 110 contributors well in providing judicious and restrained commentary. How they went about selecting artists for inclusion is more problematicAno real explanation is provided, and parameters seem hard to define. Should "contemporary" be taken to mean 20th century, post-World War II, or post-1960? As the preponderance of entries are truly contemporary, why are Georgia O'Keeffe and Mary Cassatt included? In any case, this is a wonderful, stimulating, and surprisingly well-written volume. Highly recommended for the reference collections as an adjunct to the Dictionary of Women Artist (LJ 12/97), an LJ best-reference source covering women born before 1950. Henkes's much narrower book is visually arrestingAthe artworks are insightful, poignant, striking, and original. He discusses 33 meritorious Hispanic/ Chicana artists, from Juana Alicia to Bernadette Vigil (none of whom are to be found in Contemporary Women Artists). Henkes is experienced in art commentary, having produced at least five other reference titles on American art and artists in the last nine years, yet his style remains halting and unpolished. His preference for sacred art leads to writing that sometimes sounds more like homilies in Christian Dogma than objective art criticism, and he detects the sacred at least as an undercurrent in perhaps too many examples, even when the artist works with modernist abstractions. Still, art collections with a special interest in Hispanic or women's studies will appreciate this unique reference. ER -