The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work

The Obstacle Race examines women artists from the Middle Ages through the nineteenth century, documenting their struggles and achievements in the male-dominated art world. Germaine Greer investigates hundreds of painters whose work has been forgotten, misattributed, or erased from art history. Through extensive research across European archives and collections, Greer reconstructs the lives and careers of notable women artists including Artemisia Gentileschi, Angelica Kauffmann, and Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun. The book uncovers the systematic barriers these painters faced, from lack of training opportunities to exclusion from academies and guilds. The analysis moves beyond biography to examine broader patterns in how female artists' work was valued, collected, and preserved over centuries. Greer challenges conventional art historical narratives by revealing the mechanisms that pushed women to the margins. This landmark feminist text raises fundamental questions about gender, creativity, and how history remembers or forgets artistic achievements. The book's insights about institutional power and cultural memory remain relevant to contemporary discussions of representation in the arts.

Readers appreciate the detailed research into forgotten women artists and the examination of societal barriers they faced. Many note the book succeeds in explaining why female painters received less recognition than male counterparts throughout history. Positive reviews highlight Greer's analysis of specific artworks and her thorough documentation of artists' lives. Multiple readers cite the chapter on self-portraits as particularly insightful. Critical reviews mention the dense academic writing style can be difficult to follow. Some readers found the text repetitive and wished for more reproductions of the discussed artworks. A few reviews note that the book focuses primarily on European artists. Ratings across platforms: Goodreads: 4.1/5 (237 ratings) Amazon: 4.4/5 (21 ratings) Example review: "Eye-opening look at systematic exclusion of women from art history, though the academic tone makes it less accessible than it could be." - Goodreads reviewer

Women, Art, and Society by Whitney Chadwick A survey of women artists from the Middle Ages to present day examines their challenges, contributions, and evolving roles in the art world.

Artemisia Gentileschi by Mary D. Garrard This scholarly analysis chronicles the life and work of baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi within the context of gender politics in 17th-century Italy.

Old Mistresses: Women, Art and Ideology by Rozsika Parker, Griselda Pollock The book investigates how the art historical canon has systematically excluded or marginalized women artists throughout history.

Women Artists in History: From Antiquity to the Present by Wendy Slatkin A chronological examination traces women's artistic achievements across cultures and centuries while documenting their struggle for recognition.

Great Women Artists by Phaidon Editors This comprehensive volume presents the works and biographies of 400 women artists spanning 500 years of art history.

🎨 When writing this groundbreaking 1979 work on female artists, Germaine Greer personally visited over 50 European museums to research forgotten or misattributed paintings by women. 🖼️ The book revealed how many masterpieces by female artists were falsely attributed to male painters over centuries, including works by Judith Leyster that were credited to Frans Hals. 👩‍🎨 Artemisia Gentileschi, one of the artists prominently featured in the book, was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence in 1616. 📚 The title "The Obstacle Race" refers to the many barriers women artists faced historically, including being barred from nude figure drawing classes and having to obtain permission from male relatives to sell their work. 🏺 Greer's research uncovered that in ancient Greece and Rome, women were well-represented as artists, but their contributions were systematically erased from later historical records.