Madam and Eve (Women Portraying Women) - Liz Rideal, Kathleen Soriano

How do women paint or photograph each other? How do they represent each other in performance or sculpture? As mothers or heroines? With tenderness, aggression or respect? Madam & Eve explores the female gaze as it focuses on other women. The authors – an artist and a curator – investigate the work of over 200 artists, ranging from the well-established to the lesser known. A historical introduction sets up the artistic and cultural context for the rest of the book, which focuses on art since the 1970s and covers the universal themes of the body, life, death, stories, and icons. The result is an amazing parade of artworks: eye-catching, poignant, powerful, political, idiosyncratic, playful, awkward, passionate, sexy, and positive. It is also an eloquent examination of the impact that the feminist movement has had on contemporary art.