women artists and democracy in mid-nineteenth-century New York
- Categories
- Book/Boek
- Creator
- Masten, April F.
- Publish Year
- 2008
- Shelfmark
- VS 54 2008
- Thesaurus
- kunstenaressen, vormgevers, beeldende kunsten, gender, onderwijsinstellingen, media, industrialisatie, samenlevingen, Verenigde Staten, 1850-1899, biografische gegevens
- Description
- Forced to become self-supporting by financial panics and civil war, thousands of young women moved to New York City between 1850 and 1880 to pursue careers as professional artists. At the Cooper Union School of Design for Women they were imbued with the Unity of Art ideas, an aestetic ideology that made no distinction between fine and applied arts or male and female abilities.The women became painters, designers, engravers, colorists, and art teachers. What their letters, documents, and artwork reveal is that for one brief generation women could realize their potentials as artists. This book recovers that moment. The book also tells the story of how art is used to create, alter, and justify a nation's political economy. It is women artists' chronicle of both the liberating and the destructive effects of capitalist production in a democratic society.