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Art Monsters

Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art

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Art Monsters

By: Lauren Elkin
Narrated by: Lauren Elkin
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

A dazzlingly original reassessment of women's stories, bodies and art - and how we think about them.

For decades, feminist artists have confronted the problem of how to tell the truth about their experiences as bodies. Queer bodies, sick bodies, racialised bodies, female bodies, what is their language, what are the materials we need to transcribe it?

Exploring the ways in which feminist artists have taken up this challenge, Art Monsters is a landmark intervention in how we think about art and the body. Weaving daring links between disparate artists and writers – from Julia Margaret Cameron’s photography to Kara Walker’s silhouettes, Vanessa Bell’s portraits to Eva Hesse’s rope sculptures – Lauren Elkin shows that their work offers a potent celebration of beauty and excess, sentiment and touch, the personal and the political.

'Destined to become a new classic' Chris Kraus

‘The Susan Sontag of her generation’ Deborah Levy

©2023 Lauren Elkin (P)2023 Penguin Audio

 Art Art & Literature Authors Gender Studies Literary History & Criticism Social Sciences

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Critic reviews

'Destined to become a new classic'
'Juxtaposes ideas, images, language, in a vivid collage that invites us to look more deeply'
'Soaring and vivid ... it left me giddy with possibility'
'A fascinating re-visioning and re-imagining of women artists who have used their bodies in all sorts of creative, subversive ways.'
'You won't find anything like this history, told in this way, anywhere else'
A lively and vibrant account of feminist art that articulates the everyday experience of having a body... [a] superb book
Insightful, provocative and at times heartbreaking
Art Monsters joins a larger conversation about monstrousness and art... provoking new, deeper questions about how feminism can and must evolve to engage with those who do things differently
Compulsively readable... Art Monsters is a remarkably joyful book in which the senses are tested and explored, and the boundaries of disgust and desire redrawn
A heavy read at times, but this is not a book for taking the easy route - and is all the more rewarding for it
All stars
Most relevant
A fragmented, beautifully deep, exciting narrative through some of the most powerful counter-normative artist women working with their bodies in various disciplines.

The narration went on voyages through different themes; sometimes lines of thought were closed, and other times left open. All of it, for me, added to the poetry and unapologetic character of this book. An idea that was probably not be easy to weave together and that at points questions itself - it does all it does with true authenticity. It honours art that is purposefully 'ugly' as much as artists who might have been perceived as having considerate shortcomings; it turns the Jungian shadow on its head and makes it shine in its full courageous splendour.

My only question regarded the 'slash'es. These felt very poignant at times, but at other points unnecessarily dramatic.

All in all, definitely a book worth reading for all those exploring the body political in art, feminist art, or just counter-normative narratives about the female body!

Full of life-affirming shadows!!

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