How do we rethink the category of the woman artist?
<p>In this episode, Caroline Fowler speaks with Judith Noorman on the category of the “woman artist,” examining its limits within feminist art history while acknowledging its strategic value. Noorman’s research on the 17th-century Dutch art market challenges entrenched assumptions by demonstrating the central role of women not only as artists but as patrons and consumers, notably through a re-evaluation of archival evidence surrounding Johannes Vermeer and his likely patron Maria de Knuijt. By exposing gendered biases in the interpretation of documents such as wills and probate inventories, the episode highlights how historiography has systematically obscured women’s agency.</p>
Host: Caroline Fowler
Guests: Judith Noorman
Musicians: Diego Mongue
Contributors: Noelle Derksen, Shawnette Smalls
Sound Editor: CJ DeGennaro
Research and Academic Program, Clark Art Institute
Part of: Iconoclast Art History