by Jon Lackman | 23 November 2010 | Uncategorized
From The Guardian:
Rozsika Parker, who has died aged 64 of cancer, was a woman of diverse achievements as a feminist, art historian, psychotherapist and writer … In 1973 Rosie met Griselda Pollock and they formed [a] feminist art history collective, an informal group composed of artists, art historians and journalists … Rosie and Griselda’s collaboration resulted in the book Old Mistresses: Women, Art and Ideology (1981), which analysed the works of women in both the fine and decorative arts, as well as challenging the myths about women’s supposed creative inferiority. They next worked on Framing Feminism: Art and the Women’s Movement 1970-1985 (1987) … In 1983 Rosie published The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine. This radical history showed that embroidery, once the work of women and men, had been recategorised as women’s work, at which point “the same characteristics were ascribed to both … mindless, decorative and delicate”. The book was reissued early this year, to coincide with the stunning exhibition of quilts at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
See also Mira Schor’s remembrance.