Ninth Street Women is written in a way that makes you feel like you are there, spending time with your dear friends. Gabriel retells the story of Abstract Expressionism with women at the center. Art history, and history generally, skews white and male, giving the impression that white men are responsible for all aspects of society and culture. Reexamining this assumption, one finds that history is a lot more like everyday life, where many people of varying identities contribute to its production, (though still only a few are credited, well remunerated, and named). Reading about the spit-fire personalities of Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler, along with their incredible art is inspiring as well as a good time.Publisher's description:
Set amid the most turbulent social and political period of modern times, Ninth Street Women is the impassioned, wild, sometimes tragic, always exhilarating chronicle of five women who dared to enter the male-dominated world of twentieth-century abstract painting–not as muses but as artists. From their cold-water lofts, where they worked, drank, fought, and loved, these pioneers burst open the door to the art world for themselves and countless others to come