This article functions as an analytic tool for many of the issues Nochlin discusses in “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” Although the two articles remain separate and distinct, for the purpose of this paper it is important to recognize how Mulvey’s use of Freudian psychoanalysis supports and makes sense of Nochlin’s claims. In her article, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Mulvey explores the perpetual condition of the women as subject to male gaze within the contextual forum of cinema. Whereas Nochlin uses evidentiary support in the form of history itself to construct her argument, Mulvey employs Freudian psychoanalytic theory to explain many concepts proposed by Nochlin, specifically that of the female nude. Nochlin examines historical and social implications of the question her argument, rooted in historical evidence, proves that certain social institutions: art academies, systems of patronage, mythologies of the divine creator, and artist as perpetual social outcast, contribute to the scarcity of great women artists. Nochlin’s essay seeks to answer the inexhaustible question: “why have there been no great women artists?” by probing the validity of the “women problem” and by shedding light on the limitations of specific social institutions.
In comparing the ways in which Linda Nochlin and Laura Mulvey address feminist issues in “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” and in “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” respectively, it is important to see one author as a probable catalyst for the other.
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