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Art & Photography
Through women’s eyes
Lesbian artists have been swept under the rug of history—but a thoughtprovoking new book seeks to give them their due By Malik Gaines

“This book was really written from the trenches,” Harmony Hammond proudly explains. That’s no exaggeration. In writing her ambitious new Lesbian Art in America, Hammond draws on nearly three decades of experience as an artist, collector, and teacher. Her goal: to create a place for lesbian art that breaks free from its typical marginal confines.

“You have really ‘out there’ lesbian women since the mid ’60s,” recalls Hammond, who is an art professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “We do have our own history, and it’s a history that’s intertwined with feminist art. But feminist art criticism is heterosexualized, and queer art criticism contextualizes women by their ‘women’s’ work. This book contextualizes women who have been out there since before queer theory but without confining them in any way.”

That said, Hammond did create boundaries in her selection process. “I had to make hard decisions,” she explains. “Stonewall and the early women’s lib movement were the starting point. Before that we had lesbians and artists, but the two words weren’t put together.” Among the works that made the cut: paintings by Hollis Sigler, Millie Wilson, and Janet Cooling; installations by Kate Millett and Joyan Saunders; photographs by Catherine Opie and Zoe Leonard; and a soft sculpture by Hammond herself. The book’s image-rich collection takes readers on an artistic and political tour that’s arresting and—a big point for Hammond— accessible. “You don’t have to be a theoretician to read this book,” she assures. “I worked very hard to write English.”

Gaines writes for Art/Text and The Big Issue. His profile of Janet Cooling appeared in The Advocate’s May 23 issue.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description
"Only pioneer lesbian artist and activist Harmony Hammond could have come up with this fascinating book. Long awaited, and well worth waiting for, it is already a classic as it hits the shelves. Lesbian Art in America fills in the gaping holes in feminist art history and is written with passion from a depth of experience and scholarship. As the first and only book of its kind, it is a must for all students of contemporary art."
--Lucy R. Lippard, author of The Pink Glass Swan: Selected Feminist Essays on Art

"This much needed comprehensive survey of lesbian art since 1970 should become a classic. The exposure of such a tremendous variety of work, so richly grounded in the many political issues vital to women's liberation, should help to establish the credibility of the lesbian subject in art. It should also move this important body of work closer to inclusion in the mainstream of Western art."
--Jill Johnston, author of Lesbian Nation

"This is the book we have been waiting for, the first comprehensive history of lesbian art that firmly roots it in the seismic upheavals of feminist and queer liberation politics. Hammond is the consummate insider to the world she describes, the Vasari of lesbian art. Her impassioned and wonderfully readable tale should convince art lovers and historians of the import of this sadly neglected facet of American history, even as it convinces queer historians and theorists of the centrality of art to our developing social landscape."
--Jonathan David Katz, Ph.D., Chair, Department of Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual Studies, City College of San Francisco

"Harmony Hammond's book is a rare combination of copious research, passionate convictions, and sophisticated knowledge of current theoretical debates-the result is a treasure trove of information, politics, and ideas about contemporary lesbian art in America."
--Moira Roth, Trefethen Professor of Art History, Mills College, co-author with Jonathan Katz of Difference/Indifference: Musings on Post Modernism, Marcel Duchamp and John Cage.

"This is pioneer work. That rare and precious thing: other books will follow now. But this is the first."
--Kate Millett, artist and author of Sexual Politics

More Books
One Teenager in Ten: Writings by Gay and Lesbian Youth, ed. Ann Heron, Alyson Publications, 40 Plympton Street, Boston, MA 02118 (1983).
Young, Gay and Proud, a resource book for gay and lesbian youth, also published by Alyson Publications.
The New Our Bodies, Ourselves, Boston's Women's Health Book Collective, Simon & Schuster, Inc. (1984). Contains a great chapter on lesbian life and relationships.
Lesbian Connection, a monthly newsletter available from Helen Diner Memorial Women's Center, Ambitious Amazons, P.O. Box 811, East Lansing, Michigan 48826.
Our Right to Love: A Lesbian Resource Book, ed. Ginny Vida, Prentice-Hall, Inc. (1978).
This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, eds. Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua, Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, P.O. Box 908, Latham, New York 12110-0908 (1981).
Lesbian Sex, by JoAnn Loulan, Spinsters/Aunt Lute, P.O. Box 410687, San Francisco, CA 94141 (1984).
Nice Jewish Girls: A Lesbian Anthology, ed. Evelyn Torton Beck, The Crossing Press (1982).

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Last Updated: January 10, 2001