ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the connection between art and masculinity by delineating a specifically feminine form of creativity. One argumentation level consists in questioning common cliches through intellectual and social history the statement that women lack artistic talent creates a false impression. Engaging methods of intellectual and social history also results in a quest to recover women artists of the past and rewrite the so-called general history of the arts. The critique of the masculine imagination in art is also articulated in the medium of art itself. Women artists, for instance, restage traditional images of women, presenting them as cliches. Feminist critics of classical theory have often turned against terms like aesthetic judgment and genius, or the theses of disinterested delight and truth in art. From a feminist perspective, one question arises that must be asked in each case anew: what are the implications of the altered perceptions initiated by art for the relationship of the sexes.
