Konsten att skriva historia : En studie av hur genus konstrueras i konstvetenskaplig kurslitteratur om modernismen

Sammanfattning: “The art of writing history” is a study of gender representation in art history literature. It investigates how women and women’s art are represented in a selection of modernist literature, and analyzes this in relation to gender order. It is a qualitative study that includes four books in the Umeå University course “Art history A1”. The paper also consists of interviews with four former students and a teacher of art history, all of whom have read the literature for teaching or learning. The subject matter of the included literature is the era of modernism, from 1870-1970. The literature is analyzed using close-reading and reading against the grain. These methods make it possible to expose the difference in how artists are treated depending on their gender. Additionally, it enables one to see how a canon is formed in art history literature. The results of the analysis showed that male artists were canonized more frequently than female artists. Words like “genius” and “masterpiece” are only used to describe male, not female, artists. Women’s personal and emotional life was deemed significant, while for male artists it was not. In the literature, women were marginalized and men were made  undeniable in the field of art and modernism.