Collection Editor:
Dr Joy Sperling

Joy's Vision for the Collection

In 1972, Linda Nochlin wrote the groundbreaking article “Why have there been No Great Women Artists?” She argued that women (and by extension all other underrepresented artists) had been systematically denied the institutional advantages and access that Anglo-European (white) males enjoyed in the mainstream art world for centuries. These artists were structurally deprived from access to the mainstream art world and have been effaced from history. The Lived Places Publishing Artists Studies Collection is dedicated to all of those artists, past and present, denied access to the mainstream art market and underrepresented in mainstream art history, or who operated on the margins simply because they were denied the opportunities extended to those artists of the ‘center’ owing to their ‘place’ in the world (physical, cultural, or sociological) or to their identity (race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, or linguistic preference).

This collection is devoted to raising the voices and making visible the art of artists who work or have worked involuntarily outside the mainstream because of place or identity. Each course reading will discuss how, where and why each artist is currently (or has been) positioned within the larger art world; asks why their work is (or was) underrepresented; and describes their major contributions to the complex web of rich, diverse, and multi-faceted art (and other visual production) in the United States.

The Lived Places Publishing Artists Studies Collection seeks authors from any discipline who bring together the work of an artist with the meaning and significance of their place and identity. Studies of underrepresented African-American, Native American, Latinx, Asian American and Pacific Islanders, LGBTQIA, Disabled, or other excluded artists are welcome. Authors may collaborate with active artists (without regard to the stage of the artist’s career) and include extensive interviews as an appendix and source material. Historical studies are also welcome. The artists do not need to meet any a priori specific criteria with respect to the ways of working, the level of public recognition, artistic purpose, or institutional qualification. Should you have any questions about the suitability of your artist or craftsperson for inclusion in this series, or if you wish to write about more than one artist, please feel free to contact me as a preliminary step prior to submitting a proposal.

We envision this series as a vehicle for bringing new awareness of the rich diversity of art in the world to a wide audience, but also as a platform for framing thought-provoking questions about how and why some artists ‘make it’ and some do not, and why some are still underrepresented. We hope that you have a story to tell that will help readers reframe, rethink, and reimagine the narrative of global art and visual culture.

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More about Lived Places Publishing:

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About the Collection Editor:

Dr Joy Sperling is Professor Emerita in Art History and Visual Culture at Denison University. She earned her M.A in Art History and M.F.A. in Sculpture from Edinburgh University, Scotland; and her Ph.D from the University of California at Santa Barbara. She served twice as President of the Popular Culture Association and serves on the board of several journals as well as on the board of a charitable art foundation. She has published several books, numerous articles, book chapters, exhibition catalogue essays, reviews, and a substantial revision of the modern era chapters of Marilyn Stokstad’s Art History. She has received numerous fellowships, grants, and awards from, among others, the National Endowment of the Arts and the Smithsonian Institution. She has also conducted print and television interviews on her scholarship and art criticism. She is currently working on a book on women artists in the American southwest through the lens of the flawed and failed concept of Modernism.

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Call for Proposals:

Ready to get started? Please fill out this form to contact Joy with any questions, or download our proposal guidelines to begin the process immediately.