Voicing Our Visions: Writings by Women Artists.

VOICING OUR VISIONS: WRITINGS BY WOMEN ARTISTS. Mara Witzling, ed. New York: Universe Publishing, 1991. Illustrated, 400 pp., softbound, $16.95.

Letters, poems, journal entries, lectures and articles by twenty painters and sculptures of the modern period have been brought together in this long overdue anthology of women artists' concerns. Editor, Mara Witzling points out in the introduction the fact that standard collections of artists' writings give the impression by exclusion that women artists have left no written record at all. On the contrary, there is a rich and diverse body of primary source material to inform us about the challenges that have preoccupied women balancing personal and professional lives or carving out careers without the support and recognition lavished on their male colleagues. Witzling presents selections from this material, much of it previously unpublished, devoting a chapter to each artist including a sensitive discussion of the artist's life and work, a black-and-white illustration of a representative work, and a brief bibliography. Witzling is sophisticated in her choices and in the overview she provides. In the introduction, she outlines different forms of women's writing--from private diaries to expository essays --and suggests qualities peculiar to each genre. The first-hand accounts offered are delightful, poignant or informative, and critical for the self-worth and self-definition of our female students who aspire to be artists now and in the future.

Sue Taylor is Associate Curator of Prints and Drawing, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.