The early work of Griselda Pollock in the context of developing feminist thinking in art history and criticism

This paper explores Griselda Pollock’s early work of the 1970s. It traces her development of feminist critiques of Art History and her paradigmatic shifts in developing feminist methodologies of writing about art. This is placed within the context of 1970s UK feminist thinking, e.g., the feminist magazine Spare Rib; the little-researched Feminist Art History Collective; and the engagement of feminist thinking about culture with socialist and Marxist thinking, including John Berger, and labour movements. The paper also differentiates between Pollock’s context and development and the American feminist art history movement. The paper names a product of Pollock’s feminist work of the 1970s as an ‘activism of process’ – her bringing together of feminist methodologies, feminist politics, and academic practice, and thanks her for her tireless pursuit of this in her life’s work.