What the sexual harassment allegations at Artforum reveal about who holds the power in art (hint: not women)

In 1971, art historian Linda Nochlin published a bombshell essay in ARTnews magazine titled, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?"

The piece examined this commonplace question, along with its negative implications.

"First we must ask ourselves who is formulating these 'questions,'" wrote Nochlin, "and then, what purposes such formulations may serve."

She then proceeded to dismember the question's premise point by well-argued point.

Art wasn't just some miraculous channeling of artistic endowment, she noted. It was a skill - "learned or worked out, either through teaching, apprenticeship or a long period of individual experimentation." Yet, throughout history, women have regularly been denied access to these types of mentoring relationships.

For centuries, women were also prohibited from studying nudes - a foundational aspect of Western art. "As late as 1893, 'lady' students were not admitted to life drawing at the Royal Academy in London," Nochlin wrote, "and even when they were, after that date, the model had to be 'partially draped.'"

When they did paint, she noted, the activity was derided as entertainment for upper-class women who wanted to cultivate a cultured aspect - aka "lady painters" - accepted by society because it was a pursuit that was "quiet and disturbs no one."

Art, in other words, doesn't exist in a vacuum. It exists within the power structures of society - structures dominated by men. If women