Patricia Hills turns the story of art inside-out, with a plunge into the nitty-gritty of museum curating, academic teaching, and artmaking. When the art establishment opposed her contrarian views, Hills took a stand against privilege and the patriarchy, racist attitudes, and gender bias. She has
probed cultural and political minefields through her writing about artists, writers, critics, museum curators, and trends in art history scholarship. Hers is a tale of a woman’s unconventional breakthrough into the male club.
For decades, Hills has been writing pioneering scholarly books and articles about 19 th -century artists, including Eastman Johnson, Thomas Eakins, John Singer Sargent, figurative and frontier painters, as well as her 20 th -century focus on political, feminist, and Black artists, such as Stuart Davis,
Alice Neel, May Stevens, and Jacob Lawrence. Now, we have the outtakes and living history from those years of research and studio visits. Among many others, we meet art world influencers such as longtime MoMA Curator William S. Lieberman, art historian and critic Leo Steinberg, popular literary historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr., art critic Lucy Lippard, and Time magazine critic Robert Hughes.
These stories are woven into Hills’s insider view of the counterculture, the feminist movement, anti-racism and Left politics, all while raising a family and building her professional life as a museum curator and art history educator. Her passion for building communities of artists, art historians, and students, and her keen insights into the role of the artist shine through.
Art World Feminist is also a pushback against the current political attacks on an honest history of American life and culture. This memoir is a must- read for contemporary minds who try to make sense of the American art establishment as it lurches through history. Published by Harry N. Abrams, 1983. Text here adapted from the jacket cover.
Pat and Fred Hills, Wedding Photos, San Francisco 1958
Pat and Fred Hills with Brad and Christina, New York 1964
Pat at the Cloisters, New York, 1967. Photograph by Jeanne Hamilton
Leo Steinberg, 1968. Photo by Mark Feldstein. Courtesy of Sheila Schwartz
Pat at her desk, New York, 1973. Photograph by Jeanne Hamilton
Kevin Whitfield, c. summer 1975
Opening of Whitney Exhibition, Turn of the Century America, Summer 1977: Pat Hills, unidentified guest, Kevin Whitfield, and Glennie Baker (Pat's Mom). Photo by Scurlock Studios
Family at Ocean Grove, NJ, Summer 1978, from top to bottom: Pat Hills with Andy, Kevin Whitfield, Emily Whitfield, Mary Whitfield, Christina Hills, Brad Hills, and dogs Cleo and Polly.
Alice Neel painting on the easel of Kevin and Andy, at Neel's Summer House in Spring Lake, NJ, summer 1980, Photograph Pat Hills
Pat with Mr. and Mrs. Raphael Soyer, Boston University Art Gallery, 1983. Photo by Charles Giuliano
Pat with Jack Levine, Boston University Art Gallery, c. 1983-83. Photo by Charles Giuliano
Opening of Whitney Exhibition, John Singer Sargent, Fall 1986: Pat Hills, Christina Hills, Glennie Baker (Pat's Mom) and Gail Gordon (Pat's Sister). Photographer Unknown
