Abigail Solomon-Godeau is an American art critic and art historian. Her work delves deeply into the history, institutions, and practices of photography, examining it through a feminist lens. She emphasizes a critical engagement with artistic narratives and the ways visual media are constructed and interpreted. Her essays and publications encourage reflection on power structures and gender issues within art.
In essays analyzing the photography of luminaries such as Cindy Sherman, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Susan Meiselas, pioneering feminist art critic Abigail Solomon-Godeau extends her politically engaged and theoretically sophisticated inquiry into the historical and cultural circuits of power as they shape and inform the practice, criticism, and historiography of photography.
The exploration of masculinity and its representation in late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century art reveals a complex interplay between societal ideals and visual culture. Abigail Solomon-Godeau investigates the prominence of the male nude, its eventual overshadowing by the female form, and the feminization of male bodies during this period. By contextualizing these shifts within the backdrop of the French Revolution and Neoclassicism, she challenges traditional narratives and highlights the connections between artistic representation and the evolving status of women in society.