“Eventually I arrived at a theory, which I offer for consideration. It goes like this: women, being generally more rational than men, are aware that life is more important than art. This is simple logic: art is a part of life, therefore art cannot be greater than life. Since the Romantic period and the rise of the concept of artist as Ubermensch, the male artist has been led to believe that, if he is to be a serious artist, he must regard his work as of supreme importance, immutable, unchanging, defying time.”
Germaine Greer, Women used to shrink from creating art. Now they’re taking over. And I think I know why, The Guardian, March 2009.
I’ve been searching and searching for a passage by Germaine Greer in which she says something about male (or perhaps I should say ‘masculinist’) artists and their compulsion to create ‘monumental’ art, and the devaluing of ‘feminine’ everyday creativity that tends to goes with it. I was so convinced that I’d read this in The Whole Woman, that I went out and bought the book again, having lost my original copy to someone who never gave it back after borrowing it. I’ve just flicked through the whole book and can’t find it, and Google Books, the usual saviour in these cases, is no help.
Does this ring any bells with you? Post a comment if you know where it comes from. I’m still convinced it was in The Whole Woman, and that the chapter’s been edited out in the latest reprint. The article quoted above contains the gist of the argument, so if you recognize it from another Germaine Greer book or article, please let me know.
