Princenthal takes a tangled history and weaves it into an elegant account ... She delves into central questions of marginalization and race, discussing a persistent cultural bias toward the experience of white, relatively well-off victims, who receive a disproportionate amount of attention from both the media and the criminal justice system .. it’s the irresolvable tensions that give Princenthal’s book, like the art she writes about, its pull.
In this uniquely focused and vitally analytical history, Princenthal recognizes an underappreciated facet of revolutionary art, and dramatically captures the bravura, shocking, at times media-savvy, in other cases stunningly covert performances of Yoko Ono, Suzanne Lacy, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Ana Mendieta, Adrian Piper, and Marina Abramović, as well as the ferocious pictorial work of Nancy Spero. The risks they took, the anger aroused by their exposure of society’s indifference toward or complicity in sexual crimes against women, and the intellectual underpinnings of their work are all expertly elucidated in Princenthal’s unprecedented and searing inquiry.
... convincingly rewrite[s] the history of performance art by tying it to sexual violence. Reading this book now is simultaneously illuminating and painful, an acute reminder of how far we’ve come in the decades since, yet also of how mired in the same problems we remain.
... a gripping history ... When Unspeakable Acts ventures into the present, the tone shifts—becoming both breezy and skeptical—as if current artwork about rape is somehow suspect ... the reader can also sense a generational divide in these passages. Although Princenthal never criticizes younger artists directly, there are hints of deeper discontent. At the beginning of the book, Princenthal warns that recent uprisings such as #MeToo suggest that 'we’re all equally victims,' writing that the hashtag is 'unfortunately childish.'
... potent ... a riveting analysis ... Clearly grasping the scope and complexity of her subject, the author contextualizes the stumbles and stamina of feminism, addressing objectification and exploitation while focusing on artists’ pivotal acts of defiance, which brought heightened awareness to taboo or underdiscussed topics ... The author’s layered treatment of artistic influences, trends, and debates offers a precise snapshot of the context that fueled conversations about and depictions of violence. Ending her excellent primer to 1970s feminist art with a forward-looking view, Princenthal extends her insights into the realm of contemporary issues ... A concise and vital view of art and social change.
... essential ... lucid and challenging ... makes for a compelling journey through endlessly mutable forms of expression ... Princenthal is also deft at drawing a roadmap through the political, social, and aesthetic divisions of the ‘70s, principally the fraught stance toward rape taken by many Second-Wave Feminists, whose concern over sexual violence was haunted by images of African American men lynched over false accusations of assaulting Caucasian women.
