Abstract

This paper focuses on the way different feminist approaches in the field of visual arts have contributed to a re-reading of the tradition of art history, unmasking its underlying power relations. While examining different theoretical and prac tical works from the early Seventies until today, the paper draws specifically on "critical feminism", which shows how art must be rooted in its social and historical grounds, so that sexual differences (as well as economic and racial ones) are considered as co-extensive with the production and consumption of representations. In particular, two issues, both located at the core of feminist critiques and practices of art history, are considered: i.e. textuality and visuality. They are discussed through the lenses of a reflexive, pragmatic and embodied approach in order to suggest that, from a feminist perspective stressing that every theoretical position implies some form of political strategy or agency, theorizing art and practicing it cannot be disjoined.