A Woman’s Eye, Her Art

Along with Modersohn-Becker and Miller, Modjeska brilliantly depicts Dora Maar, surrealist Claude Cahun, and the artists around them. Modjeska’s eye is calibrated, as she says of Miller, to find 'the revealing detail' ... Modjeska is part of a lineage of artists whose radical work has been seen more clearly in hindsight. Hers is patient and visionary, disclosing artists’ lives of prescience and belated reception, compelled by that 'loop of hope'.

Felicity Plunkett, Saturday Paper

[Modjeska's] chapters on Modersohn-Becker are revelatory and deeply moving, illuminating in intimate and affecting ways the artist’s struggle and courage. By doing so, Modjeska contributes to the broader effort to accord Modersohn-Becker, known for her arresting self-portraits, belated recognition as a major artist of the twentieth century ... Indeed, the book is richly illustrated, both in the sheer number of images and in Modjeska’s writerly skills, which show her readers how to look and how to see. All this is presented against the backdrop of a world falling apart as Europe is wracked by two world wars. As a result, the book has the quality both of erudite art history, social commentary, and delicious gossip ... In ways different from the representational and analytical work films and exhibitions can do, Modjeska’s luscious text affords a more expansive view of the intricacies of the lives and struggles of a cohort of artist-women working in Europe across the twentieth century. Driven as it is by her curiosity about women’s creative lives, Modjeska draws us into their work and lives with unstinting generosity.

Maria Nugent, Inside Story

A Woman’s Eye, Her Art is impeccably researched (see the extensive references and bibliography), but it wears its scholarship lightly – it is a lively, highly engaging read. Modjeska’s detailed description of the artworks, many of them reproduced in the text, illuminate her discussion of the lives of their creators, and reveal her own fastidious eye for the telling detail ... [this is] a fine tribute to these artist-women of the early 20th century and their contribution to modernist art. Modjeska has done them (and us) a great service in bringing them out of the shadows of the men, dispelling the myth that they were mere 'muses' and showing how their work continues to inspire.

Sydney Morning Herald

In A Woman’s Eye, Her Art, Modjeska creates a layered collage of the influences between early 20th century photographers and painters, expressionists and surrealists, non-binary tricksters and romantic poets, to show the accomplishments of a woman’s eye and the obstacles faced by her sex and gender ... A Woman’s Eye, Her Art contains untold gems and beautiful reproductions of many of the paintings Modjeska discusses ... It is in a layered, collage-like form that Modjeska excels in demonstrating artistic influence, but she also made me wonder about today’s artists and correspondents working in conflict zones. They are harder to find than you’d expect, lending gravity and impetus to the work of the art historian.

The Monthly