Feminist art history is often described as having two broad approaches.
The recovery model focuses on rediscovering, documenting, and elevating the careers of women artists who were overlooked, undervalued, or erased from the historical record.
The critical model focuses on applying feminist theory to the existing canon, including its most celebrated male artists. It surfaces the misogyny, gendered power dynamics, and ideologies of the male gaze embedded in canonical works and in the institutions that celebrate them. For example, critical model work includes re-readings of artists like Picasso, Degas, or Titian, and analyses of how the concept of “genius” itself has been gendered.