Griselda Pollock, South African-English historian and academic
Griselda Frances Sinclair Pollock (born 11 March 1949) is an accomplished art historian and cultural analyst of international, postcolonial feminist studies in visual arts and visual culture. Since 1977, Pollock has been one of the most influential scholars of modern art, avant-garde art, postmodern art, and contemporary art. She is a major influence in feminist theory, feminist art history, and gender studies. She is renowned for her innovative feminist approaches to art history which aim to deconstruct the lack of appreciation and importance of women in art as other than objects for the male gaze. Pollock conducts various studies that offer concrete historical analyses regarding the dynamics of the social structures that cause the sexual political environment within art history. Through her contributions to feminism, Pollock has written various texts exclusively focused on women in order to intentionally drift away from traditional art history, which concentrated primarily on the work of male artists due to its inherently sexist undertones. Pollock's initiative enabled long overdue exposure and appreciation needed for many female artists such as Mary Cassatt, Eva Hesse, and Charlotte Salomon. Her theoretical and methodological innovations which were first released up to three decades ago such as the ones on her book Vision and Difference 1988, are still influential and studied till this day since many of her remarks apply to modern day contemporary concerns such as the political subtexts that women are still portrayed with in advertising.