PURCHASE, NY.- In her epochal essay "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" (1974), feminist art historian Linda Nochlin explained that many historical circumstances, principally lack of access to training, exhibitions, commissions and critical forums — not genetics — limited women's artistic achievement. As these circumstances changed rapidly in the period after World War II, so did the relative prominence of women in the ranks of the most progressive and visible artists in the West.

Great Women Artists: Feminist Art from the Permanent Collection, on view at the Neuberger Museum of Art from November 23, 2008 to February 22, 2009, surveys work by some of the most influential artists of the last four decades, who drew on the insights of critical feminism to advance artistic practice. They did this, in part, by addressing precisely those social, political, and economic factors that have supported and continue to support gender-based discrimination. These very issues – feminism, racism and female sexuality are explored in the show.

Among those represented in Great Women Artists are Marina Abramovič, Jo Baer, Lynda Benglis, Lee Bontecou, Louise Bourgeois, Patty Chang, Chryssa, Patricia Cronin, Agnes Denes, Nicole Eisenman, Ilse Getz, Nancy Graves, Eva Hesse, Deborah Kass, Loren MacIver, Elizabeth Murray, Catherine Opie, Beverly Pepper, Judy Pfaff, Adrian Piper, Niki de Saint Phalle, Howardena Pindell, Anne Ryan, Carolee Schneeman, Collier Schorr, Joyce Scott, Beverly Semmes, Judith Shea, Kiki Smith, Joan Snyder, Jessica Stockholder, Kay Walkingstick, Hannah Wilke, Francesca Woodman and Daisy Youngblood. Support for this exhibition is generously provided by Morgan Stanley Global Wealth Management Office of Diversity.

Great Women Artists: Feminist Art from the Permanent Collection was curated by Thom Collins Director of the Neuberger Museum of Art and Camilla Cook, Curatorial Fellow, and organized from the Neuberger's permanent collection as a contemporary compliment to Hannah Wilke: Gestures now on view. The women artists in the show were her contemporaries during the period she was active, from the 1960s to the mid 1990s.

"We were fortunate from the very outset that Roy Neuberger's collection formed the core of the Museum's permanent collection," explains Mr. Collins. "Roy was rare among collectors of his generation in that he actively collected living women artists of the time – artists such as O'Keeffe, Krasner, Hesse, Dehner – and he purchased them early. So, that's where we begin." The Museum continued to collect work by women artists throughout the late 20th century and into the 21st century. Mr. Collins said that Great Women Artists was inspired recently by a promised gift from the Vance-Waddell Collection in Cincinnati and by the Hannah Wilke exhibition. "We realized we hadn't shown many of the works by women artists in our permanent collection in quite a while. The Hannah Wilke show was the final impetus to pull all of the works together."