Now available in the Museum Store, On the Basis of Art: 150 Years of Women at Yale celebrates the remarkable achievements of an impressive roster of women artists who have graduated from Yale University. This catalogue and its related exhibition mark the 50th anniversary of undergraduate coeducation at Yale and the 150th anniversary of the first women students at the University, who came to study at the Yale School of the Fine Arts (now Yale School of Art) when it opened in 1869. Along with essays and timelines that detail key milestones in the history of women’s accomplishments at the University, the volume features the work of nearly 80 artists, including Janet Fish, Eva Hesse, Maya Lin, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, and Mickalene Thomas. Catalogue entries examine the artists’ early influences and artistic education, as well as the challenges they confronted while at Yale and in their later professional practice. Together, the texts and images illuminate the crucial role that women have played in pushing creative boundaries at Yale—and in the world at large. The catalogue was designed by Yale alumnae Miko McGinty, B.A. 1993, M.F.A. 1998, and Rebecca Sylvers, B.A. 2015, who chose the distinctive silver binding to highlight the cover artwork—Lin’s delicate metal sculpture of Connecticut’s Housatonic River, Silver Housatonic (Benefit Edition) (2011).

Tiffany Sprague

Director of Publications and Editorial Services