The article is devoted to the reception of Katarzyna Kobro – changes in historiographic approaches to the artist and her biography, as well as references to her in contemporary art projects and curatorial practices. The context of these considerations is the discussion initiated by Linda Nochlin on the issue of mythologizing individual creativity and the question of how feminist thinking helps to modify the older understanding of “artistic greatness”.

Linda Nochlin’s book Realism was published in the United States in 1971. The reasons for its prompt publication in Poland are not known, as in 1974 it did not generate much interest. However, at that time methodological problems similar to those presented by Nochlin began to be addressed in Polish art history. The effects of these activities became apparent only in the 1990s, when feminist art also began to be discussed in Poland.

Fifty years after Linda Nochlin wrote her essay Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? female artists are still struggling with limitations, a weak position in the field of art and their own dependence on others. In the text I discuss selected works of artists from Central Europe, which indicate the gender and geographical dependencies prevailing in the Western art world. Such artists as Tanja Ostojić, Anetta Mona Chisa and Lucia Tkáčova, Agata Zbylut and Aneta Grzeszykowska use diversion and mimicry strategies in their art, and the artists themselves can be described as tricksters.