1970's Feminist Art Movement

One way she transformed the negative into positive was constructing her sculptures out of disposable objects, such as lint. Her work was also have said to recall minimalism because she would display this work, usually, in an organized and repetitive manner. At this time in Hannah’s life, she was gaining a lot of momentum in the art world. Subsequently, her work was included in the “American Women Artists” exhibition in 1972 at the Kunsthaus in Berlin and the Documenta V in Kassel, West Germany (Scharlatt, M., Scharlatt, E., Scharlatt, D., & Scharlatt, A.). Her notable art was praised by many feminist publication groups, and in 1974, she was invited to join the “Anonymous Was a Woman” exhibition as well as “Art: A Woman’s Sensibility” exhibition held by the Feminist Art Program at the California Institute of the Arts (Scharlatt, M., Scharlatt, E., Scharlatt, D., & Scharlatt, A.).

In 1971, Linda Nochlin issued her article “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? This idea of aesthetic genius, says Nochlin, is fiction. Art is rarely produced entirely by the artist for the idea of personal expression. Few identifiers in contemporary art have been as fraught as the term feminist art. What does it mean, who defines it, and how does it relate to past accomplishments of the feminist movement?

Throughout history female figures have played an important role as subject matter. The female figure is very subjective, as peered through the different lenses of varying cultures. The status and functions of women in these cultures are the primary factors that influence how they are portrayed in art of a certain culture. However, the female figure itself through its natural and inherent iconography represents fertility and the importance of women in society. This natural iconography creates certain parallels in content between all works that use the female figure as subject matter. This varying subjectivity of a female’s status based on an artist’s culture will create differences in content and themes; however some aspects remain similar

Eva Hesse was a German-American Jewish sculptor. Her metal sculptured work “Metronomic Irregularity II” (1966) exhibited in the Eccentric Abstraction show curated by Lucy Lippard, exemplifies curial sentiments of what is considered as eccentric abstraction. [9] According to Lippard’s envisage of the eccentric sculpture for her show she was unexpected of the work. As she sees a less organic form she wanted of the work compared to Hesse’s previous sculptured work of the year, “Hang Up” (1966) made from steel tube, acrylic paint on cloth and wood. [3] Whereas “Metronomic Irregularity II” (1966) are seen with little of erotic overtones, but a waving of minimalist geometric shapes with expressionist gesture. ［4］Contrasting from Kandinsky’s watercolour on paper “Watercolour No. 6” (1911) rather than using the regular geometrical shapes to express his synesthesia beliefs, Hesse uses shape and lines allied with organic form in relating to the human body. Hesse uses of geometric repetitions in her work also moves a distance away from the uncompromising

Reading Analysis: Griselda Pollock “Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity,” is an essay that was written by Griselda Pollock in 1988. Pollock wrote this essay to show the different approaches to femininity within the art industry in the late nineteenth century. During this time period, there were many female artists that were trying to be accepted and known for their works. However, they were very much ignored and overlooked by art historians because of ideas that were related to gender. Pollock describes how during this century, everything was directed towards masculine standards.

The contemporary art world is including and exposing more female artists who are promoting themselves creatively and pushing for equality through art. This essay will examine the increase of feminist art visibility and the way in which the audience views work through female perspectives; how art is defined through alternative and non-traditional media, and how fine art has created platforms and spaces for discussion and widens views of feminism within feminist groups and how it can be portrayed differently. In our contemporary age of art, female artists are stripping away the precedent of the male-dominated views of the female standing socially, politically and physically. It should be made clear that Feminist art is not of a specific time period or movement, “feminist art is neither a style nor a movement…It consists of many styles and individual expressions.”(Lippard) The use of alternative creative expression is to broaden our knowledge of art, the way in which ideas and issues are presented based on the journey of women historically through to the contemporary.

(Millhouse, 2011) In the 1980’s Pollock’s Feminism “critiqued the essential myths of individualism, the artist, and the social constructions of femininity and masculinity that define bourgeois culture”. While the 70’s feminism movement aim was to stand next to the existing masculine dominated culture. “Feminism's encounter with the canon has been complexed and many-leveled: political ,ideology,mythological,methodological and psycho-symbolic” (Pollock, 1999). The 1970’s movement was followed by the immediate task which was “the need to rectify the gaps in historical knowledge created by the consistent omission of women of all cultures from the history of art” (Pollock, 1999). The only art that was put on display was significantly male dominated work, if you wanted to see work created by women, you would have to view them “in a basement or storeroom of a national gallery” (Pollock, 1999). Female artists are only known in their own category of female artists while male artists don’t require a separate category . Art that is created by females have been historically dismissed from the art historical canon as craft, as opposed to fine art. The evident of

“Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.” -Oscar Wilde. Women are wild, sensitive, magnificent, mysterious, and above all: individual. Art’s many different medias allowed artist throughout the ages to capture women at both their strongest and most vulnerable points. It has the power to capture a woman: as a naïve, young girl clutching her brother as they are painted into a lasting portrait, a golden statue of an angel sent down to Earth to help a saved man take his first steps into an eternal life with God, to the powerful goddess, Artemis, transforming a hunter into a deer and having his hunting dogs tragically attack him. The six pieces of art chosen express the individuality of each women who has walked, walks, and will walk the earth.

I fell in love with methodologies of art history. I felt empowered in that, through my own interpretations, I could attach words and meaning to objects. My study of art history reached a turning point when, in 2012, I took a class entitled Identity in a Post-Identity Art World: Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Trans/Nationality, 1990 to the Present. The course endowed me with another lens with which to examine works and, more importantly, shed light on representations of marginalized identities. As a result, I was introduced to the writings of Judith Butler and Simone de Beauvoir, both seminal theorists who inspired my own analyses. I enjoyed every minute of conducting research and forming arguments to support my claims. Ultimately I was interested in developing my understanding of issues in contemporary art further and sought to accomplish this by engaging with a larger

Janine Antoni is a contemporary artist with an important message. She was born in the Bahamas in 1964 and expresses herself through works in performance art, sculpture, and photography (“Janine Antoni”, 2016, par. 1). The main focus of her work is to create controversy, conversation and to build awareness. She is most notable for her different choices in medium which assists her in getting her message across. Antoni’s medium of choice often involves using her body to create her art; often utilizing her mouth, hair, and eyelashes to create her unique works of art. By making her piece entitled “Gnaw” orally, she made the creation process “both intimate and destructive,”to quote Janine Antoni, herself (Steadman, 2015, par. 5). The process in which one creates an art piece is as important as the finished artwork. Janine’s process oriented work is as Antoni said, a “new way to intensely commemorate the constricted role of women in society.” (Steadman, 2015, par. 5). Janine Antoni is constantly challenging social norms and expressing her opinion on the restraints and ideals of women in society using her art.

Women are invested in conceptual knowledge in order to avoid being associated with social norms. In the article written by Griselda Pollock, Mary Cassatt: Painter of women and children,” the paintings expressed by Cassatt portray mental stimulation through the female gender. The article analyzes Cassatt’s famous portraits from the late 1800’s, that are drawn to recreate the idea of a “barrier between the spectator and the sitter” (282). One example of this method is, Mrs. Duffee Seated on a Striped Sofa, 1876. This oil painting expresses Cassatt’s gratitude towards her intellectual inspirations. The painting also portrays an attentive distinction between the book and Mrs. Duffee. Cassatt uses the colors of blue and white in the woman’s dress and the book she is reading in order to express the importance of both beings. This use of color and style in her paintings presents the idea that Cassatt acknowledged more feminist styles other than intellectualism.

Feminism is an important social movement that works for the equality of people. One way to express any movement is through art. Judy Chicago and Staceyann Chin are two feminists that have made an impact with their art. Judy Chicago started art as a young age and cares deeply for the equality of people. She makes art to be put in galleries as well as making huge installations. Staceyann Chin is a spoken word poet that uses her words to promote the equality and women, particularly women of color, and the LGBTQ community. We look into what these women have done that has made them so influential and how they have impacted art with the feminist movement.

During the 70s groundbreaking movements were created and creativity filled the air. Unfortunately, this didn’t stop women from receiving the short end of the stick. Although there were plenty of female artists at this time, they were treated as second class citizens, unequal to men. Some art shows would only allow so many female artists display their works at one time. As a result, all the female artist took their crafts to vent their frustration and hardships. At first the public’s reaction was unfavorable they considered this topic too personal. Minimal artist emphasized the importance of having an objective point of view. However, this didn’t faze the artists. Their response was to start an academic program only for women

Barbara Kruger, artist and theorist, has directed and informed much of the curatorial project. Kruger’s perspectives on feminism speak to

Lucy Lippard, a United States internationally known writer, art critic, and activist recognized the dematerialization at work in conceptual art and was an early champion of feminist art. Lippard felt the feminist contribution to art was the lack of contributing to modernism. “Offering a socially concerned alternative, threading female experience into the fabric of mainstream art through autobiography, narrative, and collage, feminism aimed not to add a new style, or shift the formal trajectory of art” (Pollock, 70). The view is that feminism has affected the historical interpretation, and emphasizes of how it is dangerous. This is linked to the issue of preservation and cataloguing, which as the author says creates division and keeps