FEMINIST ART The context Main artists for study: Judy

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FEMINIST ARTThe context

• Main artists for study
• Judy Chicago, Miriam Schapiro, Barbara Kruger,
  Cindy Sherman.
• Soundtrack http//www.youtube.com/watch?vbmExAiCc
  aPk

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Structure of lesson

• By the end of this lesson, you will have an
  understanding of
• What is Feminism?
• Representation of Women /women artists in Art
  History
• Feminist Art

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Introductory questions

• In pairs, discuss these questions and jot
  answers
• How would you define Feminism?
• If you cant define it, list what you know about
  it. E.g. can you name any feminists?
• Would you consider yourself a Feminist?
• Why or why not?
• Is there still any need for feminism?

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FEMINISM IS

• A political discourse way of thinking which
  seeks
• equality of opportunities and rights for women

• It is about challenging
• Relations between men and women
• power structures laws that keep women
  subordinate
• Division of labour along gender lines
• And empowering women to have their full rights as
  citizens and human beings.

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Feminism

• A political discourse way of thinking which
  seeks
• equality of opportunities and rights for women
• 3 main waves of Feminism
• 19th C-early 20th C Suffragettes - voting
  rights.
• 1960s-70s Civil rights movt ? Feminist movt.
  Sought Legal / social equality for women.
• 1990s- to the present Post-colonial and Third
  World Feminism. Critiqued ethnocentricity in
  Western Feminism.

Faith Ringgold We Came to America 1997
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If you marry, would you take your husbands name?

• This week, the American Sociological Association
  held its annual meeting here in San Francisco.
  Researchers presented findings from a national
  survey of 815 people on family and gender issues.
  Apparently, 71 percent of Americans believe a
  woman should take her husband's last name, and
  half believed it should be a legal requirement.
• (Fri August 14, 2009. Mother Jones magazine)

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Whats the difference between a Woman and a
female?

• WOMAN
• Gender
• Related to identity
• One is not born a woman, one becomes one.
  (Simone De Beauvoir, 1908-1986)
• Is gender performative? i.e. about the way we
  act?

• FEMALE
• Sex
• Related to biology
• Female one of the opposing, or unfair sex.
  (Ambrose Beirce, 1842-1914)
• Are female traits inherent in our biological make
  up?

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1960s 70s Feminism

• N.O.W - National Organisation of Women (formed by
  Betty Freidan others) campaigned for equal
  rights

• Contraceptive pill ? sexual revolution. Women
  had a CHOICE about whether to be a mother / home
  maker
• Other Issues of importance
• Treatment of rape victims
• Abortion rights
• Domestic violence

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Books that influenced Feminist theory

• SdB showed how women are treated as other
  (not-men inferiors to men) (1949)
• BF challenged the roles of women in society,
  presenting statistics comparing womens
  participation in higher education / labour force.
  (1963)
• GG called for womens liberation through sexual
  liberation. (1970)

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Women in Art History

• Why have there been no great women artists?
• (Linda Nochlin, 1971)
• Group 1 write down as many male artists you can
  think of.
• Group 2 Write down as many women artists that
  you can think of.

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Did you get?

• Artemisia Gentileschi
• Rosa Bonheur
• Angelica Kauffman
• Kathe Kollwitz
• Mary Cassatt
• Berthe Morisot
• Suzanne Valadon
• Georgia OKeefe
• Judy Chicago
• Alice Neel
• Frida Kahlo
• Remedios Varo
• Faith Ringgold
• Bridget Riley

• Lee Krasner
• Audrey Flack
• Eva Hesse
• Marisol
• Meret Oppenheim
• Paula Modersohn-Becker
• Cindy Sherman
• Miriam Schapiro
• Guerrilla Girls
• Barbara Kruger
• Emily Karaka
• Jacqueline Fahey
• Carole Shepheard
• Robyn Kahukiwa

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• Where were all the women artists?
• Pre-70s Art History texts rarely mentioned them.

L-R Works by Artemisia Gentileschi, Angelica
Kauffman , Elizabeth Vigee Lebrun
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Artistic Context

• Few women artists admitted to Art academies
• Old Masters almost all male!
• Female artists often ignored by art historians
  (often men!)
• Art done by women often seen as second rank or
  feminine (decorative, sentimental, amateur,
  uncreative) e.g. watercolours, miniatures,
  embroidery, pottery
• Women barred from Life Drawing classes 16th-19th
  C
• Women were often the OBJECTS of art (ie models or
  muses), rather than producers

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Role of women in Renaissance Italy

• Humanism promoted the education of women (so they
  could be better wives and mothers)
• Virtuous, ideal Christian woman chaste and
  obedient. Ideal man self-sufficient and active.
• Castigliones Book of the Courtier Lady ?
  educated and cultured. Her task to charm, but
  male courtiers was to prove himself in action.
• Women artists do feature in Vasaris Lives but as
  exceptions- 4 out of the 160 artists he
  mentions are women.

Im exceptional
Self Portrait of Sofonisba of Cremona (16th C)
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Evidence of Discrimination

• Women under represented in exhibitions and
  galleries even though there were just as many
  women artists e.g. Lee Krasner, Elaine De Kooning

Heard of me, honey?
It is so good that you would not know it was
done by a woman. (Hans Hoffman, 1930s)
Elaine Willem De Kooning.
Gothic Landscape, Lee Krasner 1961
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Evidence of Discrimination
I have not been able to find a woman artist who
clearly belongs in a one-volume history of
art. HW Janson, 1979

• HW Jansons History of Art first published in
  1962 contained neither the name or work of a
  single woman artist.
• It was this context that motivated Judy Chicagos
  Dinner Party and Mary Beth Edelsons work Some
  Living American Women Artists / Last Supper

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(No Transcript)
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Challenging the Patriarchy

• Women artists, art historians and critics join
  together and protest against male-dominated art
  institutions
• 1970 - Lucy Lippard and others demand equality
  at the Whitney museum annual shows (5 women
  artists shown).
• 1971 Art historian Linda Nochlins article in
  Art News Why have there been no great women
  artists?
• W.A.R Women Artists in Revolution used
  guerrilla tactics

1980s Guerrilla Girls formed. Anonymous group
wore gorilla masks and plastered posters around
NY city to protest discrimination against women
artists.
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• What kind of ideas about women are presented by
  these images?

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Representation of women in art

• Stereotyped roles, e.g. Virgin or whore
• Womens bodies presented as sexual objects
• Associated with traits such as vulnerability,
  passivity, nature, purity
• Art work assumes the controlling position of a
  male spectator (the male gaze Laura Mulvey)

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Feminist ArtHistory becomes Herstory

• Ingres Turkish Bath v. Sylvia Sleigh Turkish Bath

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What is Feminist Art?

• Art that
• challenges the patriarchy
• (Patriarchy social system that gives power to
  men discriminates against women)
• Through
• Raising womens political issues e.g. rape,
  abortion womens roles in society
• Exploring a female heritage, e.g. Increasing
  respect for women artists, recognising womens
  historical contributions to society or women in
  mythology
• Challenging notions of high art vs. craft art,
  e.g. through collaboration
• Use of Feminist imagery
• Challenging gender stereotypes

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1. Womens political issues

• Allie Eagle (NZ) The Personal is Political

Faith Ringgolds Weight Loss performance Story
quilt 1986
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Guerrilla Girls
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2. Exploring female heritage

• Paying homage to women artists and role models
  from history as well as reclaiming goddess
  imagery

Mary Beth Edelson, Some Living American Artists
1971 and Woman Rising 1974.
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3. Challenging division between high art and
craft

• Miriam Schapiros femmage (Feminist collage)

Wonderland 1983 Mother Russia 1994
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4) Feminist Imagery

• e.g. Judy Chicagos Core Imagery
• My central core, my vagina, that which makes me
  a woman.

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5. Challenging gender stereotypes

• Cindy Sherman Barbara Kruger

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6. Interest in Identity

• Cindy Shermans Bus Stop series, Untitled Film
  Stills

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Feminist art is not a specific style

• It wasneither a style nor a movement, but
  instead was a value system, a revolutionary
  strategy, a way of life. That what was
  revolutionary was not its forms but its content.
  
• (Lucy Lippard)

Would you consider any of these Feminist?
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Revision of Key Terms

• Define to your partner
• Feminism
• Feminist art
• Representation
• Patriarchy
• Male gaze