Post Modern Art Blog

 Post Modern Art Blog

Women’s Movement – Feminist Art Movement

(1960-2000)

    I really enjoyed the choice in this week's assignment, I chose to go with the Post Modern Era (1960-2000). During this time period, we see many movements that carried from the Mid Modern Era into the late 20th century including, The Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Movement, the war, and a lot more I'm sure. This was a time of continued growth, expansion, and many forms of conflict as one of the biggest conflicts of this time was equality, for both African Americans and women. I wanted to focus on the growth and expanding the rights of women. Sadly it was common to see women as sexualized objects incapable of doing the job a man could. Some common problems women faced were mockery, unequal pay, and working rights. With limited access to services such as child care and abortions. Luckily, things began to shift during the Post Modern time period; women became more politically involved and demanded equal pay and rights.

Most artists were white males and were often responsible for sharing their views of current events through artistic representation. However, during this time there was an influx of diverse artists ready to share their view of the world. Women were amongst this increase in diverse artists and were responsible for helping expand ideas on artistic technique and interpretation. The Feminist Art Movement emerged in the late 1600s and was pushed for by women who wanted to break the male-dominated artistic visions and create a time and space where women's stereotypes could be broken (“Underappreciated Women Art Pioneers of the ’60s”).

• Title: Earth Birth
• Artist: Judy Chicago
• Date: 1983
• Location: The Brooklyn Museum, New York (creation location unknown)

I chose to go with Judy Chicago a Feminist Art Movement artist who focused on the power of birth and womanhood. She recognized the lack of female representation, specifically birth as part of a woman’s experience, and decided to start her own collection called the Birth Project (“Underappreciated Women Art Pioneers of the ’60s”). Earth Birth is a very strong, yet vulnerable feel to it, and I love it! It's so powerful and true. The first art element I noticed was the shape of the woman, it was very sharp and curvy in the places needed to express womanhood. The second element that caught my eye was the subtle use of the color yellow. I believe the artist use these yellow hues to highlight the important features such as the womb, breasts, the woman’s mouth which I interpreted as her soul, and the sun behind her in the upper right corner. Lastly, I noticed the overall use of space in this piece. Every inch of this piece is filled with fluid, flowing lines and different shades of blue. I think this creates a very full and wholesome feel.

• Title: Birth Trinity
• Artist: Judy Chicago
• Date: 1985
• Location: The Brooklyn Museum, New York (creation location unknown)

Birth Trinity is another piece from Judy Chicago’s Birth Project. This tapestry follows the theme of birthing and the female experience. This piece, as well as her other pieces from the Birth Project, give a stronger representation of women in the art world and brought us a little closer to equality amongst men and women. During this time period, women were still fighting for equal rights, and in some ways being represented in the art world. In this piece, there are three figures, one of which is a woman giving birth. I feel a great sense of power and importance when I look at this artwork.

• Title: Up to and Including her Limits.
• Artist: Carolee Schneemann
• Date: 1973-76
• Location: Judson Memorial Church.

For my next artist, I chose Carolee Schneemann. Schneemann was inspired by the physicality of Pollock's painting technique, and Schneemann translated that gesture into performance. She was suspended in a harness, nude, and drew on the wall and floor with a crayon. The movement of her body was more important than the marks she made; it was this movement that was the art and is clearly inspired by her work in kinetic theater at the Judson Memorial Church. The rhythmic motions of Schneemann swinging back and forth at different speeds have an almost therapeutic effect and this piece was created after a particularly difficult time in her life. Schneemann performed the piece at various locations throughout 1973-1976, with many performances in New York City, but also in California, England, and Europe as well. In 1984, Schneemann created a video by editing footage from six of these performances together.

• Title: Interior Scroll
• Artist: Carolee Schneemann
• Date: 1975
• Location: East Hampton

For her performance at the Women Here and Now conference in East Hampton, Long Island, Schneemann entered the room covered in a sheet with only an apron beneath. She disrobed in the center of the space, climbed onto a table where she outlined her body in mud, and struck "action poses" as if for a life-drawing class. She read from her book Cézanne, She Was a Great Painter, and then slowly extracted a paper scroll from her vagina and read from it. Schneemann drew upon ritualism while using her whole body as an integral part of the art; she stated, "I thought of the vagina in many ways - physically, conceptually, as a sculptural form, an architectural referent, the source of sacred knowledge, ecstasy, birth passage, transformation." According to art critic Robert C. Morgan, Interior Scroll must be understood within the contemporary context of the 1970s and feminist art in particular: by locating the root of artistic creativity at her genitals, Schneemann shifted away from the masculine precedent in art toward a feminist exploration of her body.

• Title: Fallen Painting
• Artist: Lynda Benglis
• Date: 1968
• Location: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, New York

My last artist chosen was Lynda Benglis, she was an American sculptor, painter, conceptual, and performance artist. She was most known for using styles around Movements, such as Conceptual Art, Performance Art, and Feminist Art. This work is around 30ft long and dates from a breakthrough period in Benglis's career. The artist poured latex rubber pigment in brightly-colored hues onto the floor of her studio. Unlike conventional oil or acrylic paint, the rubber remained in the shape of the artist's spill, preserving her gesture, and needed no canvas. It was a self-sufficient artwork. As Susan Richmond points out, "each pour was the product of a complex choreography, necessitating a balance of spontaneity and precision, not to mention physical endurance, as the artist frequently wielded five-gallon cans of the pigmented medium." The resulting form is sculptural; it is meant to be exhibited on the floor and takes up a significant portion of the space in which the work is exhibited. For feminist scholar and art historian Amelia Jones, Fallen Painting is about "the depravity of the fallen woman", and resembles a "prone victim of phallic male desire."

• Title: Eridanus
• Artist: Lynda Benglis
• Date: 1984
• Location: National Museum of Women in the Arts

In the 1980s Benglis continued to work with metal, but added wire, zinc, corrugated aluminum, and other lighter materials that could be folded, bent, or twisted. These lighter, wall-mounted pieces resemble knots or folded ribbons, a significant departure from her earthbound pieces. Eridanus, a knot-like form, hovers over the surface of the wall with the apparent lightness of a paper flower. In her choice and manipulation of materials, she remained focused on the tension between masculine and feminine characteristics, using metal (a traditionally masculine substance) to evoke ribbon, associated with frilly femininity. Here as in Psi, Greek culture is a source of inspiration - Eridanus is a mythological river.

Sources:

“Feminism – Important Pieces and Performances.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/movement/feminist-art/artworks/.

Carolee Schneemann Art, bio, ideas (no date) The Art Story. Available at: https://www.theartstory.org/artist/schneemann-carolee/ (Accessed: November 21, 2022).

Lynda Benglis Sculptures, bio, ideas (no date) The Art Story. Available at: https://www.theartstory.org/artist/benglis-lynda/ (Accessed: November 21, 2022).