Feminism in art 1960s and onwards
The Feminist art movement started in the late
1960s.Before the movement the majority of female artists were denied
exhibitions due to their gender, this in turn helped spark the movement and
drived many artist to try change what could be put in to gallery’s like The
Tate modern and The Satchi gallery. These feminist artists sought to fight for
equality and equal rights of women. Ways of doing this included using art,
Intervening in the art world, as well as using social interactions,
Performances and videos to present a message about equality that women deserved
and also helped create places for women in art that had not been there before.
This helped pave a way for Identity art and also activist art in the 1980s and
so on.
In this essay I am going to write about some of the
artists that were in this movement (post past and present).I feel that in order
to help shape the future we must take note of what helped shape the world of
female artist in the past and use this to help us make the world a little more
equal.
Carolee Schneeman
Carolee schneeman was an American visual artist known
for her pieces on the human body, Sexually and gender. The work she looked into
was mainly characterized by visual traditions, Taboos, and the body of the
individual in the relationship to social bodies.
Her friends described her as ‘A mad
Pantheist’ which is the belief that all of reality is the same as
divinity. This was due to her relationship and respect for nature. Schneemans
earliest inspirations and connections between art and sexuality were her
drawings from ages four and five, which she drew on her father prescription
tablets that were from his work.
Her family was generally supportive of her naturalness
and freeness with her body (her father more because of the fact he was a rural
physician who would deal with the human body in various states of health.
She has since been labeled as a feminist icon but she
also says it can reach out to make artists as well. Her work as a hole revolves
around the freedom of sexuality and liberation, unlike other artists who
referred to the victimization and repression of women. Carolee wrote in her
book ‘She was a great painter’.
My thoughts on the Carolee work/The Interior scrolls
Her most notable art work ‘Interior scrolls’ was a
performance at the Women here and now, in east Hampton, in which Carolee
entered the room covered in sheets with nothing but a apron beneath. She then
discarded the robe in the Centre of the space, climbed onto the table where she
outlined her body in mud and struck “action poses” as if it were a life drawing
class. She then read from her book ‘ she was a good painter’ and then
slowly pulled a paper scroll from her vagina and read from it. She spoke about
how she thought of the vagina in many ways ‘Physically conceptually, as a
sculptural form, an architectural reference, the source of sacred knowledge,
ecstasy, birth passage, and transformation.
Valie Export
Her work includes video installations, body
performances, expanded cinema , computer animations , photography , sculptures
and publications covering contemory arts.
Valie related her self within the Viennese art
movement. In that time Austrians thoughts towards Feminism was that of a Nazi
propaganda .She subjected her body to pain and danger in actions that were
designed to bring forward the growing complacency and conform of positive
Austrian culture.
She did Guerrilla Gurrls performances have got her an
iconic stature in the Feminist art world of today.
One of her performances (named Tap and touch) In which
she wore a tiny ‘moving theatre’ around her naked body, this was so her body
could not be seen but could be touched by anyone who was reaching in through
the curtains (or the front part of the theatre as it was known).She then went
into the streets and invited men, women, and children to come and look behind
the curtains, all the while having direct eye contact , this in turn made the
viewer feel uncomftable and gave them a sense of guilt. And gave the situation
a sense of realness (as if they were doing something they shouldn’t do).
Although her work was ground breaking in many ways and
unique for its time the media still responded to her work in pure fear and
panic, even to the point where one News paper called her a “Witch”. Another
instance was that, at one point, Valie claimed that “there was a massive
campaign against her in Austria ”
She then went on to say “I found it to be truly
fascinating “.
Another one of her iconic performances was ‘Action
pants: Genital panic” made in 1968.In this exerbition she entered a cinema
wearing leather crotch less pants that had had a triangular shape cut out and
walked around the audience (and between rows) with her vagina exposed at face
level. This In turn would force the viewer to once again be confronted with
genitalia and would force emotions being positive or negative thus earing
the last part of the title ‘Genital panic’. It also challenged the
typical image of women in historical representation which cinema had
always made women out to be passive objects denied agency.
In a interview done by Ruth Askey in 1979 Valie
described her exhibition as being done in a pornographic theatre. Valie denied
claims that (much like the poster would have suggested) she carried a gun and
held it to people in the theatres heads till they all got up and left. This has
never been clarified.
After the exhibition there was a set of six identical
posters realize. Each poster had valie export sat on a chair wearing the crotch
less pants she had worn previously only in these she holds a gun at chest level
in which she is apparently turned in readiness to turn the gun on the viewer in
which she gazes at. Her hair appears to be up in a wild mop above her head,
which emphasizes the strangeness of the image.
Later on Valie went on to talk about her work saying:
“I didn’t want to perform in a gallery or a museum,
as they were too conservative for me, and would only give conventional
responses to my experimental works. It was important for me to present my works
to the public in the public space, and not within an art-conservative space,
but in the by then so-called underground. When I was performing my actions in
public, on the streets, in the urban space, new and different forms of
reception developed. In the streets I provoked new explanations. I wanted to be
provocative, to provoke, but also aggression was part of my intention. I wanted
to provoke, because I sought to change the people’s way of seeing and thinking
.If I hadn’t been provocative, I couldn’t have made visible what I wanted to
show. I had to penetrate things to bring them to the exterior”.
(This was quoted in Valies book called VALIE EXPORT On
page 148-149)
Valies work is by far my favorites and has the most
meaning to me out of all the others. She dares to do what many wouldn’t and her
use of the media is also impressive. Through the media many more people would
have looked and formed opinions that they wouldn’t have other wise. Over all I
hope more artists take inspiration from her works like genital panic and
continue to push society’s outlook on women.
Sarah Lucas
Lucas studied at The Working men’s college and worked
along well-known artist such as Angus Fairhunt and Damium hurst who all worked
towards a group exhibition in 1988.Sarah was also a major part of the Young
British Artists society. Lose group of visual artists who began to exhibit in
London (1988) which were noted for their “ shock tactics “. Their use of throw
away objects , wild living, and having a attitude were all similar to Sarah’s
thus making this the perfect society for her and where her exhibits were most
in there element
Her first two solo exhibitions were called “The whole
joke” and “The penius nailed to a board”
In the 1990s Lucas began using furniture as a
substitute for the human body, usually including crude genital puns.
“Au Naturel” (1994)
Au Naturel is a mattress
with an Assemblage of things: water bucket, melons, oranges, and a cucumber.
These particular objects were supposed to symbolize male and female genitalia.
The way everything is organized gives hints to the viewer without being too
obvious. This is one of the things I like about this piece, being it’s blatant
nature and interesting use of objects that symbolize said organs.
Another thing s that I like
about this work is that her use of fruit, to me, could suggest that are
genitals are very much like fruit and are as tender.
Another one of Sarah Lucas’
notable assemblages was the classic “Two fried eggs and kebab”, (1997) in which
a naked woman is depicted via the use od a wooden table and two eggs and a
kebab are strategically placed. The eggs possibly suggesting the breasts, and
the kebab suggesting the vagina.
This piece of work strikes
similar notes like her other piece (Au Naturel) in the way items (notable
edibles) are placed to be suggestive to a viewer. I feel like the piece really
made use of Sarah’s humor and I can obviously see the visual puns she creates.
Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin is a
contemporary artist who is known for her written works (dealing with her own
life) and her conventional artwork. Emin primarily works with drawing,
painting, sculpture, film, photography, neon signage, and also sewn ornamental
needlework. This is when pieces of fabric are sewn together to a larger piece
to form a picture or a pattern.
Much like Sarah Lucas,
Tracey too was part of the young British artists in the 1980’s even at one
point renting a retail space in East London (called the shop) where both her
and Sarah made artwork, mugs, and even T-shirts. Though, unlike Sarah, her work
took on an ore sock tactic, like a lot of artists in the young British artist
society did. One of her most notable works was in fact “Everyone I ever slept
with” (1963 – 1995)
This piece was a tent that
Tracey had ever shared a bed with. This was not necessarily meant to be take in
a sexual sense and could have simply meant to have slept with in the same bed.
I feel that it is important
clarify that the intentions of this work was never stated. I feel that this was
very clever, and the way that the tent was constructed was also very clever.
The bold ( but also very different letters serve to remind me that all these
people were very different ). This would have been a piece that was only at its
best when seen in person as I feel pictures don’t do it justice.
In 1994, another one of
Tracey’s solo’s exhibitions named “Every part of me is bleeding” was revealed.
This consisted of many different works done in a variety of media, and included
large-scale sculptures, drawings, neon pieces, a video, and also a quilt.
One of the most notable
pieces was a seaside beach hut form a past vacation spot of hers and Sarah
Lucas, which also included her former boy friend. The hut itself had been
reassembled in the exhibition in the main gallery space.
My thoughts on this piece
is that Emin captures my attention with her unique story telling style and
always makes me feel like I know her, through her intimate work.
The final Tracey Emin piece
I want to cover is the “My Piece” from 1998. This piece was exhibited at the
Tate gallery in 1999, and consisted of Tracey’s bed with bedroom objects in
abject state, for which this gained a lot of media attention.
This idea was brought to
light while Tracey was in a depressive phase, due to relationship difficulties,
in which she remained in her bed for several days without eating or
drinking anything but alcohol beverages. It was said that when she had
looked at the vile build up around her bed it had given her the idea to create
the piece, as most of her work seemed tom this piece also generated
considerable attention from the media. This was mostly because the bed itself
was stained with bodily secretions, and the floor was littered with condoms,
underwear, everyday objects, a pair of slippers, and underwear with menstrual
blood stains.
Later in the life of this
piece, two performance artists going by the names of Yuan Chai and Jian Jun Xi
jumped onto the bed with their bare torsos to try and improve the work. They
called their performance “Two naked men jumping into Tracey’s bed”. They later
on had a pillow fight for 15 minutes. They were later detained but no further
action was taken.
Tracey’s work over all,
gives me the same feelings as Sarah’s. I love the assemblage of items she uses
and the way she presents her work. I felt a lot of emotions are displayed in
her work, especially “My Bed”, which I feel really shows depression at it’s
worst.
Conclusion
Feminist art has helped us understand
the positions these women were in at the time and also helped to create a better
future were all will be able to exerbit their work. The different medias they
used helped try reach a wider audience
I feel these artists all help stress the importance of
feminism in art and inspire people like me to go out of our socially constructed
comfort zone and express ourselves using both our body’s and our use of media.
I feel the biggest step was women being able to exhibit art in galleries and
that this was one of the biggest steps in art history (although I feel we still
have a while to go until this starts to become the norm). Over all the art
movement that carried so many people in 1960s has by far expanded more then
anyone could have expected and I am more then happy to be a part of it. I would
like to end on a
Aspiring quote written by Katherine Brooks (senior
Arts and culture editor of the Huffington post) that I feel is becoming more
and more true as time goes on:
“The past was male the
future is female”
