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The feminist art movement in the United States began in the early 1970s and sought to promote the study, creation, understanding and promotion of women's art. First-generation feminist artists include Judy Chicago,
Miriam Schapiro Miriam Schapiro (also known as Mimi) (November 15, 1923 – June 20, 2015) was a Canadian-born artist based in the United States. She was a painter, sculptor, printmaker, and a pioneer of feminist art. She was also considered a leader of the Pa ...
,
Suzanne Lacy Suzanne Lacy (born 1945) is an American artist, educator, writer, and professor at the USC Roski School of Art and Design. She has worked in a variety of media, including installation, video, performance, public art, photography, and art books, ...
,
Judith Bernstein Judith Bernstein (born October 14, 1942) is a New York artist best known for her phallic drawings and paintings. Bernstein uses her art as a vehicle for her outspoken feminist and anti-war activism, provocatively drawing psychological links betwee ...
, Sheila de Bretteville, Mary Beth Edelson,
Carolee Schneeman Carolee Schneemann (October 12, 1939 – March 6, 2019) was an American visual experimental artist, known for her multi-media works on the body, narrative, sexuality and gender. She received a B.A. in poetry and philosophy from Bard College and ...
, Rachel Rosenthal, and many other women. They were part of the Feminist art movement in the United States in the early 1970s to develop feminist writing and art. The movement spread quickly through museum protests in both New York (May 1970) and Los Angeles (June 1971), via an early network called W.E.B. (
West-East Bag West-East Bag (WEB) was an international women artists network active from 1971 to 1973. West-East Bag formed towards the beginning of the feminist art movement in the United States. Sources differ as to the exact origin of WEB. In one account, ar ...
) that disseminated news of feminist art activities from 1971 to 1973 in a nationally circulated newsletter, and at conferences such as the West Coast Women's Artists Conference held at
California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...
(January 21–23, 1972) and the Conference of Women in the Visual Arts, at the
Corcoran School of Art The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design (known as the Corcoran School or CSAD) is the professional art school of the George Washington University, in Washington, DC.Peggy McGloneUniversity names first director of Corcoran School of the Arts and ...
in Washington, D.C. (April 20–22, 1972).


1970s

The Feminist Art Movement of the 1970s, within the
second wave of feminism Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades. It took place throughout the Western world, and aimed to increase equality for women by building on previous feminist gains. Wh ...
, "was a major watershed in women's history and the history of art" and "the personal is political" was its slogan.


Key activities


''Maintenance Art—Proposal for an Exhibition''

In 1969
Mierle Laderman Ukeles Mierle Laderman Ukeles (born 1939) is a New York City-based artist known for her feminist and service-oriented artworks, which relate the idea of process in conceptual art to domestic and civic "maintenance". She has been the Artist-in-Residence a ...
wrote a manifesto entitled ''Maintenance Art—Proposal for an Exhibition'', challenging the domestic role of women and proclaiming herself a "maintenance artist". Maintenance, for Ukeles, is the realm of human activities that keep things going, such as cooking, cleaning and child-rearing and her performances in the 1970s included the cleaning of art galleries. Her first performance called ''Touch Sanitation'' was from 1979-80.


Art Workers' Coalition demands equal representation for women

A demand for equality in representation for female artists was codified in the
Art Workers' Coalition The Art Workers' Coalition (AWC) was an open coalition of artists, filmmakers, writers, critics, and museum staff that formed in New York City in January 1969. Its principal aim was to pressure the city's museums – notably the Museum of Modern Art ...
's (AWC) Statement of Demands, which was developed in 1969 and published in definitive form in March 1970. The AWC was set up to defend the rights of artists and force museums and galleries to reform their practices. While the coalition sprung up as a protest movement following Greek kinetic sculptor Panagiotis "Takis" Vassilakis's physical removal of his work Tele-Sculpture(1960) from a 1969 exhibition at the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...
, New York, it quickly issued a broad list of demands to 'art museums in general'. Alongside calls for free admission, better representation of ethnic minorities, late openings and an agreement that galleries would not exhibit an artwork without the artist's consent, the AWC demanded that museums 'encourage female artists to overcome centuries of damage done to the image of the female as an artist by establishing equal representation of the sexes in exhibitions, museum purchases and on selection committees'.


Initial feminist art classes

The first women's art class was taught in the fall of 1970 at Fresno State College, now
California State University, Fresno California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California. It is one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers bache ...
, by artist Judy Chicago. It became the
Feminist Art Program The Feminist Art Program (FAP) was a college-level art program for women developed in 1970 by artist Judy Chicago and continued by artists Rita Yokoi, Miriam Schapiro, and others. The FAP began at Fresno State College, as a way to address gender ...
, a full 15-unit program, in the Spring of 1971. This was the first feminist art program in the United States. Fifteen students studied under Chicago at Fresno State College: Dori Atlantis, Susan Boud, Gail Escola, Vanalyne Green,
Suzanne Lacy Suzanne Lacy (born 1945) is an American artist, educator, writer, and professor at the USC Roski School of Art and Design. She has worked in a variety of media, including installation, video, performance, public art, photography, and art books, ...
, Cay Lang,
Karen LeCocq Karen LeCocq is an American artist. She is a nationally-known sculptor whose work combines organic materials and found objects. Biography LeCocq was born in 1949 in Santa Rosa, California. She attended Fresno State College and was a student of J ...
, Jan Lester, Chris Rush, Judy Schaefer, Henrietta Sparkman,
Faith Wilding Faith Wilding (born 1943) is a Paraguayan American multidisciplinary artist - which includes but is not limited to: watercolor, performance art, writing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, and digital art. She is also an author, educator, and activ ...
, Shawnee Wollenman,
Nancy Youdelman Nancy Youdelman (born 1948, New York City) is a mixed media sculptor who lives and works in Clovis, California. She also taught art at California State University, Fresno from 1999 until her retirement in 2013. "Since the early 1970s Youdelman ...
, and Cheryl Zurilgen. Together, as the Feminist Art Program, these women rented and refurbished an off-campus studio at 1275 Maple Avenue in downtown Fresno. Here they collaborated on art, held reading groups, and discussion groups about their life experiences which then influenced their art. Later, Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro reestablished the
Feminist Art Program The Feminist Art Program (FAP) was a college-level art program for women developed in 1970 by artist Judy Chicago and continued by artists Rita Yokoi, Miriam Schapiro, and others. The FAP began at Fresno State College, as a way to address gender ...
(FAP) at
California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...
. After Chicago left for Cal Arts, the class at Fresno State College was continued by Rita Yokoi from 1971 to 1973, and then by Joyce Aiken in 1973, until her retirement in 1992. The Fresno Feminist Art Program served as a model for other feminist art efforts, such as
Womanhouse ''Womanhouse'' (January 30 – February 28, 1972) was a feminist art installation and performance space organized by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro, co-founders of the California Institute of the Arts ( CalArts) Feminist Art Program and was ...
, a collaborative feminist art exhibition and the first project produced after the Feminist Art Program moved to the
California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...
in the fall of 1971. Womanhouse existed in 1972, was organized by Judy Chicago and
Miriam Schapiro Miriam Schapiro (also known as Mimi) (November 15, 1923 – June 20, 2015) was a Canadian-born artist based in the United States. She was a painter, sculptor, printmaker, and a pioneer of feminist art. She was also considered a leader of the Pa ...
, and was the first public exhibition of feminist art. Womanhouse, like the Fresno project, also developed into a feminist studio space and promoted the concept of collaborative women's art. The Feminist Studio Workshop was founded in Los Angeles in 1973 by Judy Chicago,
Arlene Raven Arlene Raven (Arlene Rubin: July 12, 1944, Baltimore, Maryland – August 1, 2006, Brooklyn, New York) was a feminist art historian, author, critic, educator, and curator. Raven was a co-founder of numerous feminist art organizations in Los ...
, and Sheila Levrant de Bretteville as a two-year feminist art program. Women from the program were instrumental in finding and creating the Woman's Building, the first independent center to showcase women's art and culture. Galleries existed there for the entire history of the organization and that was a major venue for exhibiting feminist art. Art historian
Arlene Raven Arlene Raven (Arlene Rubin: July 12, 1944, Baltimore, Maryland – August 1, 2006, Brooklyn, New York) was a feminist art historian, author, critic, educator, and curator. Raven was a co-founder of numerous feminist art organizations in Los ...
established the Feminist Art Program in Los Angeles.


''Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?''

In 1971, the art historian
Linda Nochlin Linda Nochlin (''née'' Weinberg; January 30, 1931 – October 29, 2017) was an American art historian, Lila Acheson Wallace Professor Emerita of Modern Art at New York University Institute of Fine Arts, and writer. As a prominent feminist art h ...
published the article "
Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" is a 1971 essay by American art historian Linda Nochlin. It was praised for its new slant on feminist art history and theory, and examining the institutional obstacles that prevent women from succeedin ...
" in ''Woman in Sexist Society,'' which was later reprinted in ''ArtNews,'' where she claimed that there were no "great" women artists at that time, nor in history. By omission, this inferred that artists like
Georgia O'Keeffe Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American modernist artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been called the "Mother of Ame ...
and
Mary Cassatt Mary Stevenson Cassatt (; May 22, 1844June 14, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker. She was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh's North Side), but lived much of her adult life in France, where she befriended Edgar De ...
were not considered great. She stated why she felt that there were no great women artists and what organizational and institutional changes needed to take place to create better opportunities for women. The author Lucy Lippard and others identified three tasks to further the understanding and promotion of works by women: * Find and present current and historic art works by women * Develop a more informal language for writing about art by women * Create theories about the meanings behind women's art and create a history of their works.


''Some Living American Women Artists / Last Supper''

Mary Beth Edelson's ''Some Living American Women Artists / Last Supper'' (1972) appropriated
Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on ...
’s ''The Last Supper'', with the heads of notable women artists collaged over the heads of Christ and his apostles. The artists collaged over the heads of Christ and his apostles in ''Some Living American Women Artists / Last Supper'' include Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Elaine de Kooning,
Helen Frankenthaler Helen Frankenthaler (December 12, 1928 – December 27, 2011) was an American abstract expressionist painter. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work for over six decades (early 1950s u ...
,
Nancy Graves Nancy Graves (December 23, 1939 – October 21, 1995, in Massachusetts) was an American sculptor, painter, printmaker, and sometime- filmmaker known for her focus on natural phenomena like camels or maps of the Moon. Her works are included in ...
,
Lila Katzen Lila Katzen (30 December 1925, in Brooklyn, NY – 20 September 1998, in New York, NY), born Lila Pell, was an American sculptor of fluid, large-scale metal abstractions. Education and early work Katzen was born and raised in Brooklyn. She attend ...
, Lee Krasner,
Georgia O'Keeffe Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American modernist artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been called the "Mother of Ame ...
,
Louise Nevelson Louise Nevelson (September 23, 1899 – April 17, 1988) was an American sculptor known for her monumental, monochromatic, wooden wall pieces and outdoor sculptures. Born in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Kyiv Oblast ...
,
Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野 洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...
,
M. C. Richards Mary Caroline Richards (July 13, 1916, Weiser, Idaho – September 10, 1999, Kimberton, Pennsylvania) was an American poet, potter, and writer best known for her book ''Centering: in Pottery, Poetry and the Person''.Smith, Roberta ''The New York ...
, Alma Thomas, and June Wayne. As well, other women artists have their image shown in the border of the piece; in all eighty-two women artists are part of the whole image. This image, addressing the role of religious and art historical iconography in the subordination of women, became "one of the most iconic images of the feminist art movement."


Approaches

In California, the approach to improve the opportunities for women artists focused on creating venues, such as the Woman's Building and the Feminist Studio Workshop (FSW), located with the Woman's Building. Gallery spaces, feminist magazine offices, a bookstore, and a cafe were some of the key uses of the Feminist Studio Workshop. Organizations like
A.I.R. Gallery A.I.R. Gallery (Artists in Residence) is the first all female artists cooperative gallery in the United States. It was founded in 1972 with the objective of providing a professional and permanent exhibition space for women artists during a time i ...
and Women Artists in Revolution (WAR) were formed in New York to provide greater opportunity for female artists and protest for to include works of women artist in art venues that had very few women represented, like Whitney Museum and the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...
. In 1970 there was a 23% increase in the number of women artists, and the previous year there was a 10% increase, due to Whitney Annual (later Whitney Biennial) protests. The New York Feminist Art Institute opened in June 1979 at 325 Spring Street in the Port Authority Building. The founding members and the initial board of directors were Nancy Azara,
Miriam Schapiro Miriam Schapiro (also known as Mimi) (November 15, 1923 – June 20, 2015) was a Canadian-born artist based in the United States. She was a painter, sculptor, printmaker, and a pioneer of feminist art. She was also considered a leader of the Pa ...
, Selena Whitefeather, Lucille Lessane, Irene Peslikis and Carol Stronghilos.Fernanda Perrone, Amy Dawson, and Caroline T. Caviness
Inventory to the Records of the New York Feminist Art Institute, 1976-1990.
Administrative History. Rutgers. July 2009. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
A board of advisers was established of accomplished artists, educators and professional women. For instance, feminist writer and arts editor at ''Ms. Magazine'' Harriet Lyons was an adviser from its start.Barbara J. Love.
Feminists who Changed America, 1963-1975
'. University of Illinois Press; 2006. .


''Three Weeks in May''

In 1977,
Suzanne Lacy Suzanne Lacy (born 1945) is an American artist, educator, writer, and professor at the USC Roski School of Art and Design. She has worked in a variety of media, including installation, video, performance, public art, photography, and art books, ...
and collaborator Leslie Labowitz combined performance art with activism in '' Three Weeks in May'' on the steps of
Los Angeles City Hall Los Angeles City Hall, completed in 1928, is the center of the government of the city of Los Angeles, California, and houses the mayor's office and the meeting chambers and offices of the Los Angeles City Council. It is located in the Civic Ce ...
. The performance, which included a map of rapes in the city, and
self-defense Self-defense (self-defence primarily in Commonwealth English) is a countermeasure that involves defending the health and well-being of oneself from harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of force ...
classes, highlighted
sexual violence Sexual violence is any sexual act or attempt to obtain a sexual act by violence or coercion, act to traffic a person, or act directed against a person's sexuality, regardless of the relationship to the victim.World Health Organization., World re ...
against women.


"Art Hysterical Notions of Progress and Culture"

Valerie Jaudon Valerie Jaudon (born August 6, 1945) is an American painter commonly associated with various Postminimal practices – the Pattern and Decoration movement of the 1970s, site-specific public art, and new tendencies in abstraction. Life Valerie ...
and Joyce Kozloff co-authored the widely anthologized
Art Hysterical Notions of Progress and Culture
(1978), in which they explained how they thought sexist and racist assumptions underlaid Western art history discourse. They reasserted the value of ornamentation and aesthetic beauty - qualities assigned to the feminine sphere.


Organizations and efforts


Publications

''
The Feminist Art Journal ''The Feminist Art Journal'' was an American magazine, published quarterly from 1972 to 1977. It was the first stable, widely read journal covering feminist art. By the time the final publication was produced, ''The Feminist Art Journal'' had a cir ...
'' was a feminist art publication that was produced from 1972 to 1977, and was the first stable, widely read journal of its kind. Beginning in 1975 there were scholarly publications about feminism, feminist art and historic women's art, most notably ''Through the Flower: My Struggle as a Woman Artist'' by Judy Chicago; and ''Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape'' (1975) by Susan Brownmiller; ''Woman Artists: 1550-1950'' (1976) about
Linda Nochlin Linda Nochlin (''née'' Weinberg; January 30, 1931 – October 29, 2017) was an American art historian, Lila Acheson Wallace Professor Emerita of Modern Art at New York University Institute of Fine Arts, and writer. As a prominent feminist art h ...
and Ann Sutherland Harris's exhibition; ''From the Center: Feminist Essays in Women's Art'' (1976) by Lucy Lippard; ''Of Woman Born,'' by Adrienne Rich, ''When God Was a Woman'' (1976) by Merlin Stone; ''By Our Own Hands'' (1978) by
Faith Wilding Faith Wilding (born 1943) is a Paraguayan American multidisciplinary artist - which includes but is not limited to: watercolor, performance art, writing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, and digital art. She is also an author, educator, and activ ...
; ''Gyn/Ecology'' (1978) by Mary Daly; and ''Woman and Nature'' by
Susan Griffin Susan Griffin (born January 26, 1943) is a radical feminist philosopher, essayist and playwright particularly known for her innovative, hybrid-form ecofeminist works. Life Griffin was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1943 and has resided i ...
. In 1977, both ''
Chrysalis A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''pupae'') is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in thei ...
'' and '' Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics'' began publication.


1980s

Feminist art evolved during the 1980s, with a trend away from experiential works and social causes. Instead, there was a trend toward works based upon Postmodern theory and influenced by
psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might ...
. Inequal representation in the art world was a continuing issue. According to Judy Chicago in a 1981 interview,


Key activities


Guerrilla Girls

Guerrilla Girls Guerrilla Girls is an anonymous group of feminist, female artists devoted to fighting sexism and racism within the art world. The group formed in New York City in 1985 with the mission of bringing gender and racial inequality into focus within t ...
was formed by 7 women artists in the spring of 1985 in response to the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...
's exhibition "An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture", which opened in 1984. The exhibition was the inaugural show in the MoMA's newly renovated and expanded building, and was planned to be a survey of the most important contemporary artists. The Guerrilla Girls have researched sexism and created artworks at the request of various people and institutions, among others, the
Istanbul Modern ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_ ...
, Istanbul, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Arts, Rotterdam and Fundación Bilbao Arte Fundazioa, Bilbao. They have also partnered with
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and s ...
, contributing pieces to a show under the organization's "Protect the Human" initiative.


Mass communication

Mass communication Mass communication is the process of imparting and exchanging information through mass media to large segments of the population. It is usually understood for relating to various forms of media, as its technologies are used for the dissemination o ...
is "the process by which a person, group of people, or large organization creates a message and transmits it through some type of medium to a large, anonymous, heterogeneous audience." Women such as Barbara Kruger and
Jenny Holzer Jenny Holzer (born July 29, 1950) is an American neo-conceptual artist, based in Hoosick, New York. The main focus of her work is the delivery of words and ideas in public spaces and includes large-scale installations, advertising billboards, ...
used forms of graphic mass communication such as refined slogans and graphics to increase awareness of the inequity faced by women artists. Kiki Smith During the 1970s
Kiki Smith Kiki Smith (born January 18, 1954) is a West German-born American artist whose work has addressed the themes of sex, birth and regeneration. Her figurative work of the late 1980s and early 1990s confronted subjects such as AIDS and gender, whil ...
was one of the many artists involved in the collaborative projects. As the art scene became more politicized in the 1980s, Kiki Smith's art work also became more political as well. Her work started "involving issues like abortion, race and AIDS." When asked if she considered herself a feminist artist, Smith responded:
Yes, I would say that generationally I am, and I would say that without the feminist movement I wouldn't exist; and an enormous amount of the artwork that we take for granted wouldn't exist; and a lot of the subject matter that we assume can be encompassed by art wouldn't exist. The feminist movement exponentially expanded what art is, and how we look at art, and who is considered to be included in the discourse of art-making. I think that it caused a tremendous, radical change. You don't want to have a cultural notion that one specific gender embodies creativity. All humanity – and all aspects of gender and sexuality and how people define themselves – are inherently creative. It's against the interests of the culture at large not to embrace feminism as a model, just like many other models of liberation, because they don't only liberate women, they liberate everybody.


Sister Serpents

Sister Serpents was a radical
feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
art collective that began as a small group women in Chicago in the summer of 1989, as a direct response to the Webster v. Reproductive Health Services Supreme Court decision. Their goal as a collective was to empower women and to increase awareness of women's issues through radical art, and to use art as a weapon to battle misogyny.


Publications

*''
Feminist Art Journal ''The Feminist Art Journal'' was an American magazine, published quarterly from 1972 to 1977. It was the first stable, widely read journal covering feminist art. By the time the final publication was produced, ''The Feminist Art Journal'' had a cir ...
'' * ''Genders: Feminist Art and (Post)Modern Anxieties'' * '' M/E/A/N/I/N/G'' had 20 issues (1986-1996) and 5 on-line issues (2002-2011) * ''Woman's Art Journal'' (1980–present) *''Heresies'' *''LTTR'' *''Meridians'' *''The Journal of Women and Performance''


1990s


Key activities


''Bad Girls''

''Bad Girls (Part I) and Bad Girls (Part II)'' were a 1994 pair of exhibitions at New Museum in New York, curated by Marcia Tucker. A companion exhibition, ''Bad Girls West'' was curated by Marcia Tanner and exhibited at UCLA's Wright Gallery the same year.


''Sexual Politics: Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party in Feminist Art History''

''Sexual Politics: Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party in Feminist Art History'', a 1996 exhibition and text curated and written by Amelia Jones, re-exhibited Judy Chicago's '' The Dinner Party'' for the first time since 1988. It was presented by the UCLA Armand
Hammer Museum The Hammer Museum, which is affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, is an art museum and cultural center known for its artist-centric and progressive array of exhibitions and public programs. Founded in 1990 by the entrepreneur ...
. ''Riot Grrrl'' The
Riot grrrl Riot grrrl is an underground feminist punk movement that began during the early 1990s within the United States in Olympia, Washington and the greater Pacific Northwest and has expanded to at least 26 other countries. Riot grrrl is a subcul ...
movement was focused mostly on music, but the DIY aspect of this scene included feminist knowledge in forms of underground
zines A zine ( ; short for ''magazine'' or ''fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very smal ...
, which included poems, articles, comics, etc.


Publications

*'' n.paradoxa'' (1998–present)


2000s


Key activities


''WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution''

The 2007 exhibition, '' WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution'', focused on the feminist art movement. It was organized by the
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's ...
and traveled to PS1 Contemporary Art Center in New York. WACK! featured by 120 artists from 21 countries, covering the period of 1965-1980.


''A Studio of Their Own''

''A Studio of Their Own: The Legacy of the Fresno Feminist Experiment'' was performed on the
California State University, Fresno California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California. It is one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers bache ...
campus at the Phebe Conley Art Gallery in 2009. It was a retrospective that paid homage to the women from the 1970s who were part of the first women's art program.


The Feminist Art Project

The Feminist Art Project website and information portal was founded at
Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...
in 2006. A resource for artists and scholars in the United States, it publishes a calendar of events and runs conferences, discussions and education projects. It describes itself as "a strategic intervention against the ongoing erasure of women from the cultural record".


Feminist art curatorial practices


History

Feminist art curating practices are within a museumism genre, which is a deconstructing of the museum space by curator/artist where the museum looks at itself or the artist/curator looks at the museum. "If artists as curators of their own exhibition is no longer uncommon, neither is the artist-created museum or collection ... These artists use museological practices to confront the ways in which museums rewrite history through the politics of collecting and presentation ... However, their work often inadvertently reasserts the validity of the museum" (Corrin, 1994, p. 5). Katy Deepwell documents feminist curating practice and feminist art history with a theoretical foundation that feminist curating is not biologically determinate.


Characteristics

Feminist art curatorial practices are collaborative and reject the notion of an artist as an individual creative genius.


Examples

* The ''Out of Here'' exhibition is an example of feminist art curatorial practice. *
Womanhouse ''Womanhouse'' (January 30 – February 28, 1972) was a feminist art installation and performance space organized by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro, co-founders of the California Institute of the Arts ( CalArts) Feminist Art Program and was ...
* ''Teatro Chicana: A Collective Memoir and Selected Plays'' highlights El Movimiento and Chicana women's civil rights movements representing their varied communities and histories.


2010s


Key activities

!Women Art Revolution The documentary film ''
!Women Art Revolution ''!Women Art Revolution'' is a 2010 documentary film directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson and distributed by Zeitgeist Films. It tracks the feminist art movement over 40 years through interviews with artists, curators, critics, and historians. Synop ...
'' was played at New York's
IFC Center IFC Center is an art house movie theater in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. Located at 323 Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) at West 3rd Street, it was formerly the Waverly Theater, an art house movie theater. IFC Center is ...
beginning June 1, 2011, before opening around the country. Woman's Building The Los Angeles Woman's Building was the subject of a major exhibition in 2012 at the Ben Maltz Gallery at
Otis College of Art and Design Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, California. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is located in the former IBM Aerospace headquarte ...
calle
Doin' It in Public, Feminism and Art at the Woman's Building
It included oral histories on video, emphemera, and artists' projects. It was part of the Getty initiative
Pacific Standard Time The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00 ...
. Stop Telling Women To Smile
Stop Telling Women To Smile
was an ongoing, traveling series that started in Fall of 2012. Artist
Tatyana Fazlalizadeh Tatyana Fazlalizadeh (born 1985) is an American artist, activist, and freelance illustrator. She is best known as the creator of the campaign and art exhibition Stop Telling Women to Smile. Biography Fazlalizadeh was born in Oklahoma City, Okla ...
, started this project in Brooklyn, NYC, but had also been in Chicago, Paris, and Mexico City. Street art such as STWTS is a modern way of mass communication art. "Gallery Tally" In 2013, Michol Hebron started the "Gallery Tally" project, where Hebron had different galleries across Los Angeles and New York make posters showing the uneven representation in the art world. She found that about 70% of artists represented in these two cities are men. Hebron has extended this project outside of L.A., and now continues the project all over the states, with updates to he
blog
In 2015, Hebron went through every cover published fro
Artforum
Since 1962, there have been 526 different monthly covers. Hebron found only 18% feature art by women, and male artists made 74% of the covers. "Guarded" "Guarded" was a photography project by artis
Taylor Yocom
in 2015 for which Yocom photographed students from University of Iowa, showing what these women carried with them when they had to walk alone at night. Now Be Here
Now Be Here
was a project from August 28, 2016, where 733 female and female identifying women came together in Los Angeles to be photographed together to show solidarity. The project continued with Now Be Here #2 at the Brooklyn Museum on October 23, 2016, and Now Be Here #3 at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) on December 10, 2016. The Future is Female
The Future is Female
art exhibit located within the 21C Museum and Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky opened its doors just following our most recent presidential election and features feminist art works that operate to epitomize the experience of womanhood while simultaneously addressing larger global issues. The exhibit highlights the artwork of handful of feminist artists including Vibha Galhotra,
Alison Saar Alison Saar (born February 5, 1956) is a Los Angeles, California based sculptor, mixed-media, and installation artist. Her artwork focuses on the African diaspora and black female identity and is influenced by African, Caribbean, and Latin Ameri ...
, Carrie Mae Weems, Michele Pred, Frances Goodman,
Kiki Smith Kiki Smith (born January 18, 1954) is a West German-born American artist whose work has addressed the themes of sex, birth and regeneration. Her figurative work of the late 1980s and early 1990s confronted subjects such as AIDS and gender, whil ...
, and Sanell Aggenbach who emerged in the wake of the second wave Feminist Arts Movement. Women's Invitational Exhibition 2017 The ''Women's Invitational Exhibition'' is an art exhibit that features the works from minority women artists. The entire gallery showcases only a select few artists. However, each individual woman shows multitude of different topics via a variety of mediums. Hands On ''HANDS ON'' is collection of works by Karen Lederer made in 2017. Works within the collection date from 2015 to 2017. The art was made in response to political debates about women. Faith Wilding: Fearful Symmetries In 2018, Carnegie Mellon University hosted a retrospective of
Faith Wilding Faith Wilding (born 1943) is a Paraguayan American multidisciplinary artist - which includes but is not limited to: watercolor, performance art, writing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, and digital art. She is also an author, educator, and activ ...
's artwork, which became a traveling exhibit.


See also

* Feminist art criticism * Feminist art movement * Feminist pornography *
Feminist Porn Award The Feminist Porn Awards (FPAs) is an annual adult film awards ceremony that began in 2006, and was initially organized by the Good for Her adult store in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Until 2014, the ceremony was officially known as the Good for ...
* Feminism in the United States *
Gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...
*
Go Topless Day Go Topless Day (variously known as National Go Topless Day, International Go Topless Day) is an annual event held in the United States to support the right of women to go topless in public on gender-equality grounds. In states where women have ...
*
Pattern and Decoration Pattern and Decoration was a United States art movement from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. The movement has sometimes been referred to as "P&D" or as The New Decorativeness. The movement was championed by the gallery owner Holly Solomon. The ...
art movement, related to feminist art movement * Sex-positive feminism * Where We At Black Women Artists (WWA)


Notes


References


Further reading

* Armstrong, Carol and
Catherine de Zegher Catherine de Zegher (born Marie-Catherine Alma Gladys de Zegher Groningen, April 14, 1955) is a Belgian curator and a modern and contemporary art historian. She has a degree in art history and archaeology from the University of Ghent. From 1988 ...
(eds.), ''Women Artists at the Millennium'', The MIT Press, Cambridge, 2006. * Bee, Susan and Mira Schor (eds.), ''The M/E/A/N/I/N/G Book'',
Duke University Press Duke University Press is an academic publisher and university press affiliated with Duke University. It was founded in 1921 by William T. Laprade as The Trinity College Press. (Duke University was initially called Trinity College). In 1926 ...
, Durham, NC, 2000. * Bloom, Lisa ''Jewish Identities in American Feminist Art: Ghosts of Ethnicity'' London & New York: Routledge, 2006. * Brown, Betty Ann, ed. ''Expanding Circles: Women, Art & Community''. New York: Midmarch, 1996. * Broude, Norma and Mary Garrard ''The Power of Feminist Art: Emergence, Impact and Triumph of the American Feminist Art Movement '' New York, Abrams, 1994. * Butler, Connie. ''WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution'', Los Angeles: Museum of Contemporary Art. 2007. * Chicago, Judy. Beyond the Flower: The Autobiography of a Feminist Artist. New York: Viking, 1996. * Chicago, Judy. ''The Dinner Party: A Symbol of Our Heritage''. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1979. * Chicago, Judy. ''Embroidering Our Heritage: The Dinner Party''. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1979. * Cottingham, Laura. ''How Many 'Bad' Feminists Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb?'' New York: Sixty Percent Solution. 1994. * Cottingham, Laura. ''Seeing Through the Seventies: Essays on Feminism and Art''. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: G+B Arts, 2000. * Farris, Phoebe (ed) ''Women Artists of Colour: A bio-critical Sourcebook to 20th Century Artists in the Americas'' Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1990. * Frostig, Karen and Kathy A. Halainka eds. Blaze: Discourse on Art, Women and Feminism USA, Cambridge Scholar, 2007. * Hammond, Harmony ''Lesbian Art in America: A Contemporary History'' New York: Rizzoli International Publications Inc, 2000. * Frueh, Joanna, Cassandra L. Langer, and Arlene Raven, eds. ''New Feminist Criticism: Art, Identity'', Action, 1993. * Hess, Thomas B. and Elizabeth C. Baker, eds. ''Art and Sexual Politics: Women's Liberation, Women Artists, and Art History''. New York, Macmillan, 1973 * Isaak, Jo Anna . ''Feminism and Contemporary Art: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Laughter''. New York: Routledge, 1996. * King-Hammond, Leslie (ed) ''Gumbo Ya Ya: Anthology of Contemporary African-American Women Artists'' New York: Midmarch Press, 1995. * Lippard, Lucy ''The Pink Glass Swan: Selected Feminist Essays on Art'' New York: New Press, 1996. * Meyer, Laura, ed. ''A Studio of Their Own: The Legacy of the Fresno Feminist Experiment.'' Fresno, Calif.: Press at California State University, Fresno, 2009. * Perez, Laura Elisa ''Chicana art : the politics of spiritual and aesthetic altarities'' Durham, N.C. : Duke University Press; Chesham: 2007. * Phelan, Peggy. ''Art and Feminism.'' London: Phaidon, 2001. * Raven, Arlene. Crossing Over: Feminism and Art of Social Concern. 1988 * Siegel, Judy ''Mutiny and the Mainstream: Talk that Changed Art,1975-1990'' New York: Midmarch Arts Press, 1992. * Schor, Mira. ''Wet: On Painting, Feminism, and Art Culture.'' Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 1997 * Wilding. Faith. ''By Our Own Hands: The Women Artist's Movement, Southern California, 1970-1976''.


External links


American Feminist Art Timeline
{{DEFAULTSORT:Feminist Art Movement 1970s establishments in the United States Art movements American art movements American contemporary art Feminist theory Feminist artists Feminist theatre Political art