The Women's Artists Visibility Event (W.A.V.E.) also known as Let MOMA Know, was a demonstration held on June 14, 1984, to protest the lack of women artists represented in

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 the ...

's re-opening exhibition "An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture." The exhibition, which included 165 artists, had 14 women among them.

Event

The event's acronym, W.A.V.E., is a nod to Flag Day, which is observed on June 14 in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. 400 demonstrators, wearing

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

yellow and white, marched in front the entrance to MoMA's newly expanded 53rd street building; a well received renovation that doubled its gallery space and increased traffic to the museum. Demonstrators had three demands: that MoMA exhibit works by women artists from their permanent collection, that it display women's work in loaned exhibitions, and that it create a policy to acquire women's work in the future. The

Women's Caucus for Art The Women's Caucus for Art (WCA), founded in 1972, is a non-profit organization based in New York City, which supports women artists, art historians, students, educators, and museum professionals. The WCA holds exhibitions and conferences to promo ...

(WCA) created pins to parody MoMA's "Museum of Modern Art OPENS" staff badges, upon which they included the addition "But Not to Women Artists." Cards were distributed listing the names of 100 well known female artists who were not featured in the exhibit, including

Alice Neel Alice Neel (January 28, 1900 – October 13, 1984) was an American visual artist, who was known for her portraits depicting friends, family, lovers, poets, artists, and strangers. Her paintings have an expressionistic use of line and color, psyc ...

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, ...

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (born 1940) is a Native American visual artist and curator. She is an enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and is also of Métis and Shoshone descent. She is also an art educator, art advocate ...

Faith Ringgold Faith Ringgold (born October 8, 1930 in Harlem, New York City) is an American painter, writer, mixed media sculptor, and performance artist, best known for her narrative quilts. Early life Faith Ringgold was born the youngest of three children ...

and

Louise Bourgeois Louise Joséphine Bourgeois (; 25 December 191131 May 2010) was a French-American artist. Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker. She explored a varie ...

. One spokesperson for the museum, Louisa Kreisberg, noted that a film series in the exhibition featured four women of the six films shown, and that the staff at the museum was roughly 65% female.

Organizers

The event was organized by the New York chapter of the WCA, and supported by three additional feminist arts organizations; The

Heresies Collective The Heresies Collective was founded in 1976 in New York City, by a group of feminist political artists. The group sought to, among other goals, examine art from a feminist and political perspective. In addition to a variety of actions and cultural o ...

Women's Interart Center The Women's Interart Center was a New York City–based multidisciplinary arts organization conceived as an artists' collective in 1969 and formally delineated in 1970 under the auspices of Women Artists in Revolution (WAR) and Feminists in the Ar ...

, and

New York Feminist Art Institute New York Feminist Art Institute (NYFAI) was founded in 1979 (to 1990) by women artists, educators and professionals. NYFAI offered workshops and classes, held performances and exhibitions and special events that contributed to the political and cu ...

. Individual organizers for the event were artists

Sabra Moore Sabra Moore (born January 25, 1943) is an American artist, writer, and activist. Her artwork is based on re-interpreting family, social, and natural history through the form of artist's books, sewn and constructed sculptures and paintings, and in ...

, and

Betsy Damon Betsy Damon (born 1940) is an American artist whose work has been influenced by her activism in women's, gay, and environmental rights. Early life and Family Damon was born in 1940 to George Huntington Damon and Harriet Atkins. Damon is an aun ...

and curator and President of WCA New York, Annie Shaver-Crandell.

References

External links

Clarissa Sligh, "30th Anniversary of Women Artists Protest MoMA"

Clarissa Sligh, "Women Artists Visibility Event (W.A.V.E.)"

Jennifer Tobias, "Messing With MoMA: Critical Interventions at the Museum of Modern Art, 1939 - Now."

Clarissa Sligh Papers (1950 - 2012), Duke UniversitySabra Moore NYC Women's Art Movement Collection, 1969 - 1996, Barnard College
{{authority control Arts organizations based in New York City Women's organizations based in the United States Women's occupational organizations American contemporary artists Feminist art Feminist artists Feminist theory Political art Culture of New York City 20th-century American women artists