In What Ways Are Female Artists Concerned with the Female Experience?
Megan Lowe Candidate Number: 1862
Feminism is a word widely used but the definition can be ambiguous. Most people agree that feminism is too fight for ideologies that share a common goal: to define and establish equality for women. Feminism began in the late 19th and early 20th century, when an organisation of women, known as the Suffragettes, fought for the right for women to vote in political poles. Cheris Kramarae once said “Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings.” Politicised women’s art groups examined the bias of the art world and demanded change. For example a group of female activists emerged and called themselves W.A.R.-this stood for Women Artists in Revolution) They worked in New York and in June 1968 Valerie Solanas (one of Warhol’s entourage) issued the S.C.U.M. Manifesto (Society for Cutting up Men) and went on to shoot Warhol. She made a statement saying “Life in this society being, at best an utter bore and no aspect of society being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and destroy the male sex.” More recently however, the on-going feminist movement looks at why female artists aren’t shown in mass media and why some of the big-named galleries don’t show many female artists. In 1985 an anonymous group of female artists starting protesting for equal rights within the art world. They are now known as the Guerrilla Girls. They are called this due to the use of Gorilla masks in one their most well known campaigns. They wear masks to hide their identities as they don’t want to suffer more prejudice and they say that their identity isn’t the issue the more important thing is what they are fighting for. In an anonymous interview GG1 (Guerrilla Girl 1) said “…mainly, we wanted the focus to be on the issues, not on our personalities or our own work.” The group was formed in the spring of 1985 as a response to the MoMA’s exhibition “An international Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture” Out of the 169 artists featured, only 13 were female and when the shows curator Kynaston McShine was asked about the exhibition, he said that any artist that wasn’t in the show should reconsider ‘his’ career. This sparked the Geurilla Girls to start their campaign. They began to poster around areas in New York, one of their most well known posters features a stark bright yellow back ground with bold black print saying “Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?” then underneath “Less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art sections are women, but 85% of the nudes are female.” It also features the figure from Ingres Odalisque with the head of a gorilla looking angered and fierce.
Figure 1. The iconic Geurilla Girls poster, widely recognised as a turning point in the art world
!Women Art Revolution (WAR) is a film documentary that features many of the female artists, that I will look at here and it explores the “secret history” of feminist art, through conversations, observations, archival footages and works of visionary artists, historians, curators and critics. The film details major developments in feminist art through the 1970’s and explores how the tenacity anf courage of these pioneering artists resulted in what is now widely regarded as the most significant art movement of the 20th century. The film features many of the great contemporary women artists such as; Judy Chicago, Marina Abramovic, Yoko Ono, Cindy Sherman and Barbara Kruger.
Figure 2. The cover of !WAR
Linda Nochlin is an American art historian, university professor and writer. As a feminist art historian, Nochlin is probably best known for her writing of “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” Her critical attention has been drawn to investigating the ways in which gender affects the creation and apprehension of art. Nochlin starts the essay by stating how we all know of Women artists but we choose to ignore them. She also says how up until now that the women artists have taken the prejudice given to them. She writes “The feminist's first reaction is to swallow the bait, hook, line and sinker” (Nochlin, L, Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?) The reason that there have not been great women in art, according to Nochlin has to do with the lack of opportunities for women in the art world. She argues that it is incorrect to believe that art is different from any other field that requires formal training and opportunities. It is incorrect to assume that great artists are born great, yet it is a skill to learn. Almost all great male artists began has been an art student or apprentice at some in their careers, however Nochlin is saying that these opportunities weren’t readily available for female artists. A big part of formal training for male artists was to study nudes and paint or draw live models, however women were not allowed to do this, she equates it to training as a doctor but never being able to study the naked body, you just
have to guess what its like. She then goes on to say that even if women were lucky enough to have a family wealthy enough to teach them art, they could only study as a hobby and not practice art as a profession. According to Nochlin it was primarily the lack of training opportunities that explains why there have not been any great female artists. Berthe Morisot was one of the first women artists that we now know of. Unfortunately at the time, her position as a women only allowed her to paint as a hobby and not as a career. Morisot painted mostly women in a domestic scene such as La Lecture in 1869-70 and Le Berceau in 1872.
Figure 3. La Lecture, Morisot, 1869-70
Figure 4. Le Berceau, 1872, Morisot
Morisot was born into a wealthy family who could support her whilst she persued her childhood love of art. Berthe’s father had pushed Morisot and her sister into starting art classes despite their mothers disagreement. Her farther also has connections that helped boast Morisots career, for example, he know Corot and Corot would often lend the girls equipment and his own paintings for them to imitate. This is all that Morisot would of known. As Nochlin highlighted in her work, women were not allowed to train and learn with men and they were not often exposed to any other environment. There was also no market for female artists in the 19th century, so they could paint what interested them rather than what patrons were asking for. Barbara Kruger is an American conceptual artist and much of her work consists of black-and-white photographs overlaid with declarative statements or captions. The phrases she uses often contain strong pronouns such as “you, your, I, we and they� these pronouns are used to make an impact and often address the viewer personally again, for impact. Kruger is known for the way she questions identity, sexuality and power. Kruger was born into a lower-middle-class family in New Jersey. She studied art and design with Diana Arbus and Marvin Israel in New York. After her studies she got a job in design at a publication works. Early in her career Kruger sewed and crocheted brightly coloured erotically suggestive objects. Kruger also published her own book called Picture/Readings in 1979.
One of Krugers most well known pieces is ‘You are not yourself’. ‘You are not yourself’ is a monochromatic photo-montage made by Barbara Kruger in 1982, depicting the shattered reflection of a woman crying in a smashed mirror that she holds in her left hand.
Figure 4. You are not yourself, Barbara Kruger, 1982
Super-imposed on the picture are the words “YOU ARE NOT YOURSELF” in a bold, white font. This attracts most of the viewers attention as it breaks up the illusionistic image creating a jarring, less fluent appearance. This could suggest that Kruger set out to shock by using the photomontage. The smashed mirror and the shattered reflection creates an aggressive and violent appearance, which could symbolise Kruger’s hatred towards the female stereotypes as the attempts to expose and shatter them similar to the mirror. It could be suggested that the woman appears to be crying because of the reflection she sees in the mirror, which does not match the reflection she believes she should see. This is because of the female stereotypes broadcasted in the media at this time. Kruger was known to read the writings of Walter Benjamin and she lectured on his writings in the University of California. Walter Benjamin was a German philosopher and a cultural critic. Benjamin took influences from a number of other ideologies, such as German idealism, Romanticism, historical materialism and Jewish mysticism. Using the text ‘you are not yourself’ Kruger appears to be saying that these images of female stereotypes seen in the media not you and that there is no point trying to become like the stereotypes as they don’t exist. Kruger was heavily influenced by Hannah Hoch, who also enjoyed exposing female stereotypes, such as ‘Beautiful Girl’ from 1920 which also depicted photos appropriate from the media.
Hannah Hoch was born in 1978 and became a pioneer artist in the Dada movement. She is best known for her work during the Weimar period. Many of her works, encouraged a political theme and almost all commented or criticised a womens role in society and female liberation. In particular her photomontages often critically addressed the Weimar New woman collating images from modern magazines. Her works between the time of 1926-1936 often depicted same sex couples, this again made women a highlight of her works. Hoch was also known for making strong political statements on racial discrimination.
Figure 5. An example of Hannah Hoch's photomontage work
The appropriation of images from the media and the use of photomontage, could be a result of Krugers previous jobs in graphic design. This is evident in the sleek, idealised image of the woman along with the bold hard-hitting text which could suggest her familiarity in Media.
Untitled film slides was created by Cindy Sherman in 1977-80, it depicts 69 photos of herself taken by herself. Sherman was heavily influenced by 1950’s B movies, and so immersed herself by posing and dressing up as the women seen in these movies. Sherman had also directed some movies and therefore had back ground knowledge of the film industry, such as film slides and still frames.
Figure 6. Untitled film slides, Cindy Sherman, 1977-1980
This would of helped influence this piece. Sherman, studied in the visual arts at Buffalo State College where she began to paint, however she soon became frustrated by the limitations of the medium and so turned to photography. She once said “There was nothing more to say (through painting)� One of the photos depicts Sherman reclined on a bed of crumpled sheets, surrounded by a dingy apartment bedroom. Her breasts are exposed with her leg bent exposing her thighs. Her lips that have been overly painted in lip-gloss are slightly open and her eyes overfed, allowing the viewer to gaze over her body without confrontation. This pose creates a sexual erotic appearance, almost suggestive of low-rent pornography. The camera is zoomed in, cropping out her feet, making her body fill the majority of the photograph. The viewpoint also looks down on Sherman adding to the appearance that Sherman is a passive sexual object of desire. It is important that Sherman took self-portraits as it empowered the female race, choosing how women want to be represented, instead of being represented by men, however a lot of the stills depict women with eating orders, signs of insanity or death. Therefore we can see a juxtaposition and we see that Sherman is showing women in this light however we is stating that these things happen but there are more to women than these issues. I also believe Sherman is exposing female stereotypes in the media as the viewer learns nothing about the individual, Cindy Sherman, they can only analyse the roles she is playing. This could suggest Sherman implies that it is ludicrous for women to attempt to be seen in media as they are just social constructs and are not real. Shortly after this piece was exhibited in 1995, Sherman was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. Tracey Emin, All the people I’ve slept with, it a piece that exposes the female experience of being a woman. This piece is simply a blue tent that was erected and inside is written names and on the outside is the dates 19631995, this is the length of Emin life.
Figure 7. Tracey Emin, Everyone I Have Ever Slept with, 1995
When seeing this piece, the viewer immediately assumes that due to title, Emin has simply listed every person she has had sexual intercourse with, giving the impression that Emin is a tart. However, once the viewer peers into the tent they realise that Emin has used a humorous word-play, and is actually listing private accounts of everyone she has shared a bed with, including people like her brother, her two aborted sons and her ex-boyfriends. We know that Emin became sexually active at a very young age and often had relations with older men, all the relations weren’t necessarily what Emin wanted and she has said that on sexually occasions she had been taken advantage off and/or assaulted. This experience has influenced Emins work later in life as many of her pieces portray a seedy undertone and often makes the viewer question their own sexuality and their own sexual experiences. Along with the names, she has also written texts and short descriptions of these accounts, creating an intimate documentation of her aspects in her life. The warmly lit womb-like space of the tent, which the viewer can only peer into, creates a personal appearance as if the viewer is imposing on the scene. Emin has also admitted that when she was younger she suffered paranoia and was often bullied and name-called. She would have recurring nightmares which ended with all the people she had had sexual relations with would surround her and call her derogatory names such as “slut, slag, tart.” Therefore for Emin to expose herself like is, it is considered- by many- to be brave and making a stance. In this piece, Emin also eposes female stereotypes as it highlights the differences in attitudes between man and women that if a women sleeps with a lot of men, she is frowned upon and called a tart, where as if a man sleeps with a lot of women, he is congratulated. Emin exposes the unspoken issues of society, whilst proudly documenting her own private issues in her life, with the text that is embroidered into the bottom with “myself, always myself, never forgetting”, which emphasises to the viewer that she to live her past as so proudly documents it for the public to analyse.
Figure 8. Detail of the inside of the tent
This is not the first intimate piece that Emin has done. She created My Bed in 1998. Figure 9. Tracey Emin, My Bed, 1998
It was first exhibited in the Tate Gallery and was shortlisted for the Turner Prize. The work is primarily Emins’ bed that she has slept in and spent time in and it is shown exactly how it was left, un-made and with her personal and sometimes taboo belongings on the floor. Some on the object are; a used condom, worn clothes and maybe most controversially there is a pair of soiled underwear. When the work was first displayed in the Tate in 1999 it had been nominated for the Turner prize and after the media frenzy that surrounded the work, the Tate’s visitor intake soared and reached record high numbers. Charles Saatchi bought it the following year for £150,000. The bed along with all the belongings surrounding it, then went on display in the Saatchi gallery and it was said that Mr Saatchi displayed it in his own dining room. Emin is directly addressing unspoken issues such as women having menstrual stained underwear. This is something that happens and is natural, however it is a taboo subject and no one wants to think or talk about it. These piece is very confrontational particularly at first sight and without understanding the message that Tracey is portraying.
Figure 10. Detail of Emin's My Bed
In conclusion we can see that artists display the female condition in different ways. A lot of this is to do with the individual and the individual experiences they faced in their youth. For example, Berthe Morisot was brought up in a loving caring and wealthy household and this is shown in her paintings, whereas we can look at Tracey Emins work and see the direct influence her
early sexual experiences had on her later work. Females are known for their emotional connections with the world and all three of the artists I have looked at display their personal opinions and show a side of their personal characteristics. For example, Cindy Sherman features in her photography and Tracey Emin uses her own bed and own belongings in her work. All three artists have chosen to depict something that they are passionate about and that they have experienced themselves. For example, Emin choices to display and confront all the people she has “slept” with and her sexuality has been a big part of her life, therefore she is putting herself into her work. Barbara Kruger uses stark monochromatic images to show her opinion and she purposely uses memorable images and images that will stay with you. She also uses everyday objects such as a reflection and mirror and that way when the viewer looks into a mirror and see’s their own reflection they will relate and think back to Kruger’s work. Therefore I can conclude that the female experience is different for every individual and each individual with depict their experiences in different ways.
Biography Nochlin, L, Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?, SenGupta, A, MEMOIR OF AN ARTIST, Partridge-India, Page 91 Valerie Solanas, SCUM Manifesto, AK Press, 1996