Feminism Reframed

Feminism Reframed Feminism Reframed Edited by Alexandra M. Kokoli Cambridge Scholars Publishing Feminism Reframed, Edited by Alexandra M. Kokoli This book first published 2008 by Cambridge Scholars Publishing 15 Angerton Gardens, Newcastle, NE5 2JA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2008 by Alexandra M. Kokoli and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-84718-405-7, ISBN (13): 9781847184054 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Looking On, Bouncing Back Alexandra M. Kokoli Section I: On Exhibition(s): Institutions, Curatorship, Representation Chapter One............................................................................................... 20 Women Artists, Feminism and the Museum: Beyond the Blockbuster Retrospective Joanne Heath Chapter Two.............................................................................................. 41 Why Have There Been No Great Women Dadaists? Ruth Hemus Chapter Three............................................................................................ 61 “Draws Like a Girl”: The Necessity of Old-School Feminist Interventions in the World of Comics and Graphic Novels Alisia Grace Chase Section II: Between Absence and Performance: Rethinking the Subject Chapter Four.............................................................................................. 86 Rethinking Absence: Feminist Legacies, Critical Possibilities Karen Roulstone Chapter Five ............................................................................................ 107 The Chrissy Diaries Anthea Behm vi Table of Contents Section III: Reviews/Revisions Chapter Six.............................................................................................. 138 Queen Seduces Mistress: The Portraiture of Marie Leszczinska and Madame de Pompadour Jennifer G. Germann Chapter Seven.......................................................................................... 159 The Uncertain Spectator: Theories of Female Spectatorship and the Work of Anna Gaskell Catherine Grant Chapter Eight........................................................................................... 177 “Forward via a Female Past”: Pauline Boty and the Historiographic Promise of the Woman Pop Artist Sue Tate Section IV: Between History and Theory Chapter Nine............................................................................................ 206 Fetishism and the Stories of Feminist Art Alexandra M. Kokoli Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 227 In the Words of Susan Hiller and Annette Messager: Conceptualism and Feminism in Dialogue Beth Anne Lauritis Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 248 What is it that Feminist Interventions Do? Feminism and Difference in Retrospect and Prospect Griselda Pollock Epilogue .................................................................................................. 281 The Feminist Art Project Anne Swartz Contributors............................................................................................. 289 EPILOGUE THE FEMINIST ART PROJECT ANNE SWARTZ Second-wave theorists had the advantage of clear boundaries between their predecessors’ experiences and their situation, as opposed to what some call a lack of clarity in boundaries today; they also had to tackle questions like “am I a cultural feminist or a political feminist?,” which are distinctions no longer in circulation permitting other questions to come to the fore.1 Analysis of the feminine and feminized body, celebration of womanhood, critiques of gender, the liminal space of transexuality, potentials/possibilities for feminist utopias and dystopias, and the consequence or lack thereof of feminist interventions are all at issue today, as well as some of the persistent issues from the second-wave and the lack of consistency in use of third-wave terminology. This discussion was most sharply brought into focus in early 2007 in America with two conferences, one held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, called The Feminist Future, and the other held as part of the College Art Association’s annual conference (CAA 2007) under the aegis of The Feminist Art Project (TFAP).2 Both series of panels included a wide variety of visual arts professionals—historians, critics, and artists. I was directly involved in creating the latter sessions and want to address how they evolved, finally reflecting on how the experience relates to pertinent questions and issues in feminist art, many of which this text has explored. I bring to the reader’s attention the history of TFAP as an initiative, up to CAA 2007, to showcase a specific set of circumstances that reveal one bridge between second- and third-wave feminist art history, to document 1 “Arlene Raven interview by Cheri Gaulke,” 13. 2 Recent exhibitions have also raised these issues about feminism and art: WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, curated by Connie Butler, which originated at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, and Global Feminisms, curated by Maura Reilly and Linda Nochlin, which originated at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. 282 Epilogue that important historical series of panels, and to conclude this book with a primary account of feminist art history. Above all, I want to indicate that the merging of theory and practice can, ultimately, beget activism, which is the strongest outcome of any discussion surrounding feminist art. The relationships between theory and practice are integral to any history of feminism in contemporary art, since the artist now has available many systems—methods, techniques—to expose the privileging social and critical structures defining woman’s relationship to the world. But these same systems have often resulted in many women not having opportunities to participate in exhibitions, having work collected by private patrons or by museums, and generally, not seeing their work get much attention. Groups like the Guerilla Girls and the Brainstormers have devoted much time and effort to performing and documenting the biases in the artworld against women, which disproportionately leave them out of the market and the dialogue. Rather than getting depressed or abandoning their art, most feminist artists and visual arts professionals try and find ways to work from within the system to counter the prejudice and dismissals they experience or witness, or they get angry and then try and get involved. Token efforts such as the announcement that the Tate will endeavour to increase its holdings of art by women are welcomed, but more is needed to correct the unevenness in their collections.3 As a result, feminism remains much-needed in the international art scene. How it exists and what feminist art is, though, are difficult to categorize and comprehend because of the many different interpretations of what it is or can be, and the different forms it may take. My feminism has focused on access—that women should have equal opportunity—and on realities—that women have not had equal opportunities.4 In relation to the world of art and the dialogue around it, I have been most interested in the ways women’s psychological lives exist in their art and the archetypal imagery women seem to share in their work. I learned a great deal about my feminism and understanding of art by reading the work of American art critic Arlene Raven.5 We became friends when I was first researching 3 Akbar, “Tate admits need to buy more works by women artists.” The title of this article seems a bit tabloid in tone for the content, as if the museum had taken an active role in some kind of philandering, like a wayward politician admitting to theft or infidelity. 4 I have written elsewhere about my perspective: see Swartz, “Feminist Art: A Reassessment.” 5 Arlene’s life and work is the subject of a volume I co-edited with Johanna Burton, for which I also wrote a critical biographical essay on Arlene. See Swartz, “She Is Who She Wants To Be.” The Feminist Art Project 283 the work of artist Nancy Grossman, her longtime partner about whom she had written a monograph. In 2005, we got involved in planning the day of panels and exhibitions that would become The Feminist Art Project events at CAA 2007. Arlene died from cancer in August of 2006, months before CAA 2007. But we discussed and laboured over every detail of these panels and events until two weeks before she died. Ever committed to feminism and contemporary art, she worked on them when most people would have abandoned any public activity. These events began as a result of a conversation we had in the spring of 2005. Arlene and I were having lunch in New York City’s Chelsea gallery district. We were discussing the situation for women artists in the artworld, a topic we often considered. She said “You should get involved in this idea that Judy [Chicago] and I are developing.” She had been friends with Judy since they first met when Judy spoke at the First National Conference for Women in the Visual Arts

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