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Home , Anita Steckel, Arlene Raven, Audrey Flack, Feminist Art Coalition, Hera Gallery, Heresies Collective

Transfigurations.'Documents and lmagesfrom ContemporaryFeminist Art

frorn NYFAIReflections Exhibit, 1985

October14, 1996to January16, 1gg7

SpecialCollections and UniversityArchives Gallery ArchibaldStevens Alexander Library Introduction

Transfigurations:Documents antl Image.rfrom ContemporatyFeminisi Art is one of three exhibitions celebratingthe twenty-fifth anniversaryof the Mary H. Dana Women Ariists Series at tlre Mabel Smith DouglassLibrary. It is being held in conjunctionwith Twent,v-JiveYears of , TwenN-fiveYears of lt/omen'sArt, a retrospectiveof works by the artists who have shown in the series,at the Mason GrossSchool of the Arts Galleries,and an exhibition of the arfists' portraits and statementsat the Mabel Smith DouglassLibrary.

Contemporaryfeminist art originatedin about1970, inspired by the Women'sl,iberation N{ovementwhich was sweepingthe country at this time. Women artistsbegan to focus on the fact that so ferv women were representedin gallery and museum shows, not to mention the exclusionof rvomenartists from the canon. Furthermore,very felv women taught on the facultiesof art schools,in spiteof the fact thatthe majorityof art studentswere women. In the early 1970s,women artistsand acti,ristsaddressed these issues through demonstrations at muserunsand exposingthe practicesof galleriesand art schools.Originally dcminated by white women,the movementeventually encompassed the concernsof African-American,Hispanic and otherminoriry rvomenartists,

Feministartists sought more, however, than equal representation. They believedthat their art could help bring aboutsocial and politicalchange. The porverof art to changethe self and societyis the tansfigurationto which the exhibition'stitle refers. Feministartists introduced both new subject matter and formats in their work, which, unlike the critically-validated Modernistart of the period,was heavily content-based.Although feministart was extremelv diverse,certain broad themes are apparent,the most universalbeing the use of autobiography. Among the themesr,vhich are illustratedin this exhibitionare: women's sexuality,violence againstwomen, spirituality, the body, the environment, multiculruralism. beau[v, and doinesticity. The exhibition also illustratesfeminist arfists' experimentationwith new media, such as perfcrmanceart and craft techniques.

Feministartists shared a concernwith documentation,probably because of their historic invisibility. in the early 1970s,art critic and activist Lucy Lippard started the Women's Art Registry,the purposcof which was to collect slides,resurnes and addressesof ,in order to maketheir lvork availablewhile bypassrngthe gallery system. As women artistsgained more opportunitiesto showtheir work, the collectionwas augmentedby flyers and cardsadvertising shows, exhibit catalogs,articles, and publicationsabout women artists. Since 1992,tne Women'sArt Registryhas been maintained at SpecialCollections and UniversityArchives. This exhibitionfeatures many iiems from this collection,as well as from the recordsof the Women's Caucusfor Art, the New York FeministArt Institute and the HeresiesCollective. inc.

While this exhibirionfocuses on feministart of the 1970s,many of theseartists continued producing work utilizing feminist themesin the 1980sand 1990s. Documentedworks from this laier period have been inciudedwhere appropriate,as well as a few examplesof recentwork by young feminist artistswho generouslyloaned pieces for the exhibition.

When I fust cameto SpecialCollections and University Archives in I 992,my fust task was to inventory the records of the New York Institute and the Women's Art Registry. Since discoveringthe richnessand variety of thesecollections, I had hopedthat some day I would be given a chanceto exhibit them. This exhibition could not have come about, however, without the supportof Ronald L. Becker,Head of SpecialCollections and University Archives; RutgersUniversity Libraries;the Mabel Smith DouglassLibrary; and Ferris Olin and MarianneFicarra, the curatorsof the Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series. I have also received invaluablehelp from my colleaguesat SpecialCollections and University Archives, particularly intern Amy Eawson for help selectingitems, Exhibitions Curator Ruth Simmons,'who was largely responsiblefor the arrangementof the exhibition,Janice Levin, JanetRiemer and Maria Pisano for mounting the items and captions,and CatherineKeim for her hard work on the catalogue. I hope this exhibition will be as enlighteningfor othersas it has been for me.

FernandaPerrone Curator Considering the in the ,circa 1970-79

Laura Cottingharn

. Writing in 1980, American ferninist art's primary ally, Lucy R. Lippard, reflected that "perhaps the movement'sgreatest coniribution has been its lack of contributionto ."r in the sameyear, America's foremostconservative art critic, Hilton Kramer, rhetorically asked "influence whether the of the women's movement[hadn't] contributedto an erosionof critical standardsin art?".2'By 1980,the Women'sLiberation Movement and its sisterart movementhad ceasedto exist as massmovements. But feministart's chief defenderand oue of its staunchest antagonistsbasicaily agreedupon the natureof its influence:The Feminist Art Movement had been antitheticalto the aims of Euro-AmericanModernism.

An assauiton Modernism surfaceddefiantly within the Feminist Art Movement of the '70s: its explorationswere led rvithoutserious regard for the most fundamentaiprerequisites of what comprisesart and artistic value within the Euro-Arnericantradition. At the sanietime. the "nelv" Movement was in no senseanti-art; rather, its participantswanted a art, one inspired by ihe transformativepossibilities they investedin radicalfeminism. A looselyamalgamated group of women artistsand critics linked through sharednewsletters, slide registies, independent publications,cooperative galleries and ideologicalcommitment, the Movementwas far from a unifieci front. At the same time, its diverse activities were complimentary, if not always harmonious.The Feminist Art Movement refused a formalist imperative,insisted on the importanceof content,contested the absolutenessof history, favored collectiveproduction, asserteda piacefor the autobiographical,reclaimed craft, prioritized process and performance, and,perhaps mosi radically,refuted the ideathat art is evereither neutrai or universal.That art, like "ttrepersonal," is political.

The Movement'sparticipants were, for the mostpart, academically trained artists on the margins cf the visual art cornmunity--thatis, like other graduatesof American art schools,they rverervhite anCior middle class,and unlike nearly all successfulliving artistsin 1970,they rvere wornen.As artistsengaged in activismagainst tl-re systemic exclusion of rvomenfrom muser-rm exhibitions and art schoolprofessorships, they irreversiblyaltered rhe position of rvornenwithin '70s, American visual culture.During the thousandsof American artiststhroughout the country picketed and sued arts institutions to end discriminatoryhiring practicesand other forms of systemic prejudice against women involved with art. Without the feminist agitation aud '70s, idecllogicaltransformations of the the American women artists who have risen to '80s '90s internationalacciaim during the and couldnot havehad the samesubject matter, critical support,or eventhe .zerymaterial possibility of high level commercialrecognition.r

As artistsengaged in an ideologicaland artistictransformation of the lr4odernistlegacy rvh.ichthey inheritedas Americans,but from which they were excludedas women and as non- a-

rvhitewomen, the Feminist Art Movement so completelychallenged the underlyingpremises of what constitutesart that neither art, nor the criticaliry'that sun'oundsand informs art, has been the same since. While it would be possibieto argue that any number of subsequentartistic developmentsin the United Statesowe their existenceto the strategiesand aims of the '70s Feminist A-rt Movement, the most enduringlegacy is really one thing: feminism.

While was the most critically and commerciallyrespected art in the United '60s '70s, Statesduring the late and early the Feminist Art Movement generally had more in colrunon with the other activist-basedvisual art practicesthat took place in the United States during that sameperiod. Although SecondWave Feminisminspired the only large-scaleart movement,the other politicalmobilizations, including the ChicanoRights Movement, the anti- War movement, the Black Power Movement and the Gay Rights Movement, all had both immediateand lastingeffects on art'sproduction and reception in the UnitedStates. The insights and demandsof 160sactivism, especially those of Black Power,Women's Liberation and Gay Rights, continueto heaviiy form and inform the directionof American social,political and culrurallife.

'68, It was within the generaiizedactivism of the tJnited Statescirca and againstthe overdeterminationof American art history by the commercialmarket, that the Feminist Art ivlovementhad its genesisand, in consequence,its generaiizederasure from most cunent understandingsof Americanart of the recentpast and the present.The Movementoccurred duringan economicrecession in the UnitedStates and at a low level of art coliecting;many of its mostsignificant gestures occurred in noncommercialvenues or wereotherwise ephemeral. The artistsknew at the time that as women and as feministstheir activitieswere autoraatically marginalizedby both the dominantcommercial apparatus and the prevailingcritical discourse: it rvas for this reasonthat they developedalternative educational venues, publications and cooperativegalleries, Aithough some, such as ,Adrian Piper, and EleanorAntin, garneredearly and sustained representation from strongdor,vntown galleries, most of the early feminisi artistswere forcedto operateoutside of art's professionalsupport systenl "as and no New York galleryever choseto representFeminist Art a Movement."The general lack of initial commercialsupport for feminist-inspiredart continuesto exert an overriding influenceon ho'',vart from the'70s is curatedand otherwisehistoricized; in the development.of American art since AbstractExpressionism, there has never been a widely-recognized"ar] Movement"that lvasn't packagedas suchby one or more commercialgalleries. To accessthe influenceof the FeministArt Movementis to confrontthe problem not only of how causal connectionsbetween art and artistsare seldomaccountable to any single source,but to also acknowiedgethat the marginalposition within which feminist art first emergedcontinues to preciudeits genuineassessment from the Americanart establishment,which is still closelytied to the samedealers, collectors and '70s, criticalopinions that the Movementwent up againstduring the

Still, evidenceof the Movement'siegacy is undeniable:feminism continucs to be oneof the central guiding principlesbehind the productionof new American art, especiailyof art producedby women.The stylisticbreadth of the first generationof feministart waswide enough to haveincorporated 's demonstrations against rape, Faith Ringgoid's:quilts, Miriarn Schapiro'sfemcollages, Lynda Benglis'sArtfontm advertisementof herselfnaked with a dildo; "porffaits", EleanorAntin's photographicand scuiptual BetyeSaa.r's personalized assemblages, 's shamanisticfabric pieces, 's realistic , tvlartha Rosier'svideotapes, Joan Jonas's performances, I{annah Wilke's provocativenude body, 'searth-body works, 's photorealistn,'cascading ceiling pieces,Nancy Grossman'slithographs of gun-rvieldingmen, Judy 'sporcelain plates, 's feminized recreationof The Last Supper','s expressionist canvases,Elaine Reichek's compositions in organdy,'s scattered domestically-coded installations,Joan Semrnel'sre-renderings of the female nude and s public art works enactedin tile. The Movement neither adheredto, nor did it attempt to adhereto, the Greenbergianidea of formal progression;but what it did attempt to follow, even as it was "fentinism." creatingand debatingit, was an idea of "post-" The Movementwas "anti-" rather than Modemist,It rvasneither ironic, relativistic, cynical, or anything lessthan utopian.Like their activist sistersfrom whom they borrowedboth theory(Simone De Beauvoir'sIhe SecondSa;r, 's ,Kate Millet's SexualPolitics,) and practice(consciousness-raising), fenrinist artists sought to forge a nervart from a ;rew consciousness.

Although utilized in variousr,vays by differentindividual and groupsof artists,the primary '70s methociinvolved in the productionof feministart during the was consciousnessraisin.g. Inspkedby Mao Tse-Tung'sLittie RedBook, feminist was developedby Kathie Sarachildof the Neu, York City-basedRedstockings, one of the first radical feminist activist groups that ernergedout of the anti-war and counterculturalmovements in 1968. Redstocking'srules for consciousnessraising rvere ftrst distributedin the group'sNote.s ft'om the First Year,a1969 x.eroxpacketof radicalfeminist rvritings thai r,'rasone of the most-widelyread documentsoi the Women'sLiberation Nlovement, Although not enrployedby every artistwho workedin the nameof feminism,consciousness raising was central to mostof the newly-formed "woman artistgroups" that sprungup throughoutthe U.S. anciin othercountries during the '70s.o For instance,a 1972 newsletterof the feminist art nefwork West-EastCoast Bag (W.E.B.) prcvided its readerswith eight "consciousness-raisingrules" fbllorvedby over fifty suggested "topics;" by 1974,seven of eightcity chaptersof W.E.B. who respondedto a query concerning "philosophy" their listed consciousnessraising as a basis.This collusionbetween artists and activistsof the Women'sLiberation lvfovement during the'70s was a kind of historicalanomaly: althougha sharedaim betrveenartists and activistsis common,if not necessary,to a political liberationmovement, I canthink of no otherhistorical example of artistsactually borrowing and utilizing, as an artisticmethod, the samepraciice used by activiststo furtherpolitical change. Like consciousnessraising, much earlyfeminist art rvaslocated in the beliefthat the description aridelucidation of women'sexperience could prov-ide the necessarycatalyst that would eventually ctrangelived experience.

The reiianceon consciousnessraising inrroduced autobiography as a veritablesource for "unconscious" "random" visual production;it also contadictedthe or r'isualseiection process cherishedby so many Modernist creative theories.Feminism and its self-revelatorymethod brought a different awarenessto art making: while admittediypersonal and autobiographicalin its focus,it is, at the sametime, both sociallyconscious and consciously critical. Feminism had originated, after all, from women's feelings and observableexperience that something was "wrons": with the way their lives as women were perpetuallysubordinated to the lives of men and children,and with the wa1'fine art, a culturalarena supposedly free and enlightened,assisted in the ideological devaluation and material exclusion of women. Through their new "consciousness," feminists felt they could changenot just their own lives, but the world itself. In terms of art, Lippard has described the influence this way: "A developed feminist consciousne.ssbrings with it an alteredconcept of reality and morality that is crucial to the art being made and to the lived with that art. We take for grantedthat making art is not simply 'expressing oneself but is a far broader and more important task--expressingoneself as a member of a largerunity, or comm/unity,so that in speakingfor oneselfone is also speakingfor thosewho cannotspeak."s

"conscious The goai of consciousnessraising, and of a art," is similar in someways to the self-reflexive artistic practice encouragedby the neo-lr4arxistcriticality of the Frankfurt Schoolbut it fundamentallydiffers in its prioritizationof women'ssituation and of the specific '70s verity it privilegesto personalexperience. If consciousnessraising, iike so many artistic methodsand strategies,is no longer widely practiced,its inchoateinfluence persists in the existenceof so much recent Ameican art that constructspersonal narrative within an understandingof political exigency.

"The This essayis a modifiedand abbreviated version of FeministContinuum: Art After 1970," inciudedin the Power of FeminislA'1, Norma Broudeand lvlaryD. Gamard,eds. (New York: Ha.ry N. Abrams,1994), pp. 276-287.

"barl"feminists L,auraCottingham is the author of How man.v cloesit taketo cltartgea tightbulb?, 1994and iesbiansare so chic...,1996. She currently teaches art criticismat CooperUnion and in the Deoartmentof Visual Arts at RuteersUniversitv. El

Endnotes

i. Lucy R. Lippard,"sweeping Exchanges: The Contribution of Feminismto theArt of the r70s," Art Journal,Fall./Winter 1980, 339-365.

2. Hilton Klamer, "DoesFeminism Conflict with Artistic Standards?",Nevv York Times,January 27, 1980,section 2; l, 27.

3. The situationfor womenartists in Europeanart centers,where no similar massagitation has takenplace, closely resembles what the New York artcommunity was like for femaleparticipants beforethe '70s;that is, galleriesand museums regularly exclude wornen from their exhibitions andthe few womenthat do shorvinvariably follow the Krasner/Frankenthaler/deKooningmodel, i.e.,they mustbe marriedto or sleepingwith powerfulart world men.

4. Ivlanyfeminist-influenced artists who did not participatein consciousnessraising with the aim of utilizing it for their art werenonetheless participants in otherconsciousness raising $oups.

5. LucyR. Lippard,ibid.,363. -fransfigurations: Documentsand Imagesfrom ContemporaryFeminist Art

Exhibition Captions

Case1:

FEMINISM AND ART HISTORY

In the early 1970s,there were severalgroundbreaking exhibits which inkoduced women artists to the public. Theseincluded Wtere lVeAt: Black WomenArtists in 1911, WomenChoose Womenat the New York CulturalCenter in 1913,and Ll/omen,4rtists: 1550-1950,curated by L.indaNochlin and Ann SutherlandHarris, in 1976. The latterexhibit inspired "Collaboration," to createher with her foremotherMary Cassatt.She later did similarworks with ElisabethVigee-Lebrun, Berthe Morisot and Frida Kahlo. Collaboration,whether with eachother or rvith women arfistsof the past. rvasa key conceDtfor feminist anists.

JOANN D'ESPOSITO-WACHTNIANN, PLATE AND TWO BOWLS, GLAZ,ED TERRA coTTA. 1988-1992

JOANNE ZANGARA. HA}iD PAINTED SILK SCARF'

Joann D'Esposito-Wachtmannand JoanneZangara are two young women artists currently working in the craft tradition.

Case2:

ART, FENIINISIVIAND THE ENVIR.ONNIENT

In the iate 1970s,the use and abuseof the environmentappearcd as an importanttherne in feminist art. Cultural feministsbeiieved that the environrnentrvas of particularconcern to \,vomenas child-bearers;women were naturallypeace-loving, nurnrring, and canng about the earth. In art and literature,there was a traditionalconnection between woman and nattrre,or betweenwomen's bodiesand the earth.This themecan be seenin the .rork of Brazilian artist joseiy Carvalho.and of Bea Nettles,whose autobiographical photographs explore the luxuriant landscapeof her Floridachildhood.

Radicalfen'rinists asserted that since genderwas sociallyconstrucied., rvomen held no speciai responsibilityfbr the environment.Lucy Lippardnotes thai women,regardless of their position in this debate,are over-representedamong artists whose work dealswith ecology,poilution, vrastedisposal and other environmentalissr.res. She cites the rvork of JanetCulbertson. whose billboard seriespowerfully contrastsan idyllic past with a deskoyedlandscape of the present.r Women artists were also amongthe leadelsin the productionof anti-nuclearart, suchis Dona Ann McAdams' photographsof performancesheld at nuclearpower plant sites,shown here.

Case3:

FEMINIST ART AND POLITICS

In the late 1960s,feminist artistssuch as Nancy Speroand May Stevensused their art as a means of political protest againstthe Viehram War and civil rights violations in the southernt-lnited "Big States. May Stevensdeveloped a seriesof imagesof Daddy", whom Lucy Lippard "the describes as monstrous symbol of distorted patriotism, , prejudice and imperialism."2 In her Big Daddy Paper Doll (1970),she dressesher characteras a hooded hangman,military figure,a riot policeman.and a butcher,making a connectionbetween political oppressionand the oppressionof women in society. ,famous for her War Series (1966-1970)on Vietnam,later used Amnesty International texts in her work depictingthe torrure of women.

FEMINIST ART AND PIULTICULTURALISM

Womenartists of color experiencedracism within the feministart movement.Chicana artist and organizerJudy Baca, best known for designingthe GreatWall of ,a mural depicting "The a multi-ethnichistory of California,writes, problemwas aiwaysthe sameproblem--the rvhitefeminists thought they rvoulddetermine hou'to approachanci confront race. They never camein the-iapacityto listen."i

Faith Ringgold rvasone of the fust feministartists to take on the ciualstruggle against and racism. In 1970, she and her daughterMichele Waliace founded WSABAL (Women Studentsand Artistsfor Black Art Liberation).She traces her developmentas a feministto 1972, rvhenshe began to work in cloth. Inspiredby her family's multi-generationalhistory in Harlem, "Echoes Ringgold collaboratedon the quilt of Harlem,"with her mother,Willi Posey,shortly beforethe latter'sdeath.

New York-basedartist and curatorHowardena Pindell also actively took on racismthrough her work. in 1988,she curatedAutobiographt,: In Her hvn Image, a traveliing exhibit which broughttogether works by womenof coior from many differentettrnic backgrounds. She also conductedsurveys which exposedthe under-representationof artistsof color in New York galleriesand mrtseums, which shedirectly experienced in hertwelve years as an associatecurator at the Museum of Mt-rdernArt. Case4:

FEMINIST ART AND SPIRITTIAI,ITY

In their searchfor irnagesof powerful women,feminist artistsof the early 1970swere influenced by historical and archeologicalscholarship, such as the work of Marija Gimbutas and , who studied pre-patriarchalcultures based on goddess-worship,as well as by the rediscoveryof Jung'sarchetype of the GreatGoddess as representativeof the feminineprinciple. Theseartists createda feminist iconography,reclaiming such forms as the spiral, the labyrinth, the egg,the circle,crescents, horns, quatrefoils, disks, and others. The imageof the Paleolithic goddess,the Venus of Willendorf,ostill influencescontemporary arfists like Sheila Mudgett, as well as the unknorvndesigner of the necklaceshown here. in the early 1970s,goddess artists tendedto believe that the imageof the goddesswas universal, regardlessof cuiture. In the 1980sand 1990s.however, arfists working in this traditiontended to lccatethese images within a specificcultural context, as shorvnin Ann McCoy's depictionof the Greek goddessAphrodite, and Anne Elliott's renderingof Kali, the many-handedHindu goddessof divine retr-ibution.Feminist ailists from this laterperiod also tendedto equatethe goddess'with narure and ecology. SculptorNancy Azara,rvho ha.sbeen working with these conceptsfor tr,venty-fiveyears, uses found wood, red paint,and gold leaf to createher free-like sc'.rlptures.5

Case5:

FEMINIST ART PUBLICATIONS

Nlanyfeminist art organizationsand publicationsrvere founded in the eariy 1970s.Some of the earliestrvere inerpensively produced, underground news sheets which servedas an inforrnation networkfor rvomenartists. Many wereshort-lived, others were more endirring, Of the examples displayedhere. only the Women'sCaucus for Art Nevvsletterand the Lf/omen'sArt Registryof fufinnesctaNexsletter are still beingpubiisb.ed.

ALI'ERNATI\TE SPACES

Becauseof the Cifficultyof breakinginio the gallerysystem, some women artistsstarted their orvn all-women galleriesor found alteinativespaces in rvhich to exhibit. AIR Gallery, a cooperativewomen's gailery establishedin Ncw York in 1972,was one of the firrstof these. Other women'sealleries rvere Soho 20 in Nerv York, Arten'risiaand ARC in Chicago,Hera irr Wakefield,P.hode Isiand, and Womanspacein Los Angeies. Women artistsalso exhibitedin unusualvenues like P.S. I in Queensand F'ashion iV{oda in the SouthBronx. ln 1971,the first exhibit of the Women Artists Seriesat DouglassCollege was heid in the lobby of the Mabcl SnrithDougiass Library. As well as launchingthe careersof somewoirre n artists,the alternative

10 exhibition movement allowed controversial feminist art that would not have been shown elsewhereto be seen.

Case6:

''THE BEAUTY MYTH''

"Making-up" "dressing-up" and arerecurring themes in feminist art. Someofthis work ironically commentson the contrastbetween self and self-image,between how women seethemselves and how they are perceived. Another way of expressingthis theme is through the idea of transfiguration--howthe self canbe transformed,at leastextemally, t'hrough cosmetics, hairstyles, clothing, or plastic surgery. Another dimensionis the contrastbetween the contemporaryreality of women's diverseidentities, and the way that the ideal woman is definedby societyas young, thin and caucasian.

Case7:

HANNAH WILKE

Someof the most radicaland provocative art of the 1970swas doneby feministswho usedtheir own bodiesor imagesof the body in their work.6 HannahWilke's photographsand perfionnances attractedparticular attention and notoriety. In her StarificationObject Series (1974-1982), Wilke, a celebratedbeauty, strikes high fashion/pornographicposes, rvhile displaying a body studded with chewin$gum .Starification, a play on staring/scarring,represents the suffering that women undergoin their struggleto be beautiful. Lucy Lippard commentsthat, 'lA woman usingher own face and body hasa right to do what shewill with them,but, it is a subtleabyss that separatesmen's useof womenfor sexualtitillation from rvomen'suse of womento expose that insult."7

HannahWilke died of cancerin 1993.

''CUNT.POSITIVE'' ART

In the 1970s,feminist artists wanted to reclaim the female body for women by representing women's bodiesand bodily experiences.They soughtto createpositive imagesthat showedthe beauty,and sexualand spiritual power of the body, as seenfrom the femaleperspective. Some of this work attemptedto reclaim female genitaliafrom degradation,in imagessuch the place- settingsin 'swell-known Dinner Party installation,and the coloring book and "cunt-positive" pb.otographsshown here, Women artistscoined tle phrase art, in an attemptto "cunt" reclaim the term from its connotationsof defilementand opprobrium.s

1l Case9:

RECLAII\{ING THE CRAFT TRADITION

For centuries,decorative and dornestichandicrafts have been regarded,literally, as women's "Low "High work, a form of Art" from which western,male-dominated Art" strove to separate itself. In the early I970s, feminist artists, often working collaborativeiy,sought to reclaim women's traditional crafts like quilting, embroidery,lace-making, and china-,by using them in their work, Somewomen artistscombined these techniques with sexualimagery to create "The "The w"itfy,ironic images,as shown by Boob Tree" and Girl in the Velvet Box". In the late 1970s,feminist artistsJoyce Kozloff, Miriam Schapiroand Valerie Jaudonbecame ieaders in a new mainstreammovement, Pattern and Decoration,which emergedto challengethe dominant Minimalist aesthetic.

Case10:

WOMANHOUSE

In 1971,students in the FeministArt Programat the CaliforniaInstitute of the Arts in Valencia and their teachers,Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro,created .Working collaboratively,they took over a condemaedHollywood mansion,and painted,sculpted and decoratedeach room to representthe fantasies,constraints and hiddendespair of middle-class women'slives. Womanhouse was open to the public in 1972. Althoughthe housewas latertorn down, its powerful imageshave been preserved on film.

THE L.A. IVO}IAN'S BUILDING

"public The Woman's Building, a centerfot u,omen'sculture", rvas opened in Los Angelesin 1973.It originally housedthe FeministStudio Workshop, an alternativeart schoolfor women foundedby JudyChicago, art historianArlene Raven, and graphic artist Sheila de Bretteville:the Women's Graphic Center;Womanspace Gallery, which had been foundedn 1972 in an old iaundromat:Associated Women's Press; the Los AngelesFeminist l-heatre; and otherwonren's organizations.Feminist Studio Workshop, as well as teachingart-rnaking skills, tried to develop wornen'sidentities in the contextof a rvomen'scorffnuniry. It also servedas a performance space,giving a startto performancegroups like FeministArt Workersand .The L.A. Woman'sBuilding no longerexists.

13 THE NEW YORK FEMINIST ART INSTITUTE

The New York Feminist Art Institutervas founded in in 1979by Nancy AzNa, Miriam Schapiro,Carol Stronghilos,, SelenaWhitefeather and Lucille Lessane. Like the foundersof the L.A. Woman's Building, they askedthe fundamentalquestion, "How doesthe social and psychologicalcontext of our identity as womeninform our art?" which would becomethe ethosof the school.In the inhospitableclimate of the 1980s,NYFAI's existencewas "feminist" overshadowedby the struggle for funding. In the early i980s, when the word was becoming almost taboo,I.IYFAI adoptedthe additicnaltitle Women's Cenrerfor Learning, and broadenedits focusto includeother artssuch as print- and paper-making,basketry, and puppetry, as well as coursesin psychology and writing. In 1989, NYFAI sponsoredan exhibit and symposium, Be.vondSurvival, which tackledthe issuesof raceand gender.Because of a shortage of funding, however.bIfFAI was forcedto drasticallycurtail its activitiesin 199C,and eventualiy dissolved.

VISUAL DIARIES

The New York FeministArt Institutecurricuium was non-haditional.In the first year, within the context of group sessions,srudents concenrrated on developinga better understandingof themselvesand their positionas womenbefore embarking on the studyof artistictechnique. in her consciousness-raisingclasses, sculptor Nancy Azarapioneered the conceptof visualdiaries. Thesewere journals kept by studentsrecording their experiencesthrough drawing,painting, sculptureand sometimestext, which helpedthem translate their personalexperiences into ari.

Case1 1:

FEIVIINISTART AND THE DOMESTIC ENVIRONNIENT

"Probably nlore than most artists,women make art to escape,overwhebn, or transformdariy rea.lities.So it rnakessense that thosewomen artistswho do focus on domesiiciniagery often seemto be taking off from, ratherthan gettingoff tx, the implicationsof floors and broornsand dirri' laundry.iley work from suchimagery because they can't escapeit."ro --Lucy Lippard

14 Case12:

PROTEST

Beginning in the early 1970s,women artists,teachers, students, and curatorscompiied statistics and stagedprotests against the under-representationof women and minorities in galleries and museruns. in 19.i0,the New York Ad Hoc Women Artists'Committeeprotested the limited number of women artistsin the Whitney Annual, leadingto an increasein representationfrom tive percentin 1970to 22 percentthe followingyear. In 1981,however, outraged by the absence of rvork by women and minorities in the Los Angeles Coung Museum of Art's Bicentennial exhibition,artists dressed in cowgirl and cowboyoutfits, or wearingmasks of the show's curator, Maurice Tuchman,staged a guerrillaperformance with pink and black balloons. Displayedhere are artifactsfrom a 1984 demonstrationby the Ne'v York City Chapterof the Women's Caucus for Art againstthe inclusion of only 14 women out of a total of 165 participantsin An International Surveyof RecentPainting and ,lheexhibit marking the reopeningof the Nluseumof after a four-yearrenovation.

THE

The women artistsprotest group, the GuerrillaGirls, was organizedin Manhattanin 1985. Appearingin public wearinggoriila masksto hide their identities,they distributedleaflets and posterswhich exposedthe continuinginequities in the representationof men and women in gallery and museumshows in New York. Using humor and irony, the Guerrilla Girls kept women's art activismalive throughthe 1980s,and into the 1990s,when they broadenedtheir agendato intludeother fypes of socialcriticism.rl

Casq13:

VIOLENCE AGNNS'I WOMEN

Itre themeof violenceagainst women has been frequently used by feministperforrnance artists such.as SuzanneLacey and Lesiie Labowitz, or by the Cuban-bornartist Ana Mendieta, who herselfdied tragicallyin 1985. In this piecedone while shewas still a studentat the University oi Iowa, spectatorswould suddeniycome uporl her blood-stained,half-naked body. Women's. ,,vorkin this gen-refocused on rape, domesticabuse, or the more muted .riolenceof the "Minimum expioitationof women by society;suggested in the peribrmancepiece Wage Rage," by young artist SuranSong.

15 ''WE OPPOSE VIOLENT PORI{OGR4.PHY''

"On July 4, 1986, 5 members of the Women's Freedom Front demonstratedagainst objectificationand againstpornography by simuitaneouslyripping up pornographyand riding on a flrrat without shirts. The actiontook placein CedarBluff, Iowa, at a 4th of July paradeviewed by 15,000peopie....Women rvho remove their shirts as they rvishin a noncommercialcontext are actively stopping the male pornographic fantasy of man as dominator and lvoman as object....Thisaction is one of a seriesof feministdirect actionsagainst by Citizens for Media Responsibilitywilhout Law and the lowa Women'sFreedom Frontlt2

Endnotes

"'fhe l. Lucy R. Lippard, GarbageGitls," inThe Pink GlassSwan: SelectedFeminist Essuyson lrl QrlewYork, 1995),pp.258-261. Reprintedfrom Z lulagazine(December I99l).

2. Quoted in Norma Broude and Mary D, Garrard,eds. The Pover of Feministlrf (New York, 1994),p. 142.

"Social 3. Quotedin YolandaM. Lopez and Moira Roth, Protest:Racism and Sexism,"inThe Power of FeministArt, p. 752.

4. JoelynnSnyder-Ott.ll'omen and Creativif (llillbrae,CA, 1978),p.55.

"sacred 5. Flavia Rando, Dwellings: The Work of ,"in Nancy*A:ara (Ne* York, 1995),p. 6. -- "The 6. JoannaFrueh, Body ThroughWomen's Eyes," in ThePower of FeministArt, p. 190.

7, Quoted in Hannah Wilke, So Help Me Hannalr.Text for video performancetape. Privately printed,n.d.

8. Frueh,p. 192.

9.Ibid.,p.201.

"Household 10. imagesin Art," in ThePink GlassSwan, p. 62. Reprintedfrom Ms. l, No. 9 (March 1973).

"Guerrilla I l. Girls." in ThePink GlassSwan. o. 257.

12.Postcard. V,/omen's Freedom Front. go*u Cirr-,1986).

t6 Transfigurations:Documents and Imagesfrom ContemporaryFeminist Art

Checklist

Case 1: Feminism and Art llistory

"Collaboration." Ir{iriam Schapiro,poster, January,1977, Mitzi Landau Gallery, Los Angeles.2611000.Inscribed for Lucy Lippard by artists. Women'sArt Registry

JoannD'Esposito-Wachtmann. Plate and two borvls.Glazed terra cotta, 1988-1992. Collection of the arttst

JoanneZangara. Hand paintedsilk scarf. Collectionof the artist

Case2: Art, Feminismand the Environment

JoselyCarvalho. My Body is My Country.Hartfbrd, CT: Real Arts Ways,lggl. V/omen'sArt Registry

"Rain Bea Netties. Forest,"Flamingo in the Dark. Rochester,NY: Inky Press Productions,1979. Women's Art Registry

Exhibition AnnouncementCards: "Untitled." --JanetCulbertson. EastHampton. NY: Guild Hall -_ Museum. "Faces --ianet Culbertson. of the Peconic."Riverhead, NY: East End Arts Council. "Untitled." --JanetCulbertson. New York: Anita ShapolskyGallery. "Memorial, --JanetCulbertson. 1965." Frorn Seato ShiningSea. Riverhead,NY: SutTolkCommunity College. l\omen's Art Registry "Rancho Dona Ann McAdams, Seco,Sacrarnento, California. SacramentoMunicipal IJtility District." frorn.They're Juggling Our Genes!I'he Nuclear Suntival Kil. Postcard. Privatelyprinted, NY, 1981.Women's Caucus for Art "Karen Silkwood was murCered."Photo in Heresies.Issue I3

Yoko Ono. Color, Fiy, SlE. Museetfor Samtidskunst:Palaeet, Raskilde; Denmark, 1992. LYomen'sArt Registry

JoanneZangara.lland painted siik scu'f. Collectionof the artist

t7 7

Case2: Art, Feminism and the Environment (con't.)

"Hunger Kathy Vargas, poster, & the Environment:A Seriesof EventsDedicated to the Memory of Mickey Leland." 5th Annual World Food and FlungerConference. University of TexasSchool of Public Health.october l6-19, 1989.Il/omen'sArt Registr},

Case3: Art, Feminism, lVlulticulturalismand Politics

"Echoes and Willi Posey. of Harlem" in The Artist and the Quilt. New York: Alfred A. Ifuopf, 1983.Rutgers Art Library

Monica Sjoo, Halina Korn, GertrudeElias, MaureenScott, Heinke Jenkins,. Hilda Bernstein,Jacqueline Morreau. int'o. by CharlotteYeldham. The World as We See It: GraphicsPaintins Sculpture. 1975-1985. International Women's Decade. : Camden Council for InternationalCooperation, 1977. Women's Art Registry

. ExhibitsUSA, 1992.LYomen's Caucus for Art

May Stevens. --exhibitioncatalog from HerbertF. JohnsonMuseum of Art. Cornell University. November28-December 21, 1973. --"Big DaddyPaper Doll, 1971"from Bie Daddv, Lerneir-HellerGallery, New York, NY. Art Registrlt Yomen's

Adios Columbus. VistasLatinas. Hilhvood Ar1 Nluseunr.Long IslandUniversity. , NY, 1972. Women'sArt Registrv

Betty La Duke: Multi-CulturalImaees. Paintines-Prints-Drawinesl9-53-1986. Exhibition catalog,.lI/'omen's Art Registr-:.,

--"ChiricahuaApaches, I99I ." --"Sampler(If you reallylove . . .), 1993." ElaineReichek. Home Rule. OrchardGallery, Derry: Irish Museumof Modern Art, Dublin, 1993.Women's Art Registry

"l984 Nancy Spero, The Year of the SouthAfrican Wonran".lrlevr'York, Art Against Apartheid,1984. Women's Art Registty

18 Case4: Feminist Art and Spirituality

Sheila Mudgett. Figwes. Llomen'sCaucus for Art

goddessnecklace. Loaned by Amy Da',vson

"Menstrual "Concerning Annabel Nicolson. Hut." Exhibition Ourselves.."Norwich, 1981. LVomen'sArt Registry

Amy Zerner, poster,Materiatizatlonq. Whitelight Gailery.New York, NY, September "Tabernacle", 17 - October24, i987. 1987,depicted. l[romen's Art Registry

"Spirit Nancy Azara. House of the Mother". Exhibition catalog. E.M. Donahue Gallery, 1995,Essay by Flavia Rando. Prosepoem by . Exhibition curatedby Ronald Sosinski. Vf/omen'sArt Registrv

"Heroic Female:lmages of Power." Announcementof exhibitionat CeresGallery 1986.Work by Women Artists Associatedwith NliFAIAVomen's Centerfor Learning. New York Feminist Art Institute

"Kali", Anne Elliott, 1984.Sculptue blwalqeLln the Eiehties. Exhibition at the UP Gallery,University of Pittsburgh,1985. Women's Caucus for Art "Work of the Spirit." Announcementof exhibitionat CeresGallery, 1988.Work by Women Artists Associatedwith NYFAI. Women'sArt Registrv

AnnMcCcv: New RomanWorks. Rome 1989-1990.Exhibition catalog. Arnoid Iierstand& Company,New York, NY, 1990.Women's Art Registt1t

"Artist as Shaman."Exhibition at the Woman'sBuilding Gallery,Los Angeles. November4-28, 1985.Women's Art Registry

Case5: FeministArt Publications,Organizations and Erhibition Spaces

Soimine off: a monthlynewsletter of women'sculture published at the Los Angeles Women'stsuilding. I(omen's Art Regi.rtry

WWAC NEWS (WashinglonWomen's Art Center)Vol. 4, no. 12,February 1982. Ilomen's Art Registry

"What Womanart Ever Happenedto the WomenArtists Movement?" Winter/Spring 1977.Women's Art Registry

19 Case5: FeministArt Publications,Organizations and ExhibitionSpaces (con't.)

WARM Journal(Women's Art Registryof Minnesota)Vol. 2, no. 1, 1987.Women's Art Registry

Women'sCaucus of the ColleqeArt Associationof AmericaNewsletter No. 1, 1973. Women'sArt Registry

Vol. 10,no. 3, Spring1985. Women's Caucus for Art

The FeministArt JournalFalI 1972.Women's Caucus for Art

"Heresies'flyer. For HeresiesCollective, inc. Heresies "Heresies" poster.Heresies: a feministpublication on art & politics.Poster for issue #2. Il'omen'sArt Registry

WarmArt Gallery.Scenic Views: paintines. Jane Bassuk, 1979. , MN. Exhibit Opening.Ia/omen's Art Registry

ArtemisiaGallery. PhyllisBramson and Linda Kramer, 1976. Chicago, IL. Opening Announcement.Women's Art Registry

ARC Gallery. JaneStevens and Marilyn Sward,1979. Chicago, IL. Opening Announcement.Lltomen's Art Registty

Catafbgs.Women Artists Series, Mabel Smith Douglass Library, 1973, 1974, 1975. W'omen'sArt Registry

Case6: "The BeautyMyth" "Age BeforeBeauty". A film by SarahGibson & SusanLambert. Discussion leaflets. Women'sFilm Fund,1980. LV'omen's Art Registry

The Fat Book.Beverly Naidus, 1992. Privately printed. LYomen's Art Registry ' "The Alien of a ShortStory about the Little Girl with the JapEyes, Hawaiian Pig Noseand Nigger Lips." KatherineHall. Heresies,Issue 9 "Girl with Mirror." MarthaMayer Erlebacher. 1974. From Wor4enArtists. Here & Now and exhibitionat the Art Gallery,O'Shaughnessy Hall, the Universityof Notre Dame. ll/'omen'sCaucus for Art

20 Case 7: Feminist Art, Sexuality and the Body

So Help Me Hannah.Hannah Wilke. Text from videoperformance. Card advertising performanceat AIR.,February 20, 1982.lVbmen's Art Registry

So Helo Me Hannah."one of 48 ray gunphotos". HannahWilke, 1978.Women's Art Registry

Sc Help lrtleHannah: Snatch-shots with Ray Gunscollected from 1969-78.Exhibition Opening,P.S. 1. L.I. City,New York, 1978.Women's Art Registry

S.O.S.Starification object series. i of 36 playingcards from rnasticationbox peiformance.Hannah Wilke. ,1975. Women's Art Registry

Nipple balls, 1996. Suran Song, Artist statement.Collectiott of the artist

4 imagessuggesting lesbian sexualiry. He:resies, Issue I2

"The Great American Lesbian Art Show." GALAS. Announcement. Woman's Building. Los Angeles,1979. Women's Art Registry

"Wrappedparts.'l Judith N{oriarryand "Big Date EveningBag." HelenaD. Negrette from Erotica:Women CreatineBeyond the Sexual.1984. By EvelynPatricia Terry and Gayle GrubisicRiordan. Women's Caucus for Art

3 phoios:Norma Hairnes. --"Mae West,"1975. --"LittlePussy," 1975. --"FannyHill," 1976.Lt/'omen's Art Registry

Cunt ColorineBook. Drawingsby Tee Corinne. SanFrancisco, CA: Pearchild Prociuctions.LVomen's Art Registry

Case 8: "What is Feminist Art?"

Cardswith originai art by:

-- Mary Beth Edelson -- -- Avis Lang -- Sonya Rapoport

27 Case8: "What is Feminist Art?" (con't.)

- Avis Lang -- SusanneMueller - Helene Aylon --unidentified .- Arlene Raven - Robin Tewes - Anita Steckel Judy Malloy. Heresies

Case9: Reclaiming the Craft Tradition

"Boob "Girl Phyllis Green, Tree" and Anna Gustafson, in the Velvet Box." Woman as Viewer. Catalog,Winnepeg Art Gallery, 1975.An IntemationalWomen's Year Project Independentlypresented by the Committeefor Women Artists, Winnepeg,Manitoba. lYomen'sArt Registry

BarbaraE. Harris et al., T,hreadsof Intimacy. Privatelyprinted, 1980. Women'sArt Registry

Case10: FeministArt Education

WomanhouseInvitation, 1972.ll/omen's Art Registry

Photos: -Beth Bachenheimeret al., Dining Room, 1972.@Lloyd Hamrol. -Kathy Huberland,Bridal Staircase,1972. @Lloyd }Iamrol. -Robbin Schiff, NightmareBathroom, 1972.@L\oyd Hamrol. "Woman to Woman." The Woman's Building, a public centerfor woman's culture, welcomesyou to the Grand Opening.December 13, 1973. Women'sArt Registry

Visual Diaries.1981. Nelv YorkFeminist Art Institute

NffFAIAVomen's Centerfor Learning -Catalog, 1979 -3 Schedulesof Classes,Workshops and Events,1986-1987 New York Feminist Art Institute

22 Case10: FeministArt Education(con't.)

"Reflections: Advertisementfor Opening. Women in their own image Autobiographical works by women artists.l' affiliated with I.ffFAIMomen's Center for Leanring, 1985. CeresGallery, New York, NY. New York FeministArt Institute

"The Advertisementfor Opening. Political is Personal." Work by Women Artists Affrliated with i.flTAVWomen's Centerfor Learning, 1987.Ceres Gallery, NY. New York FeministArt Institute

Photo, "Anais Nin and Judy Chicagoat OpeningNight at the Woman's Building, November 28, 1973." Women'sArt Registry

Case11: FeministArt and the DomesticEnvironment

"Wages for housework." New York Wagesfor HouseworkCommitlee. Heresies, Issue 9

"Always a bridesmaid,never a bride." SusanE. King. --"Miss SusanElizabeth King announces the publicationof her book Always a Bridesmaid,Never a Bride on Saturday,the fifteenth of April Nineteenhundred and seventy-eight 815 OceanFront Walk: Number 1 Venice, California 90291." l't/'ornen'sArt Registrlt

Art Installation."The Family Wash." MarianneEdwards. Opening Invitation. Fashion Moda. Bronx, NY, July i9, 1980.Women's Art Registry

"Potato. 1979." Beckv Cohen.lI/omen's Caucus for Art

"Tell Me More." CarolLaw. Women'sCaucus for Art

Scuipture."Woman's Work." RhondaRoland Shearer.Catalogue Foreword by John A. Cherol.Essays by ArleneRaven, Rhonda Roiand Shearer, 1995. Women's Art Registry

Nipple cup, SuranSong. Collectionof the artist

)? Case 12: Women Artists' Protests "MOMA Doesn't Always Know Best.", 1984.Women's Caucus for Art "Whitney Mock-ups: . . . 60 to 7 ?" Women's Caucusfor Art/lrlew york City Chapter,c. 1986. "Guggenheim . . . 50 to 2?", c. 1986.Women's Catlctts for Art "Now You SeeUs, Women's Caucusfor ArL 1986." The Museu.mof Modern Art Opens,but not to Women Artists, Pin. Women'sCaucus for Art

3 color phctosof protestat the MOMA, c. i986. I4/omen'sCaucus for Art "Guerilla Photo, Girls, Conscienceof the Art World." II/omen'sArt Registry "Women Sticker. in America Earn Only 213of what men do. Women Artists earn oniy l/3 of what men artistsdo." GuerrillaGvls. lltomen'sCaucusfor Art "Artists Missing in Action." Poster.Double X and Arts Coalition for Equality. Los Angeles,1981. Il/omen'sCaucus for Art

2 black and white photos of protestat the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, July 1981.Women's Caucus for Art "Women Tee-shirt, artiststake overNew York," c. 1986,Women's Caucusfor Art "MOMA, Bannir. Do only white men make art?",1984. Women's Caucus for Art

Case13: \/iolenceagainst Women

Rape-Murder,1973. Ana lv{endieta.From Rape.presented by the Ohio State University Gallery of Fine Art. Dedicatedto the Memory of Ana Mendieta,r,vhose unexpecteddeath orL September 8, 1985,underscores the violencein our society. Hoyt L. SherrnanGaliery. Photo documentation of outdoorperiormance, in iowa City, IA. Women's Caucusfor ,4rt "Minimum SuranSong, Wage Rage:Hit the GlassCeilitrB", 1994.2 photosof performance.Collection of the artist

"$Ie , opposeviolent pornogiaphy." Postcard. Women's Freedom Front. Iowa City, IA, 1986.Women's Art Registry l

IgrkSA45! 250 Feminist Cartoons.An exhibition curatedby A.ris Lang Rosenberg. Vancouver,IlC. UBC FineArts Gailery,1981, Ratgers Art Library

24