FEMINIST ART AND THE MATERNAL This page intentionally left blank FEMINIST ART AND THE MATERNAL Andrea Liss University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis London Portions of “Th e Body in Question: Rethinking Motherhood, Alterity, and Desire,” New Feminist Criticism: Art, Identity, Action, ed. Joanna Frueh, Cassandra Langer, and Arlene Raven (New York: HarperCollins, 1994), appear throughout this book. Portions of chapters 3 and 4 were previously published as “Maternal Rites: Feminist Strategies,” n. paradoxa 14 (Summer 2004): 24–31. Portions of chapter 4 were previously published in “Who Cares for Mothers?” FRAME–WORK 8, no. 2 (1997), a special issue “Processing Labor: Labor as Process,” guest edited by Steven Callis and Mario Ontiveros. An earlier version of chapter 5 appeared as “Black Bodies in Evidence: Maternal Visibility in Renée Cox’s Family Portraits,” in Th e Familial Gaze, ed. Marianne Hirsch (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1999); copyright 1999 by the Trustees of Dartmouth College; reprinted by permission of the University Press of New England. An earlier version of chapter 6 was published as “Revisioning the Maternal Body: Loving in Diff erence in Ngozi Onwurah’s Th e Body Beautiful,” in Mothers and Daughters: Connection, Empowerment, and Transformation, ed. Andrea O’Reilly and Sharon Abbey (Lanhan, Md., and Toronto: Rowman and Littlefi eld, and Centre for Feminist Research, York University, 2002). Th e poem “Gettin Down to Get Over,” by June Jordan, was fi rst published in June Jordan, New Days: Poems of Exile and Return (New York: Emerson Hall, 1974), and later in June Jordan, Naming Our Destiny: New and Selected Poems (New York: Th under’s Mouth Press, 1989); copyright 1989 by June Jordan; reprinted with kind permission from the June M. Jordan Literary Trust. Every eff ort has been made to obtain permission to reproduce previously published material in this book. If any proper acknowledgment has not been made, we encourage copyright holders to contact the publisher. Copyright 2009 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota All rights reserved. No part of this publication 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 written permission of the publisher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 111 Th ird Avenue South, Suite 290 Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520 http://www.upress.umn.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Liss, Andrea. Feminist art and the maternal / Andrea Liss. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8166-4622-7 (hc : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8166-4623-4 (pb : alk. paper) 1. Motherhood in art. 2. Feminism and art. 3. Women artists. 4. Arts, Modern—20th century. I. Title. NX652.M64L57 2009 704’.042—dc22 2008035895 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Th e University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer. 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 I dedicate this book to the memory of my fi erce and loving maternal grandmother, Anna Friedman, and to the oceanic joys in Miles’s future This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix Th inking (M)otherwise: New Bodies of Knowledge xiii 1. Breaching the Taboo 1 2. Intersubjectivities: Mary Kelly’s Post- Partum Document 23 3. Maternal CARE: Mierle Laderman Ukeles’s Maintenance Art 43 4. Mamas Out of Place 69 5. Making the Maternal Visible: Renée Cox’s Family Portraits 93 6. Loving in Diff erence: Ngozi Onwurah’s Mother–Daughter Refl ections 109 Cultural and Maternal Notes on Living through Breast Cancer 121 7. Maternal Mourning: A Collaboration between Civia Rosenberg and May Stevens 125 In Lieu of a Conclusion: Maternal Passions 145 Notes 155 Bibliography 163 Index 171 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments Many people and organizations have sustained the work embodied in this book. To those who have given so much to me, I thank you here. I would like to express my gratitude to those who have supported my maternal thinking through invitations to contribute to books they edited and conferences they organized. Knowing what was on my mind, Joanna Frueh invited me to write an essay for a book she was coediting, New Feminist Criticism: Art, Identity, Action; “Th e Body in Question: Rethinking Motherhood, Alterity, and Desire” has been crucial to the foundation of my work. Myrel Chernick reprinted a shorter and edited version of this essay in her catalog to the exhibition she curated, Maternal Metaphors, at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Rochester, New York, in 2004, and the essay will have a new life in her forthcoming book, coedited with Jenny Klein, Th e M Word: Real Mothers in Contemporary Art. I appreci- ate the invitation to present my talk “Maternal Ethics in a Contemporary Context” through the Center for Feminist Research, University of Southern California, in 1996. I was pleased to contribute my essay “Who Cares for Mothers?” to the issue of FRAME–WORK, “Processing Labor: Labor as Process,” guest edited by Steven Callis and Mario Ontiveros. For making the joint Art History and Studio Art Session I organized, “Feminist Art and Maternal Representation,” at the College Art Association conference in ix x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Los Angeles, February 1999, such a wonderful event, I thank Jane Lazarre, Ellen McMahon, Hilary Robinson, and the collaborative artists’ group M.A.M.A., composed of Athena Kanaris, Lisa Mann, Deborah Oliver, Lisa Schoyer, and Karen Schwenkmeyer. I am grateful to Marianne Hirsch, who invited me to write my essay “Black Bodies in Evidence: Maternal Visibility in Renée Cox’s Family Portraits” for her edited volume Th e Familial Gaze. I thank Andrea O’Reilly for the opportunity to present a paper on Ngozi Onwurah’s fi l m Th e Body Beautiful at the conference “Mothers and Daughters: Moving into the Next Millennium,” Centre for Feminist Research, York University, Ontario, Canada, September 1997, and for her invitation to write a lon- ger essay, “Revisioning the Maternal Body: Loving in Diff erence in Ngozi Onwurah’s Th e Body Beautiful,” for Mothers and Daughters: Connection, Empowerment, and Transformation. I was pleased by Katy Deepwell’s invita- tion to contribute my essay “Maternal Rites: Feminist Strategies” to the issue “Dreams of the Future” in n. paradoxa. I was delighted to give a presentation on Mierle Laderman Ukeles’s public work on the maternal in the University of Southern California’s Public Art Program Speakers Series, organized by Anne Bray, in March 2006. My gratitude goes to Joanna Frueh for reading the proposal for my book and to Nancy Buchanan for reading the proposal and reviewing the fi nal manuscript; their wise advice, depth of knowledge, and enthusiastic support have been invaluable. I have been blessed by former editor Andrea Kleinhuber’s desire to publish my book with the University of Minnesota Press. Her passion for my work was graceful and fi lled with delight; my gratitude to her is immeasurable. I thank Jason Weidemann for taking over the project. My appreciation goes to Adam Brunner for his careful work with the artists’ images and permissions. My colleagues at California State University San Marcos have unstint- ingly supported my work on this book through the award of a sabbatical at just the right moment as well as numerous Faculty Development Grants and Research and Creative Activity Awards. For sustained thinking about femi- nist and familial maternal issues, my deepest thanks go to Kristine Diekman, Karen Schaff man, David Avalos, Deborah Small, Merryl Goldberg, Judit Hersko, Vivienne Bennett, and Leah Ollman. My discussions over the years with engaged mother–artist–writers Myrel Chernick and Ellen McMahon have been deeply moving and enriching. I have enjoyed sharing maternal sto- ries with dear friends, each of whom mothers in her own distinctive way: Leslie Krauss- Oakes; artist–mothers E. A. Shull and Carol Young Verheyen; and mother–grandmother–writer Mus White. My thanks also go to Mary Beth Heff ernan, who entered this story at the right moment. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi Th e students of my seminar “Feminist Art and Motherhood” at California State University San Marcos deserve special acknowledgment. Th ey ap- proach this provocative course with their own ambivalences and desires. Feminist reconsiderations of the maternal as a site of feminist knowledge are enriched by their soul- searching thinking and devastatingly honest per- sonal transformations. It continues to amuse me to see my brother as a loving father who takes such good care of his children—my brother, whom I often mistakenly refer to as “your brother” when speaking to his children, so deeply intertwined are our childhood memories and parental subjectivities. It is my delight being aunt and friend to my niece Sarah and nephew Jordan. My unbeliev- ably grown- up niece Holly has shown me maternal care when I have needed it. My mother and friend, Shirley Liss, has given me unbounded love and understanding; both are unrepresentable. Th e spirit of my father, Sidney Joseph Liss, sustains us still. My angelic son Miles’s wisdom and caring be- yond his age have also sustained me over the years: you have given me the joy of being witness to your wondrous transformations. Michael and Miles, you have proved that love is gender- full and gender- free. Th ank you, Michael, for always being there. This page intentionally left blank Introduction Th inking (M)otherwise NEW BODIES OF KNOWLEDGE S of a projected image of a Renaissance Madonna. Th e sinuous line of the Mother Mary’s fl owing gown, her angelic gaze upon her infant son, and the undeniable calm and power of this maternal image make a deep impression on the class.