Severine Breton Unit 8 essay #3 Word count: 2230

Thursday, March the 4th 2010 Tutors: Alison Green/Mark Irving

Compared to Egypts snail-pace stylistic changes, spreading over three thousand years, the past five centuries of Western art appear as one dizzy kaleidoscope, a MTV of art history where changes prevail over stasis. It is clear that the quickening of socio-political, economic and technological changes that occurred in the modern era favoured a similar acceleration within the art. In the light of the present, the past century, flooded with the waltz of isms fostered by the avant-garde, can be seen as a history of ruptures1 with regard to the canon. According to Francoise Cachin, History has endowed certain paintings with the signal status of inaugurating a new chapter in art. There is a before and an after. This is the case for Picassos Demoiselles dAvignon in the 20th and in the second half of the 19th, rightly or wrongly, the same role was fulfilled by Manets Dejeuner sur lherbe.2 Thus, by provoking a before and an after, rupture implies the possibility of change and breach opening. But changes might not be a rupture per se, for the latter - when confronting the canon - entails more than stylistic shifts. The term canon, from the greek kanon, the rule or standard, stands as an expression of universalized or universal standard of quality.3 Traditionally, the canon is the most significant body of works, thus the most worthy of study. Its process of selection in terms of artists, art events and debates, the art historical canon relies on sexual politics and power relations of sexual difference. 4 For instance, the concept of father of art5 itself emphasizes that Western history is governed by
The word rupture comes from the Latin ruptura, ruptus (break, destroy) from which derives rupes rocky wall-rupestrian. It is interesting to note that the premise of art, cave/rupestrian art has an etymological link with the rupture. 2 Cachin, Francoise. Manet: the influence of the modern. p.48 3 Pollock, Griselda. Differencing the canon. p.3 4 I am referring here to Griselda Pollocks definition of the canon as both a discursive structure and a structure of masculine narcissism within the exercise of cultural hegemony. Preface xiv 5 Western art history designates father figures to benchmark artistic creativity. In other words, the father figures within art history are representative of high art ideals and
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patriarchal power that excludes women. The content of the canon - both historically and culturally specific, depends on certain authorities, philosophies and patriarchal biases in control of the canons production and maintenance. As stated by Simone de Beauvoir: Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with the absolute truth6. Rupturing the canon would imply a reconfiguration of its social structure, hence a complete modification of the epistemological basis of representation. Along with feminism, one of the great influences upon the practice of art history in the 1970s and 1980s has been the advent and the application of post-modern theory. This new way of thinking has sustained a profound questioning of some basic, evaluative absolutes, among them the concept of quality in art, artistic genius and the canon of great art and artists. When Lynda Nochlin wonders Why has art history focused so exclusively on certain individuals and not on others, why on individuals and not on groups, why on artworks in the foreground and something called social conditions in the background rather than seeing them as mutually interactive?7 she asks for Western art canon to be discussed as an ideological discourse whereby its representation of art is seen as constructed. Since women have been excluded from the legitimating backbone of cultural and political identity8, the art historical canons rupture would aim at constructing them new identities, whether it might involve destroying the old ones first. In this essay, I will explore the pluralism and complexities of feminism as an epistemological rupture of the art historical canon understood as a gendered and en-gendering discourse9. Within the wave of postmodernism, female practitioners like Judy Chicago, Sherrie Levine, Cindy Sherman and Barabara Kruger were acknowledged for their direct critique of the homogenous constructs of modernism, particularly patriarchy. Common among these artists was an understanding that a critique of high art institutions simultaneously led to the
constitutes the canon. Such a view illustrates the exclusion of women and the patrilineage embedded within Western art history. 6 De Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex p.175 7 Nochlin, L. Women, Art and Power. p.218-219 8 Pollock, Griselda. Differencing the canon p.3 9 Pollock, Griselda. Differencing the canon. p.26

subversion of the exclusive power given to men within Western art. Foucaults analysis of the role of power in the construction of knowledge and his identification of the body as a site of the operation of power will be of use for considering these artistic practices as illustrating a rupture greater than a mere change in style; feminist interventions reveal a profound attempt to rupture the canon, to subvert the very bases of our thought and knowledge systems, toward a deep recognition of the Eurocentric and phallocentric power politics in which anyone other than white male is an other.

Women have always been visible as objects within culture, but only rarely have they been acknowledge as subjects of cultural production in their own right. The identification of the feminine with the biological nature of the body has been a powerful argument for assigning women a negative role in the production of culture.10 According to this view, women conduct their creative role naturally by having children while men create art.11 It is against this context that feminist artists have claimed the right to speak about, to see womens experience differently, setting their practice as a natural outgrowth of the womens movement. Reclaiming womens histories and their inclusion in the art historical canon brought with it an inevitable need to evaluate the existence of a possible female aesthetic and the influence of gender on artistic endeavours. Since women artists did not have access to the same art world as men, they inevitably used materials from their immediate surroundings. By re-valuing and re-integrating into the fine art domain the historically devalued and often femaledominated ceramic and textile arts, Judy Chicagos installation The Dinner Party

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In light of this patriarchal power, Griselda Pollock argues that the criterion for creativity within art history is gender (male) specific. That is, within Western art history, the male has taken the position of the creator and the female role has been represented in terms of the art object, the model, or as the muse (due to a romantic association with the artist). Pollock, p.21, notes that there is also a biological basis for creativity being gender specific. She states that patriarchal discourse within art history has depicted the male as the creator of art while the female is the procreator. Here, women are undermined not only in terms of their power as procreators but also by being associated with the body, while men are associated with the mind. As the mind (intellect) is valued more than the body within Western culture, male creativity is held to exceed female artistic abilities.
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subverts the hierarchies that exist between art and craft12.

Judy Chicago (American, b. 1939). The Dinner Party Mixed media: ceramic, porcelain, textile. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation, 2002.10. Judy Chicago. Photograph by Jook Leung Photography

On the one hand, the piece stands as a female response to Leonardo da Vincis Last Supper; it honours 999 illustrious women who -no matter their significant cultural contributions- have been written out of history as it was generally recorded and taught in the mid-twentieth century. Every excavation of a forgotten woman changes not just the historical record but also expends the definition of history.13 Chicago raised fundamental questions on art history as a humanistic discipline and those questions that are now affecting its functioning at all levels may eventually lead to its redefinition. Her artistic commitment is genealogical in its design and archaeological in its method: it reminds Foucaults genealogical methodology in the sense that it attempts a diagnosis of the present time, and of what we are, in this very moment in order to questionwhat is postulated as self-evidentto dissipate what is familiar and accepted.14 On the other hand, The Dinner Party
This point is properly developed by Rozsika Parker in The subversive stitch: Embroidery and the making of the feminine. 13 Helene Cixous from Pollock, p.97: If women set themselves to transform History, it can safely be said that every aspect of history would be completely altered. Instead of being made by men, Historys task would be to make woman, to produce her. This quote echoes nicely Simone de Beauvoir statement One is not born, but rather become a woman. 14 Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish p.265
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uses womens domestic lives, symbolized by the diner table, to celebrate womens history and creativity. Chicago worked with 200 traditional craftspeople15 to create the separate elements, from china painting to embroidery, that went into the 39 place settings: each consists of a unique ceramic plate and accompanying linens that bear the name and identifying symbols of illustrious women.

Judy Chicago (American, b. 1939). The Dinner Party (Mary Wollstonecraft and Sojourner Truth place settings), 197479. Mixed media: ceramic, porcelain, textile. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation, 2002.10. Judy Chicago. Photograph by Jook Leung Photography

Her piece is a social and critical ontology of the present, for it involves an analysis of the historical limits imposed on us in order to create the space for an experiment with the possibility of going beyond them.16 In that sense, Chicago tackles the Eurocentric myth within the Western art canon and grants its official or dominant history with profound knowledge about womens condition and situation.17 This, coupled with advent of psychoanalysis, affects the art historical canon by questioning the assumptions of patriarchal law.

Foucault, M. On the genealogy of ethics: an overview of work in progress in The Foucault reader, p.50 17 Chicagos installation answers positively the question asked by Pollock Is Feminism to intervene to create a maternal genealogy to compete with the paternal lineage and to invoke the voice of the Mother to counter the text of the Father enshrined by existing canons? p.6.
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Feminists art practice gives prominence to the myriad of forms sexist ideologies can assume within cultural artifacts; their work pinpoints how culture contributes actively to the production of those same ideologies. A piece like You Invest in the Divinity of the Masterpiece by Barbara Kruger the 1st contemporary woman artist to be part of Jansons History of Art- matters for its denunciation of modernist myths persistence with their economic and mental structures. Indeed, those words appear over a enlarged detail of the creation scene from the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Not only her piece parodies our appreciation for work of art, but also

1982. Photostat, 71 3/4 x 45 5/8" (182.2 x 115.8 cm). Acquired through an Anonymous Fund. 2010 Barbara Kruger

reflects on artistic production viewed as a contract between fathers and sons. As a postmodern female photographer, Levine also subverts father figures within the Western art canon by challenging the gender specific notion of originality within modernism. Thus, she critiques the phallocentrism inherent in the art canon and the way in which Western art history perpetuates the concept of patriarchy as the

universal norm. Through her photographic appropriations of existing reproductions of canonized masters of photographic modernism such as Edward Westons nude studies of his son Neil posing as a classical Greek torso, Levine points out the interweaving occurring between the politic of sexual discrimination and other forms of politics. By changing the title of the selected art selected artwork, she also subverts the art canons ideal of authenticity and authorship.

Sherrie Levine, Photograph After Edward Weston, photograph, 1980.

In that sense, the linguistic adjacency of author and authority, of propriety and appropriation, undermined by her subversive feminist action, remind us that the work of arts status as a transportable good- and the male artists status as a god, author of his creation- are indeed manifestation of both patriarchy and system of propriety. Her photograph disqualifies herself from artistic acclaim or the possibility of her work being a masterpiece -in the traditional sense18. This is an important strategy: in order to challenge the dominant position of the father, the critique itself cannot be done from a position of dominance. Additionally, by renouncing the notion of originality, Levines statement subverts the art canon traditional measures of value or merit: a copy may hold greater value than an original because it may embody
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Weintraub, L. Art on the Edge and Over: Searching For Arts Meaning in Contemporary Society 1970s-1990s, p.251

possibly a more profound artistic concept19. Also, as Levine makes reproductions of preexisting reproductions, rather than of originals, she questions the discourse of appropriation itself. According to Weintraub, Levines practice is both within art and without. To that extend, Levine ruptures with the parameters of modern art; she positions herself beyond the art canon by deconstructing the patriarchal power that governs it. As a matter of fact, another ambition leaded by feminism is a project of destruction of the representation. If Michele Montrelay is right when stating that women are at the root of the ruin of representation20, it might be then the time for women artists to take this statement literally. In this connection, Cindy Shermans practice based on impersonating scores of female stereotypes - exemplifies the feminist shakeout of the art historical canon. In Untitled History Painting #205, Sherman photographs herself in a way that mimics the considered canonical master painting La Fornarina by Raphael.

right: Cindy Sherman. Untitled. 1989.Color photograph, 51 4. Courtesy Metro Pictures, New York.

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Weintraub, L Art on the Edge and Over: Searching For Arts Meaning in Contemporary Society 1970s-1990s, p.252 20 Montrelay, Michele. Inquiry into feminity in The Gender Conundrum: contemporary psychoanalytic perspective on feminity and masculinity, p.152

Sherman takes the pose of Raphaels painting of Fornarina while making prominent the artificiality of her undertaken character. Indeed, her appropriation of the Fornarina image by wearing a plastic model of large female breasts suggests the idea of kitsch. As Sherman photographs herself, she subverts the gender hierarchy and compulsory heterosexuality by changing the gender of authorship and disrupting the traditional distinction between the male artist as subject and the female model as object21. She has succeeded in linking photography to its prehistory in painting, while exploring the role of an artist -when this meant almost without exception being male and a genius. The juxtaposition of the real and hyper-real grants her work with a rather strange feeling, echoing that inhabiting anothers body, space and time might be as strange as inhabiting ones own. Insofar as feminist artists like Sherman denature, de-sublimate and therefore delegitimate conventions and protocols that have determined for centuries authoritative forms of ideal representation of feminity, we can consider feminist artistic activity as both a critical and a deconstructive practice. Since the conventional history of art is implicitly or explicitly- a glorificating discourse, feminist art history and its practice can be seen as a praxis that makes discernable the repressions and exclusions supporting cultural production with a discourse that we call history of art.

To conclude, if we admit that artistic production -despite its utopian or transcendental aspirations, despite its specious assumption of a universal subject- has a hand in those systems of power and domination that subdue women and the other Others, then feminist artists and theorists, by challenging the validity and supremacy of the art historical canon, create an epistemological rupture with the latter. These few examples clearly do not exhaust the possibilities of feminist visual practice, but they do illustrate some important ways in which feminism has attempted to rupture not only the visual codes of art, but also the context in which representations of women are seen and used. The issue of representation they call into question has resonance for all aspect of representation, not just the representation of women. The artists I referred to, by inserting themselves within the high art structure,
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Mizeroff, N. Bodyscape, Art, Modernity and the Ideal Figure, p. 132-133

subverted the patriarchal system, hence a radically politicization of the field of cultural production. By persistently inviting us to consider cultural artifacts from the role they play in the assertion and upholding of gender inequality, feminist art contribute to the trivialization of sexist oppressive ideologies. The world has never been gender-neutral, but we no longer live in a fully gender-determined one.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Sources: De Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex. Penguin London (1972) Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish (1977) and The Foucault Reader, edited by Paul Rabinow ed. NY: Pantheon, (1984)

Secondary Sources: Cachin, Francoise. The influence of the Modern. Ed. Harry N. Abrams (1995) Carson, Fiona and Pajaczkowska, Claire. Feminist Visual Culture. Routledge New York (2001) Nochlin, Linda. Why have there been no great women artists in Women, Art and Power and Other Essay, Harper and Row (1988) Mizeroff, N. Bodyscape, Art, Modernity and the Ideal Figure, Routledge, London (1995) Montrelay, Michele. Inquiry into feminity in The Gender Conundrum: contemporary psychoanalytic perspective on feminity and masculinity, Routledge London (1993). Parker, Rozsika. The subversive stitch: Embroidery and the making of the feminine, Womens Press, London (1984) Pollock, Griselda. Differencing the Canon, Routledge, London (1999) Weintraub, L. Art on the Edge and Over: Searching For Arts Meaning in Contemporary Society 1970s-1990s, Arts Institute, New York (1996)

Internet Sources: Moma website www.moma.org [last accessed 1/03/10] Brooklyn Museum website www.brooklynmuseum.org [last accessed 1/03/10] Jstor website www.jstor.org [last accessed 1/03/10]

Wack! Art and the feminist revolution website http://www.moca.org/wack/ [last accessed 1/03/10]