Influential Feminist Artists

An observation of feminist art

throughout the decades
the sixties…
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954)
•Mexican Painter. From 1926 until her
death, the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo
created striking, often shocking,
images that reflected her turbulent life.
Although she died before 1960 her
recognition did not start until after her
death and she influence many artist.
•Birth Control Pills Approved May 11,
1960 -The Food and Drug
Administration approves birth control
pills for contraceptive use.
•Civil Rights Act of 1964: outlawed
sex discrimination, yet many women
felt that there was little or no
enforcement
•1966, June: Washington, DC, the
creation of the National Organization
for Women
•The purpose of NOW was to take
action in allowing women to fully
participate in American society, and to
exercise all the privileges and
responsibilities, with truly equal
partnership with men
the seventies…
Judy Chicago
• 1971 - Chicago and Miriam Schapiro founded Cal Arts
• (born Judy Cohen) – July 20, 1939
Feminists Art Program for the California Institute of the Arts.
• (changed last name to Chicago Together they organized one of the first ever feminist art
emulating members of the Black exhibitions (Womanhouse Jan 30 - Feb 28 1972)
Panther Party, who believed their • 1973 - co-founded the Feminist Studio Workshop located
given names only reinforced their inside of the LA Women’s Building, a seminal feminist art
“slave” identities) teaching and exhibition space
• Feminist artist, author, educator
• Born in Chicago, IL
• 1957 – moved to LA to attend UCLA
art school.
• 1962 – graduated Phi Beta Kapa
• 1964 – received MA from UCLA in
painting and sculpting
• Major works: The Dinner Party, The
Birth Project, The Holocaust Project
• 1970 – founded first Feminist Art
Program at California State University
Fresno
The Dinner Party (1974-
1979)
• Celebrates traditional female accomplishments (textile art-
•Most famous work - collaboration
weaving, embroidery, sewing)
effort of many female artists
• The white floor under the table is triangular porcelain tiles
•First exhibited in 1979
inscribed with the names of 999 notable women.
•Purpose was to “end the ongoing • Wing I: From Prehistory to the Roman Empire: examples –
cycle of omission in which women Snake Goddess, Primordial Goddess, Fertility Goddess
were written out of the historical
• Wing II: From the Beginnings of Christianity to the
record”
Reformation: examples – Christine de Pisan, Elizbeth I of
•Permanently showcased at the
England, Saint Bridget
Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York
• Wing III: From the American to the Women’s Revolution:
•39 mythical and historical famous
examples – Sacajawea, Sojourner Truth, Emily Dickenson,
women. Georgia O’Keeffe
•The table is triangular and measures
forty-eight feet on each side
•Each place setting features a placemat
with the woman’s name and artworks
relating to her life, with a napkin,
utensils, a glass or goblet, and a plate.
•The plates feature a butterfly or
flower-like sculpture as a vulva
symbol.

Miriam Schapiro
• Born November 15, 1923 in Toronto,
Canada
• Artistic training began at the age of 6,
when her father gave her weekly drawing
assignments.
• 1949 – she received her graduate degree
in art from the University of Iowa
• 1951- moved to New York with her
husband Paul Brach
• During this time she was successful as
an abstract expressionist painter in the
hard edge style
• 1960- she began to switch from the
abstract expressionist brushwork from her
paintings to introducing a variety of
geometric forms. (rectangular window-
like openings in some works were
prophetic of her subsequent Shrine series)
• between 1963 and 1965 – she painted variations on the Shrine
motif: four framed compartments stacked vertically in a narrow
strip and centered in a white rectangular field. Bottom
compartment was a mirror(self-reflection); the next contained an
egg (woman/creator); the third was an image fragment borrowed
from the history of art; and the top frame contained the color god
(aspiration)
• 1967- moved to California, where she taught at UCSD
• Late 1960’s – she experimented with the window form on the
computer with strictly geometric structural compositions.
• 1968 – Big Ox, a pink and orange hexagon frame surrounds a
central open space – four diagonal arms extend out from the
hexagon. She recognized the open central form as a vaginal
iconography, a common theme in many works by woman artists.
• The same year she began to use the computer to design and develop
her paintings.
• 1970 – met Judy Chicago
• 1971- along with Judy Chicago, helped found the Feminist Art
Program at the California Institute of Arts
• stopped painting during this period. Intensely involved in teaching
• 1972 – began to paint again. Introduced the element of fabric
collage. She cut pieces of patterned cloth and combined them with
acrylic paint to create beautifully orchestrated symphony of pattern
and color.
• Femmage – utilizes arts, materials, and techniques that historically
have been associated with domesticity and therefore with women:
quilts, embroidery, lace, crochet, carpets, and fabric design
the eigthies…
Maya Lin

• Straight A student

• Field Zoology as a major

• Art & Architecture as TWO separate

things
Vietnam Veterans
Memorial

• Success at 21

• Controversy

• Objective of the piece

Aerial view of the
Veterans Memorial
"I saw the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
not as an object placed into the earth
but as a cut in the earth that has then
been polished, like a geode.”
The Civil Rights
Memorial

• "Before I even think about form, I

read through a lot of history... I chase
down every single little fact." Maya
Lin, 2000

• Inspiration from a great leader of the

Civil Rights Movement
elements of the earth
connects us

• “Water table”

• Water as a medium
 Other works…
clockwise…

• Wave field

• Systematic Landscapes (now at the

de Young!!)

• Peace Chapel

• Langston Hughes Library

Barbara Kruger

•Syracuse University  Mademoiselle

magazine

•Purposeful abstract work to invoke

response
admits…”I think what I'm trying to do
is create moments of recognition. To
try to detonate some kind of feeling or
understanding of lived experience. ”

Barbara Kruger

• Influences
Stereotypical Representations

Sexuality
Power
Identity
the present…
Sarah Maple

•23 yr old British Artist

•Born to Muslim Mother and Christian

Father

•Raised Muslim

•Very controversial artwork

•Won competition
• YOU & ME

• THE FUTURE
For more information visit:
feministartists.blogspot.com/
Thank you for your attention

Special Thanks to Dr. Bustamante for a wonderful and inspiring semester..!

Our Group: The Gators

Danielle
Laura
Mellessa
Ruth
Michelle