[This is the fourth part of a bibliography in five parts on feminist
aesthetics. The bibliography is number 65 in the series
"Wisconsin Bibliographies in Women's Studies" published by
the University of Wisconsin System Women's Studies
Librarian's Office, 430 Memorial Library, 728 State Street,
Madison, WI 53706; email: the Women's Studies Librarian.]
VISUAL ARTS
Alloway, Lawrence. "Women's Art in the 1970's." ART IN AMERICA 64
(1976): 64-72.
Alloway lauds the politics and social engagement of feminist
art practice--in women's exhibitions, organizations, and co-
ops--but he describes feminist art theory as woefully behind
the practice. Limited by a narrow definition of feminism as
collective action, he criticizes feminist art theory--from
concepts of "central imagery" to reevaluations of women's
"crafts"--for focusing on elements that are not exclusive to
women's art. Thus he excludes shifts in representation and
interpretation as a means of political change.
Alpers, Svetlana. "Art History and Its Exclusions: The Example of
Dutch Art." Broude and Garrard 183-199.
Alpers argues that we must rewrite art history, not to include
women, but to analyze the historical construction of meaning
that affects concepts of women. Alpers compares Italian
painting to Dutch painting, describing the fifteenth-century
Italian aesthetic, which she considers the basis of current
Western aesthetics, as one of mastery and possession, and the
Dutch as one of presence and process.
Barry, Judith, and Sandy Flitterman. "Textual Strategies: The
Politics of Art-Making." SCREEN 21 (1980): 35-48.
Barry and Flitterman discuss four categories of women's art:
art that glorifies an essential female power, art that
celebrates an alternative woman's tradition, art that
considers women's cultural activity as excluded from a
monolithic patriarchal culture, and art that analyzes the
social representations of women. Favoring the last category,
they argue that this art exploits existing social
contradictions and actively engages the viewer in the
construction of social meanings, thus creating the possibility
of representations and cultural change.
Berger, John. WAYS OF SEEING. London: British Broadcasting
Corporation, 1972.
In this complex but highly accessible work, Berger connects
the commodification of art to the commodification of women and
of representations of women. Berger exposes the social
underpinnings of aesthetic judgments by analyzing visual
representations as a means of conferring status and conveying
a sense of power to the viewer.
Betterton, Rosemary, ed. LOOKING ON: IMAGES OF FEMININITY IN THE
VISUAL ARTS AND MEDIA. London: Pandora, 1987.
In this anthology, Betterton has gathered articles that
analyze the still image in advertisements, news media, fine
art, and pornography, bringing feminist theories to issues of
representation and the social construction of femininity.
Bonney, Claire. "The Nude Photograph: Some Female Perspectives."
WAJ 6.2 (1985/86): 9-14.
Bonney discusses nude photography in terms of its revision of
the concepts of femininity as represented by pose, activity,
and erotic energy.
Broude, Norma. "Miriam Schapiro and `Femmage': Reflections on the
Conflict Between Decoration and Abstraction in Twentieth-Century
Art." Broude and Garrard 315-329.
Schapiro's "femmage"--her "collage" of and collaboration with
traditional women's arts--is, according to Broude, a challenge
to the distinction between the "merely" decorative "low" arts,
usually associated with women, and the more "meaningful"
abstract "high" art of (usually) male artists. Broude notes
the irony that makes the "content" of Schapiro's decorative
arts important as a statement about the need to include art
forms without "content."
Broude, Norma and Mary D. Garrard, eds. FEMINISM AND ART HISTORY:
QUESTIONING THE LITANY. New York: Harper & Row, 1982.
The editors of this book of essays consider feminism in art
history "an adjustment of historical perspective." The essays
explore the impact of feminism on art history by reassessing
values and historical contexts from the classical to the
contemporary periods in Western art. See Alpers, Broude,
Comini, Duncan, and Mainardi.
Brunet, Monique. "Le banquet au feminin: THE DINNER PARTY." CWS
1.3 (1979): 9-10.
Brunet critiques Judy Chicago's work on THE DINNER PARTY,
arguing that Chicago undermines the implicit objective of
raising "feminine" art forms to the level of "high" art by
leaving the 400 men and women who worked on the project
unheralded, regaling the "conceptual artist" as "Goddess" and
creator while the "artisans" or workers are merely tools.
This places the physical craft below the conceptual, as well
as offending the feminist ethic/aesthetic of attribution.
Caldwell, Susan Havens. "Experiencing THE DINNER PARTY." WAJ 1.2
(1980/81): 35-37.
Caldwell responds primarily to the religious symbolism--
Christian symbolism suggesting the sacrificial nourishment
provided by women--and the "religiosity" in the work's
emotional appeal, which together with the collaborative
effort, suggest to Caldwell a parallel with the construction
of a cathedral in the middle ages, the creation of an art form
"meaningful" to the entire community.
Chadwick, Whitney. WOMEN, ART, AND SOCIETY. London: Thames and
Hudson, 1990.
In this feminist reevaluation of art history, Chadwick infuses
her overview of Western women's art with considerations of
social contexts, aesthetic expectations, and concepts of
"femininity," concluding with discussions of feminism,
postmodernism, and political change in women's art.
Chicago, Judy. THROUGH THE FLOWER: MY STRUGGLE AS A WOMAN
ARTIST.
Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1977.
Representing herself as exemplar, Chicago traces her growth
from an awareness of her individual womanhood to her
comprehension of social gender structures, in the art world
and in heterosexual relationships. She avers that as a
teacher and artist, she has a social responsibility to depict
women's values and world view through the form and imagery of
her art and by choosing to work outside of the male
institutions of art.
Comini, Alessandra. "Gender or Genius? The Woman Artists of German
Expressionism." Broude and Garrard 271-291.
Comini reassesses the German expressionist movement by
bringing into its history and definition the works of three
women artists--Kathe Kollwitz, Paula Modersohn-Becker, and
Gabriele Munter. She argues that the exclusion of these women
misrepresents the movement, and that Kollwitz in particular
expresses a more socially conscious side of expressionism.
de Bretteville, Sheila Levrant. "A Reexaminination of Some Aspects
of the Design Arts from the Perspective of a Woman Designer." ARTS
IN SOCIETY 11 (1974): 114-123.
De Bretteville argues that complexity and the use of
fragmentary elements in design evoke the participation of the
viewer and thereby undermine authoritarian control. She
suggests that these, and other, "female" values presented in
visual and physical forms can break down socially constructed
divisions between male and female, work and leisure, public
and private.
Duncan, Carol. "When Greatness Is a Box of Wheaties." ARTFORUM 14
(1975): 60-64.
Duncan describes Nemser's book of interviews, ART TALK, as an
act of exploitation of the artists that forces their voices
into Nemser's social discourse and art history agenda. She
argues that Nemser uses the interviews to attempt to prove her
thesis that women are as "great" as men--and greatness is
inherent and universal--but that men have tried to suppress
their importance.
---. "Happy Mothers and Other New Ideas in Eighteenth-Century
French Art." Broude and Garrard 201-219.
Duncan incorporates the writing and painting of eighteenth-
century France to reckon with the economic and social
development of the family and its representations in
paintings, thus delineating the processes by which
representation is interwoven with historical forces.
Feinberg, Jean, Lenore Goldberg, Julie Gross, Bella Lieberman, and
Elizabeth Sacre. "Political Fabrications: Women's Textiles in 5
Cultures." HERESIES 4 (1978): 28-37.
Interested in "the politics of art and aesthetics" the five
authors analyze works in different cultures within the
contexts, "both real and ideological," of the work's
production, while avoiding assessments of quality and the
imposition of contemporary Western notions of oppression on
the women discussed.
Friedlander, Judith. "The Aesthetics of Oppression: Traditional
Arts of Women in Mexico." HERESIES 4 (1978): 3-9.
Commenting on the feminist aesthetic that wishes to reevaluate
folk and women's arts, Friedlander warns that we must be aware
of the real consequences in women's lives of preserving
traditional arts (her example is cooking). While traditional
arts may exemplify the undervalued artistry of women, they may
also carry with them the traditional overburdening of women as
workers in the home and must not be idealized as "timeless,
authentic female culture."
Garrard, Mary D. "Feminism: Has It Changed Art History?" HERESIES
4 (1978): 59-60.
Garrard argues that feminism should do more than attend to
previously ignored women's achievements. Feminist art history
must expose the politics of female exclusion and conceptions
of femininity that have shaped the entire discourse on art.
Gouma-Peterson, Thalia, and Patricia Mathews. "The Feminist
Critique of Art History." THE ART BULLETIN 69 (1987): 326-357.
Gouma-Peterson and Mathews' article is both a historical
overview and an incisive analysis of methodology, valuable for
its scope, in the writers treated, and for its extensive
footnotes. The authors argue that from the first to the
second generation of feminist art criticism and history, the
question of aesthetics has moved from one of a "female
sensibility" to considerations of "representation and gender
difference." They favor deconstructive approaches, since
they see the "unfixing" of the category of femininity, in its
relations to class and race, as the most progressive means to
undermine the ideological constructions that fix social
categories and social roles.
Hammond, Harmony. "Horseblinders." HERESIES 9 (1980): 45-47.
Hammond writes that "feminism is not an aesthetic," arguing
that a "feminist visual rhetoric" that associates a particular
style with feminism, is restrictive and divisive, rather than
a stimulation to feminist art and women's creativity.
Hess, Thomas B., and Elizabeth Baker, eds. ART AND SEXUAL
POLITICS: WOMEN'S LIBERATION, WOMEN ARTISTS, AND ART
HISTORY. New
York: Macmillan, 1973.
This book begins with Linda Nochlin's signal essay, "Why Have
There Been No Great Women Artists?," an essay important both
for its assertion that art history must examine social and
institutional practices that shape artistic opportunity and
conceptions of the artist, and for its central role in
redirecting debate in feminist art history. The essays in the
rest of this book, various responses to Nochlin's essay or her
title's question, rarely carry the debate out of a liberal,
ahistorical analysis.
Hudson, Christine. "Pour une approache feministe de l'histoire de
l'art." CWS 1.3 (1979): 4-5.
Hudson suggests that to find a feminist approach to art
history, the historical reasons for women's exclusion from art
production and from the historical annals of art should be a
part of the art historical analysis, while at the same time
the current material conditions that continue such exclusions
should be addressed.
Jaudon, Valerie, and Joyce Kozloff. "`Art Hysterical Notions' of
Progress and Culture." HERESIES 4 (1978): 38-42.
To expose assumptions of art history and to pinpoint the
importance of language in shaping the concepts of the
discipline, Jaudon and Kozloff compile quotations from art
historians revealing the sexist basis of their judgments.
Kahr, Madlyn Millner. "Women as Artists and `Women's Art.'" WAJ
3.2 (1982/83): 28-31.
Kahr is against creating a category of "women's art," decrying
the "special pleading and extravagant claims" she feels have
been made under its rubric. She feels that women should fight
for "equal but not preferential treatment" rather than
ghettoize themselves and relegate themselves to "women's
work."
Kampen, Natalie B. "Women's Art: Beginnings of a Methodology." FAJ
1.2 (1972): 10+.
Kampen argues that female artists are like female workers, and
aesthetic standards and definitions of quality must move from
purely formal to social, historical, and psychological
considerations to deal adequately with women's art.
Kraft, Selma. "Cognitive Function and Women's Art." WAJ 4.2
(1983/84): 5-9.
Using scientific data Kraft argues that "there is a
particularly female way of processing information and that
this sensibility reveals itself in art which emphasizes
intervals and arrangements of repeated motifs." Despite her
caution, she implies that this phenomenon is transcultural and
transhistorical.
Kramer, Marjorie. "Some Thoughts on Feminist Art." WOMEN AND ART
1.1 (1971): 3.
Kramer argues against any inherent qualities of femininity,
and against any assertions of a feminine aesthetic,
sensibility, or form. She writes that feminist art is a
result of a feminist consciousness, it is figurative rather
than abstract, and it is recognizable as a social statement.
Krauss, Rosalind E. L'AMOUR FOU: PHOTOGRAPHY AND SURREALISM.
New
York: Abbeville Press, Publishers, 1985.
Krauss calls surrealist photography a scandal and a
contradiction, since it tampered with the conception of
photography as a direct witness of the real, and it revealed
that the object of photography is always manipulated. Using
texts by Lacan, Freud, and Barthes, along with numerous
photographs, Krauss poses the canonized surrealism of Breton
against that of Bataille, showing how the female body as the
"form" of formalist aesthetics is used by surrealists to
interrogate representation.
Kuspit, Donald B. "Betraying the Feminist Intention." ARTS
MAGAZINE 54 (1979): 124-126.
Kuspit defines the "feminist intention" in art as an unmasking
of the ideological character of art, apparently making art
practice inseparable from feminist art criticism. He attacks
feminist decorative art as an authoritarian art that posits a
pure, absolute, and idealistic order, demanding uncritical
submission by the viewer.
Lauter, Estella. WOMEN AS MYTHMAKERS: POETRY AND VISUAL ART
BY
TWENTIETH CENTURY WOMEN. Bloomington: Indiana University Press,
1984.
Through analysis of six twentieth-century women artists, and
overviews of works by many other women artists, Lauter argues
that visual as well as verbal artists can change cultural
codes by altering mythology and creating new mythic images.
---. "`Moving to the Ends of Our Own Rainbow': Steps Toward a
Feminist Aesthetic." PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES IN ART. Ed. Patricia H.
Werhane. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1984. 537-
543.
Lauter discusses Lippard's essays as formulations of a new
aesthetic theory that redefine art as gendered, inclusive, and
part of a dialogue with its audience, breaking down the
separation between the social and aesthetic aspects of art.
Linker, Kate. "Eluding Definition." ARTFORUM 23.4 (1984): 61-67.
Linker argues that theories of psychoanalysis and
deconstruction can find rich applications to contemporary
women's art, since many artists depict the dismantling of the
centered self and fixed categories of meaning, and the
construction of gendered subjectivity within shifting social
and ideological forces. [She concludes that "in this
questioning of meaning's autonomy we recognize a dagger
directed at a tenet of Western esthetics that artworks are
unified structures, enduring objects, expressions of the
creative subject."]
Lippard, Lucy R. FROM THE CENTER: FEMINIST ESSAYS ON WOMEN'S
ART.
New York: E.P. Dutton, 1976.
In one of the early works of feminist art criticism, Lippard
intends "to help forge a separate feminist esthetic
consciousness." Her essays, written between 1970 and 1975,
explore many exciting directions of feminist art in the 70s,
from the creation of the L.A. Woman's Building to the new
conceptual art, from discussions of female imagery to the work
of individual artists. Her approach includes many cultural
and artistic evaluations while never forgetting the economic,
material, and practical concerns of women artists.
---. GET THE MESSAGE? A DECADE OF ART FOR SOCIAL CHANGE.
New
York: E.P. Dutton, 1984.
In her most recent collection of essays, Lippard elaborates on
the conjunction of art, feminism, and left politics.
Especially interested in overtly political art, she writes
about the Art Workers' Coalition, street art, performance art,
and murals, addressing the purposes of art and how art is
deployed in the world, from the institutional commodification
of art to the potential for art to stimulate social change.
Loeb, Judy, ed. FEMINIST COLLAGE: EDUCATING WOMEN IN THE
VISUAL
ARTS. New York: Teaching College Press, 1979.
The essays in this book cover a wide variety of topics and
approaches, concentrating on examinations of the role of
institutions in shaping aesthetics, both in art education and
reception. For example, in the article, "The Male Artist as
Stereotypical Female," June Wayne concentrates on the ways
that society uses aesthetic judgments--of women and art--to
isolate and deny artists power, while in the article, "The
Pink Glass Swan," Lucy R. Lippard discusses the use of
aesthetics to designate and separate by social class.
London, Julia, and Joan Howarth. "Evolution of a Feminist Art
Working with WAVAW." HERESIES 6 (1979): 86-88.
This article describes the shaping of a media event as a model
for effective "radical intervention of artists in society."
The editorial statement that follows this article elaborates
on the media's power to shape representation and communicate
social concepts, underlining the importance of controlling the
representation of one's ideas.
Mainardi, Patricia. "Quilts: The Great American Art." Broude and
Garrard 331-346.
Mainardi describes quilts as universal female art forms and
part of women's cultural heritage that have played a role in
female creativity, community, cooperation, and communication.
Although the mainstream art world still excludes them from the
designation of Art, quilts address issues of originality and
tradition, individuality and collectivity, content and values
in art, and the feminine sensibility.
---. "Feminine Sensibility: An Analysis." FAJ 1.2 (1972): 9+.
Mainardi reviews elements of a feminine sensibility as they
were discussed in a conference. The heated debate over these
issues is quieted in this inclusive and non-judgmental review.
Moss, Irene, and Lila Katzen. "Separatism: The New Rip-Off." FAJ
2.2 (1973): 7+.
Moss argues that art and art standards are universal and that
separatism is against the natural order in which both sexes
participate equally. Katzen argues that separatism creates
unrealistic expectations for women and causes them to lose
their competitive role in the mainstream art world.
Nemser, Cindy. "Art Criticism and Gender Prejudice." ARTS MAGAZINE
46.5 (1972): 44-46.
Nemser condemns gender-charged sexist language by male art
reviewers, calling for new critical language. She cites
psychological tests to argue that intellect and creativity are
ungendered, and she concludes that only "reactionary female
chauvinists" would claim that biology or cultural conditioning
differentiate male and female art.
---. "Stereotypes and Women Artists." FAJ 1.1 (1972): 1+.
Nemser decries stereotypical categories that male reviewers
use to undermine the power of women's art. Nemser concludes
her article by denying a different feminine sensibility, based
on the most egregious formulations of that sensibility
delineated by hostile male reviewers.
---. "The Women Artists' Movement." FAJ 2.4 (1973-74): 8-10.
In her historical overview of women artists organizing in the
years 1969 to 1973, Nemser challenges both the male
establishment and the women working toward concepts of a
female aesthetic. She limits the term feminist to those who
are seeking to expose male sexism and are working to have
women included in the male art structures.
---. "Towards a Feminist Sensibility: Contemporary Trends in
Women's Art." FAJ 5.2 (1976): 19-23.
In this article, Nemser rejects the possibility of a
"feminine" sensibility, concentrating instead on "feminist art
as a doctrine of equal rights for women in the aesthetic
area." She argues that this "feminist" sensibility is evident
in any art in which "women's immediate personal experience" is
expressed.
Nochlin, Linda. WOMEN, ART AND POWER AND OTHER ESSAYS. New
York:
Harper & Row, 1988.
Nochlin's collected essays conclude with her pivotal 1971
essay, "Why Are There No Great Women Artists?" in which she
challenges the notion of inherent genius by raising the many
issues of social and institutional situations, such as the
exclusion of women from studying the nude and social dictates
of feminine behavior. In her later essays, Nochlin expands on
her social and institutional analysis: in one essay, she
describes Berthe Morisot's depiction of a wet nurse as a
deconstruction of the sacred mother-child dyad and, in her
title essay, she reads the narrative and iconographic levels
of paintings to reveal their ideological messages on the
conjunction of women, art, and power.
Owens, Craig. "The Discourse of Others: Feminists and
Postmodernism." THE ANTI-AESTHETIC: ESSAYS IN POST MODERN
CULTURE.
Ed. Hal Foster. Port Townsend, WA: Bay Press, 1983. 57-82.
In exploring the intersection of the feminist critique of
patriarchy and the postmodernist critique of representation,
Owens finds psychoanalytic and deconstructive theories useful,
but he cautions against the limitations of any single
theoretical discourse. Owens argues that the exposure of
invisible power structures is not an adequate explanation of
many contemporary women visual artists, and he discusses their
works as forms of representation that destabilize identity,
refuse appropriation, and undermine authoritative
subjectivity.
Parker, Rozsika. THE SUBVERSIVE STITCH: EMBROIDERY AND THE
MAKING
OF THE FEMININE. London: The Women's Press, 1984.
Parker traces the history of embroidery as a sign of the
shifting ideology of femininity from medieval to contemporary
England. Through an economic and social perspective, she
discusses how embroidery was depicted and what it depicted,
how embroidery was used to train girls in femininity, and how
it has been used to express rebellion against social
definitions.
Parker, Rozsika, and Griselda Pollock. OLD MISTRESSES: WOMEN, ART
AND IDEOLOGY. New York: Pantheon Books, 1981.
In their book, Pollock and Parker analyze the ideological
forces that shape the discourse of art history to discover
"Why modern art history ignores the existence of women
artists." Through a historical and structural analysis of the
representation of women and artists from the nineteenth
century to the present, the authors find that artists are
increasingly associated with social and intellectual
independence and genius attributed to masculinity, while women
are represented as homebound, dependent, and mentally fixed.
The authors conclude that in women's relation to traditional
institutions, as well as in their own art practice, women
artists can expose and deconstruct these ideological
constructions by changing, to quote Lippard, "the way art is
seen, bought, sold, and used in our culture."
---. FRAMING FEMINISM: ART AND THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT 1970-85.
London: Pandora, 1987.
This anthology, based on "a correlation between the value
system that sustains the institutions of art and the sexual
division that structures our society," constructs the
historical context for British art criticism and practice in
the 70s and 80s. The selections, almost one-third of which
are by the editors, emphasize feminist deconstructive and
materialist critical approaches, as in Pollock's argument
against "Images of Women" criticism, complemented by Parker's
"Images of Men."
Peel, Giovanna. "A Room of One's Own: A Case for Women's
Architecture." CWS 3.3 (1982): 44-45.
Peel contends that women have a more "traditional" aptitude
for architectural construction because they have
"traditionally" dominated home spaces and because the
construction of homes is a long dormant female occupation.
Pollock, Griselda. "Women, Art and Ideology: Questions for
Feminist Art Historians." WAJ 4.1 (1983): 39-47.
Pollock argues for an adaptation of Marxist forms of analysis
in feminist art history, shifting art historians' focus from
descriptive histories to an analysis of art in its historical
context, to show how art production is affected by ideology
and how it expresses ideological assumptions.
---. VISION AND DIFFERENCE: FEMININITY, FEMINISM AND THE
HISTORIES
OF ART. London: Routledge, 1988.
Pollock declares that feminism has brought about a paradigm
shift in art history that exposes previous art history as a
masculinist discourse and that reconceptualizes art as a
social practice. In her essays she employs Marxist and
psychoanalytic discourses to analyze and deconstruct the
social construction of femininity and woman in artistic
representations.
Rabinovitz, Lauren. "Issues of Feminist Aesthetics: Judy Chicago
and Joyce Wieland." WAJ 1.2 (1980/81): 38-41.
Comparing Wieland's TRUE PATRIOT LOVE to Chicago's DINNER
PARTY, Rabinovitz defines five aspects of feminist aesthetic
value: that the work encourages "active artistic
participation" by the viewer/reader, that artists work
cooperatively on an equal status, that traditional women's
crafts are considered art, that female imagery be used without
misappropriation or objectification, and that the
contradictions inherent in making images into "art" be dealt
with consciously.
Raven, Arlene. CROSSING OVER: FEMINISM AND THE ART OF SOCIAL
CONCERN. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1988.
In this collection of her essays, Raven uses an associational
method to draw together historical events, poetry,
descriptions of works of art, the words of artists, and her
own voice. In her verbal weaving, Raven treats a variety of
topics and individual artists, discussing spirituality and
ethnicity, concepts of home, and the battle against rape.
Using feminism to cross over traditional boundaries--between
artistic and political commentary, between critical and poetic
writing--her essays merge artistic and social concerns.
Raven, Arlene, and Ruth Iskin. "Through the Peephole: Toward a
Lesbian Sensibility in Art." CHRYSALIS 4 (1978): 19-26.
In a dialogue between Raven and Iskin, Raven attempts to
broaden the idea of a lesbian sensibility by considering
lesbianism as a model for all feminists, as a symbol of a
woman who takes risks, is in control of her life, and who is
the source of her own artistic creation, and she suggests that
the lesbian sensibility "reflects a new process, form, and
content," though she does not elaborate on this idea.
Raven, Arlene, Cassandra L. Langer, and Joanna Frueh. FEMINIST ART
CRITICISM: AN ANTHOLOGY. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1988.
The essays in this book, organized chronologically from 1973
to 1987, utilize a variety of theoretical approaches, while
addressing Chicana art, African American women's performance
art, erotic art, cinema, and general theories of feminist art
criticism. Despite their differences, all of the theoretical
approaches--Marxist, psychoanalytic, deconstructive, etc.--
implicate a social dimension as basic to feminist aesthetic
considerations.
Richert, Shirley Kassman. "From Women's Work to Art Objects." FAJ
2.1 (1973): 17.
Richert describes women's creative work in quilts, weaving,
pottery, basket weaving, and leather as work that has been
aesthetically ignored and undervalued because it is
traditionally private, women's work, created for use rather
than solely for display.
Robinson, Hilary, ed. VISIBLY FEMALE: FEMINISM AND ART. New York:
Universe Books, 1988.
This anthology opens up a number of dialogues in feminist art
criticism, such as that between Griselda Pollock and Ann
Sutherland Harris about ideology in art. It covers views,
from archetypal theory and psychoanalytic theory, develops
positions from black and lesbian women artists, and delves
into issues such as definitions of pornography, as in the
article entitled "Towards a Feminist Erotica."
Rom, Cristine C. "One View: THE FEMINIST ART JOURNAL." WAJ 2.2
(1981/82): 19-24.
Rom reviews the historical position and editorial policies of
THE FEMINIST ART JOURNAL, criticizing the magazine's editors,
and especially Cindy Nemser, for excluding many important
currents in the feminist art movement and silencing many
questions regarding feminist aesthetics and historical
analysis by labeling "right wing" the efforts of many radical
and separatist feminist artists and critics.
Rosenberg, Avis Lang. "PORK ROASTS: 250 FEMINIST CARTOONS." CWS
3.3 (1982): 30-33.
In her review of an art exhibit and the accompanying catalogue
of feminist cartoons, Rosenberg describes as "feminist"
cartoons that show an awareness and exposure of the ways in
which gender shapes experiences and perceptions in the
situations depicted. She also insists that the gender
patterns that create male privilege, and not men per se, are
being "roasted."
Sawyer, Janet, and Patricia Mainardi. "A Feminine Sensibility? Two
Views." FAJ 1.1 (1972): 4+.
Sawyer believes that there exists a collective female
unconscious, untainted by "male" consciousness, that women
must tap to find a female sensibility. Mainardi calls those
who are developing a female aesthetic, the "right wing of the
women artists' movement," describing them further as
opportunistic, reactionary, and upholders of biological
determinism. She avers that "Feminist Art" is political art,
much different than a "feminine sensibility."
Schapiro, Miriam, and Judy Chicago. "Female Imagery." WOMANSPACE
JOURNAL 1.3 (1973): 11-14.
Schapiro and Chicago argue that certain forms in women's art,
especially the "central core" iconography, reflect the
biological form of female sexuality and that these forms
reverse the way the culture sees women and they assert female
values--such as "softness, vulnerability and self-exposure"--
in art.
Tickner, Lisa. "The Body Politic: Female Sexuality & Women Artists
since 1970." ART HISTORY 1.2 (1978): 236-247.
Against the historical background of the erotic depiction of
women as a mediating sign for the male, Tickner discusses
women's erotic art as a process of de-eroticizing and de-
colonizing the female body by using artistic strategies to
challenge taboos and celebrate female biological processes and
morphology.
Vogel, Lise. "Fine Arts and Feminism: The Awakening
Consciousness." FS 2 (1974): 3-37.
Vogel begins this early analysis of feminist art history with
a painstaking critique of Hess and Nochlin's WOMAN AS SEX
OBJECT. With a clear eye for economic factors, and the social
and analytical implications of class, race, and gender, Vogel
outlines directions for feminist art teachers and historians.
Watterson, Georgia. "When My Vision is Cohesive, I Draw: Banahonda
Kennedy-Kish (Bambi)." CWS 3.3 (1982): 20-22.
As a Native artist, Bambi feels her art is intrinsically bound
to balancing the white and native cultures she lives with.
Her statements as a Native artist are particularly interesting
because they claim for the Native sensibility similar
characteristics that some feminist theorists claim for women,
suggesting that ideological opposition to white patriarchal
culture may influence the choice of identifying
characteristics.
Whelan, Richard. "Are Women Better Photographers Than Men?" ART
NEWS 79 (1980): 80-88.
Whelan argues that the difference between male and female
photographers is socioeconomic rather than aesthetic. He
suggests that social roles imposed on women can help in
photography and photojournalism because photographic subjects
tend to trust or discount women more easily, considering them
less powerful and intrusive than men.
Withers, Josephine. "Three Women Sculptors: Jackie Ferrara, Lila
Katzen, Athena Tacha." FS 5 (1979): 507-8. "Faith Ringgold." FS
6 (1980): 207-212. "Betye Saar." FS 6 (1980): 336-341. "Audrey
Flack: Monumental Still Lives." FS 7 (1981): 524-529. "Musing
About the Muse." FS 9 (1983): 27-29. "In the World." FS 9
(1983): 325-6. "Inuit Women Artists." FS 10 (1984): 85-88. "Jody
Pinto." FS 11 (1985): 379-381. "On the Inside Not Looking Out."
FS 11 (1985): 559-560. "Eleanor Antin: Allegory of the Soul." FS
12 (1986): 117-121. "Revisioning Our Foremothers: Reflections on
the Ordinary. Extraordinary Art of May Stevens." FS 13 (1987):
485-498.
Withers' brief art essays, usually accompanying examples of
the artists' work, contain feminist analyses that elaborate on
various aesthetic considerations. For example, in "Musing
About the Muse" she considers female appropriations of the
nude as a destruction of the active-male-subject/passive-
female-object opposition common in male nudes; in "In the
World" she describes the earthworks of women as "a more
cooperative, organic, and process-oriented modeling." Thus,
Withers opens up many possible considerations of feminist
aesthetics as a dynamic and shifting process of "reading" and
reacting to works of art.
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