Origins
Feminism in art has always sought to change the reception of contemporary art and bring visibility to women within art history and practice. In line with the development of western civilization, art in the west has been built upon white, patriarchal and capitalist values, and while there have always existed women artists, they have largely been omitted from history. Feminism has always existed and, generally speaking, prioritizes the creation of an opposition to this system. Corresponding with general developments within feminism, the so-called "second wave" of the movement gained some prominence in the 1960s and flourished throughout the 1970s.
The Feminist Art Program
One of the first self-proclaimed feminist art classes in the United States, the Feminist Art Program, was started in the fall of 1970 at Fresno State University by visiting artist Judy Chicago. Chicago (born 1939) is an American feminist artist and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces which examine the role of women in history and culture. Chicago's work incorporates skills stereotypically placed upon women artistically, such as needlework, counteracted with stereotypical male skills such as welding and pyrotechnics. Chicago's masterpiece work is a mixed-media piece known as The Dinner Party, which is in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum .
Judy Chicago's installation "The Dinner Party" at the Brooklyn Museum of Art
The Dinner Party is an installation artwork by feminist artist Judy Chicago depicting place settings for 39 mythical and historical famous women.
The students who formed the Feminist Art Program along with Judy Chicago included Susan Boud, Dori Atlantis, Gail Escola, Vanalyne Green, Suzanne Lacy and Cay Lang. The group refurbished an off-campus studio space in downtown Fresno allowing artists to create and discuss their work "without male interference". Participants lived and worked in the studio, leading reading groups and collaborating on art. In 1971, the class became a full-time program at the university.
The program was different than a standard art class. Instead of the typical teaching of techniques and art history, students learned to focus on raising their feminist consciousness. Students would share personal experiences about specified topics like money and relationships. It was believed that by sharing these experiences, students were able to insert more emotion into their artwork. Furthermore, instead of supporting the typical idea of artists being secluded and working as independent "geniuses," the class emphasized collaboration, a radical departure for the time period.
Feminist art movements through the U.S and Europe
During the heyday of second wave feminism, women artists in New York began to come together for meetings and exhibitions. Collective galleries like A.I.R. Gallery were formed to provide visibility for art by feminist artists. The strength of the feminist movement allowed for emergence and visibility of many new types of work by women. Women Artists in Revolution (WAR) formed in 1969 to protest the lack of exposure for women artists. The Ad Hoc Women Artists' Committee (AWC) formed in 1971 to address the Whitney Museum's exclusion of women artists.
There are thousands of examples of women associated with the feminist art movement. Artists and writers credited with making the movement visible in culture include:
- Judy Chicago, founder of the first known Feminist Art Program
- Miriam Schapiro, co-founder of the Feminist Art Program at Cal Arts
- Sheila Levrant de Bretteville and Arlene Raven, co-founders of the Woman's Building
Both Suzanne Lacy and Faith Wilding were participants in all the early arts' programs. Other important names include Martha Rosler, Mary Kelly, Kate Millett, Nancy Spero, Faith Ringgold, June Wayne, Lucy Lippard, Griselda Pollock, and art-world agitators The Guerrilla Girls.
The Women's Interart Center in New York, meanwhile, is still in operation, while the Women's Video Festival was held in New York City for a number of years during the early 1970s. Many women artists continue to organize working groups, collectives and nonprofit galleries in various locales around the world.
From 1980 onward, art historian Griselda Pollock challenged the dominant museum models of art and history so excluding of women's artistic contributions. She helped articulate the complex relations between femininity, modernity, psychoanalysis and representation.
Current Climate
Things are beginning to shift in terms of a more gender balanced art world as postmodern thought and gender politics become more important to the general public. Postmodern feminism is an approach to feminist theory that incorporates postmodern and post-structuralist theory, and thus sees itself as moving beyond the modernist polarities of liberal feminism and radical feminism towards a more intersectional concept of our reality.