Identity - Feminist History - Female Artists and their Influence

Identity - Feminist History - Female Artists and their Influence

by Mandy Litwin

In an article that was posted on artsy.net titled “How Feminist Photography of the 1970s Paved the Way for Women Artists Today” by Charlotte Jensen, we learn about some major female artists and their influences from the work they created during the 1970s. The discussion begins by mentioning how people may argue that, if it has been done before, it should be left just there.      

The author of this article continues to explain how the effect is just the opposite. Females artists such as Cindy Sherman and Valie Export were both involved in such art movements. At the time, a lot of work being made used the female body to provoke and challenge the viewer. Many works were considered “scandalous”, and some artists were called narcissistic for showing their bodies in these photos.

I would argue that, for this very reason, it is important that work with these same ideals continue to be created today. Further, because of the work done in the past, a sort of platform has been set up to push these issues – e.g., “protests for civil rights and sexual revolution, protests against war.” 

Cindy Sherman did a lot of work that exposed stereotypes, and in her words, “make someone feel bad for having a certain expectation.” She took photos utilizing her self as a model, but did not create self portraits. Rather, she took on various roles and photographed herself playing these roles to point out these traditional expectations.

For someone like Valie Export, performance art was very important. One piece she did was titled Touch Cinema in which she created a small “theater” that attached to her upper body. She walked around various city streets and let people touch inside. She was challenging the ways in which we “engage with the female body on screen.” The link for the video can be seen here.

This article exposed me to some artists that seem to have pioneered an important movement for women in art. In addition, artsy.net proved to be a very useful and informative place to explore the art world.  Connecting artists and artworks by finding similar characteristics is efficient.

Questions:

Do you agree with the idea that “even though it’s been done before,” continuing to push and recreate past work helps strengthen work being made now (within the same subject matter)?

What other feminist artists do you know; not just photographers?