Challenging Society's View of Women: 5 Performance Artists Who Look to Address Social Issues for Women Through Their Art

Contemporary art represents art in the latter half of the 20th century to now. Contemporary art differs from other art eras in the past by being heavily influenced by advancements in technology, modern culture, and global influence. One of the most profound and interesting artforms that have become more prevalent in contemporary art is performance art. Performance art is an art form that is not just to be viewed at, but to also be experienced. This art form transcends the basic capabilities of art by making the spectator a part of the art which in turn, encourages the spectator to not just view the ideas and beliefs of the artist but to engage in those ideas and beliefs of the artist.


Performance art is a profound way to express the artist idea and beliefs to society. One of the most prolific uses of performance art is for women to challenge the ingrained constructs of society as a whole, which many women performance artist looking to do. They look to challenge themes of the perception of a woman and their body, the role of women in society and much more, which is explored through the female artist and is engaged by the spectator.

Yoko Ono, Cut Piece, 1964

Born in Tokyo, February 18, 1933, Yoko Ono is a female contemporary artist who uses her art to challenge the spectators ideas and beliefs. One of Yoko Ono’s most prolific artworks is her performance piece, “Cut Piece” in 1964. This piece is performed by Yoko herself and involves spectators cutting pieces of her close off. In one simple perspective this work shows a female’s clothes being cut off by strangers but their is deeper meaning in this work which shows the view of women being objects. In this piece Yoko is looked at as an object to the spectator, the spectator feels empowered in this situation and do as they please to Yoko. In this piece Yoko represents the view of women in society, they are looked at as objects that can be manipulated to fit the desires of men, which men are represented as the spectators in her performance piece. This type of imagery is compelling because it’s just a static piece of work its living, its real, it showcases the truest and raw nature of society and how it views a woman's place in society compared to men. Yoko’s work also expresses how the male gaze also plays a key role in society, which is represented through the cutting of her close to reveal her naked body to the spectator, which is how they want it and how they want to view it. Yoko challenges these issues by showing the raw impulses and actions of the spectators cutting her clothes for their desires and pleasures. 

Faith Wilding, Waiting,1974

Faith Wilding, born in 1943 in Paraguay and immigrated to the U.S in 1961. She is another contemporary artist whose artworks is more than what is seen but what can be derived from it. One of these artworks is her performance piece, “waiting” in 1974. This piece shows Faith sitting down and talking out loud about waiting for things. The brilliance in her performance piece is that she expresses how a woman needs to wait for a man to do things, a woman needs permission from a man to do things, basically, a woman needs a man so she can do anything in society. This piece shows how females are forced to rely on men to do anything, they have no free will and must “wait” for a man to give them permission. She challenges the social hierarchy by literally forcing spectators to hear these issues head-on by making them uncomfortable and see the true perspective of how women feel in society. 

Marina Abramovic, Rhythm 0, 1974

Marina Abramovic, born in Yugoslavia on November 30, 1946. She is well known for many of her performance pieces that are not only meant to be viewed but to invoke questions and meanings within her performances. One of her most profound performance art pieces, “Rhythm 0” in 1974. In this performance piece, Marina is standing still for 6 hours, while the spectators are allowed to use objects from a table to do whatever they want to her. During this time the spectators took off her close and played around with her and used the objects as they please with her body. This performance showed how once again woman bodies were only viewed as objects, Marina herself is viewed as an object with no sense of humanity to the spectator's eye. This performance challenges the view of woman in society by showcasing the actions of the spectators, the men of society, separating Marina and her humanity and viewing her as just a piece a meat an object they feel justified to manipulate to their own desire. This shows how the spectators feel justified in what they are doing to Marina because society has taught them that women are only meant to please men and doing as you please to women is just part of that belief in society.

Adrian Piper, Cornered, 1988

Born in New York City, September 20, 1948, Adrian Piper is another female contemporary artist who not only addresses female issues in her art but also tackles race and the barriers that a woman of color must face in a predominately white patriarchal society. She showcases these challenges through her performance piece, “Cornered” in 1988. In this piece Adrian filmed herself confronting the spectator about her race and her gender. She makes the viewer uncomfortable in this manner and makes them confront their own demons related to how they may treat women and women of color. This performance challenges society's racial and gender issues by Adrian addressing those issues by speaking about them by forcing the spectator to acknowledge their form of racism and sexism. This piece leaves an impression on the spectator by laying out issues of identity, gender, race, equality, freedom and more that can be extracted from this piece by forcing the spectator to look within themselves and understand the issues women and women of color face.

Tracey Emin, Exorcism of the Last Painting I Ever Made, 1996

Tracey Emin, born on July 3, 1963, in the U.K, is a contemporary female artist whose works showcase the nude female and societies view of the female body. Her art challenges the male gaze of the nude female body and looks to redefine the views of a nude female body in society in order to give power back woman and their bodies. She embodies these issues through her performance piece, “Exorcism of the Last Painting I Ever Made” in 1996. In this performance piece, a naked Tracey locked herself in a gallery room with empty canvas and paint, and some peepholes around for the spectator to view her. This performance is intriguing because it showcases a woman locked up in a gallery room, which can represent how women may feel oppressed in society by males. Another important aspect of this piece is how she is naked, but this time is in control of what she does with her body. Even with that though spectators still view her naked body for their own entertainment. This work challenges social views of women oppression by literally showing Tracey naked and locked in a gallery room, Tracey represents a woman ,while the gallery room can represent a cage that is locked shut by social constructs and views of women, while the spectators represent people going with the flow of society and doing nothing to change it.

Works Cited

https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/yoko-ono-cut-piece-1964/


https://hyperallergic.com/103569/waiting-for-faith-wilding-on-the-internet/


https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/5177


https://www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/book_report/adrian-piper-cornered-dca-53390


https://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/artpages/tracey_emin_painting_6.htm

My visit to the Museum

The hallway towards the Dinner Party was void of art as of Saturday, 27^th of April. I wrapped around the corner and I found a detailed summary of Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party” to the right as well as several banners hanging from the ceiling on the left. While I did look at the description and the banners, I barely processed what it was talking about. Thus, I went into the exhibit blind. At first, I noticed the triangular shaped setting that was backlit underneath and light from the outside was streaming in from the corners. I noticed the inscriptions under the place settings first as they generated the most importance as there was so many of them. Some initial thoughts I had were that they are artists that contributed to the work. While looking around the place settings, I saw a general of how it was set up. It had vulva like imagery that shapes the plate itself and its own cloth linen with a special design. On the linen itself were intricate designs made of different materials, like wood or cloth embroideries with the woman’s name. These designs also seemed to represent their contributions or profession.

            Some specific place settings that I really enjoyed were Ethel Smyth, Trotula, and most of the goddesses that Chicago displayed. Ethel Smyth was a composer and musician that was born in 1858. Her place setting represented it well as it had a piano as a plate and the linen was made from jean material in the form of an overall. What I thought was interesting, looking at it was that the overalls represented the rejection from the professional music world that she was barred out from because of her gender. It also represented her sexuality, as she was a lesbian, so she was more masculine than what people expected.

            Another example would be Trotula, who was a distinguished female scientist that also suffered from the male gaze as well as underrepresentation. Her plate is of science related, due to her profession as a scientist and doctor. The plate is arranged as a stethoscope or a detailed diagram of the vagina to symbolize her profession. The linen cloth under Trotula’s plate is filled with roots, which could be represent the medicine she developed, like medicinal herbs.

            Other than the place settings, I visited the “High-Style American Interiors” where I saw a real modern looking chair. Turns out there was a Herman-Miller chair that I thought was modern, which apparently a prototype for this chair was developed during this era. The Egyptian Museum was also exciting as most of the artifacts were old.  Something that caught my eye was that females weren’t allowed to get mummified so they had to convert the females to males by turning their skin red to designate them as males, as males were the only ones that could be mummified.

5 Women Artist- Sexuality Post

I decided that I wanted to focus on artist that have had traces of sexuality and sexual encounters in their artworks.

 Tracey Emin- Suffer Love 

I wanted to start with the famous Tracey Emin because she has a lot of different work that touch on sexuality. Tracey Emin was born in 1963 and is a british artist. Her artwork is usually provocative and she usually finds inspiration from her own sexual experiences. Some themes that she usually incorporates are rape and abortion. She wrote a book called Strangeland that she shares about her intimate experiences. She also does a lot of charity work that supports women and children in Uganda. She also does a lot of different works to bring attention to HIV/AIDS. Tracey Emin is one of just two women professors to be appointed at London's Royal Academy of Arts since the Academy was founded in 1768.

Suffer Love 

The specific art piece that I wanted to talk about is Suffer Love, executed in 2009, published by White Cube Gallery in London. This piece explores women empowerment because Emin put sexuality in the subject’s own hands. The women in the picture is not letting her pleasure be controlled by another person and is masturbating for herself. In an interview she did, she said that she took art classes for seven years so that her paintings were anatomically correct and therefore more powerful.

Judy Chicago- The Dinner Party 

Judy Chicago was born on July 1939. As a teen she studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and then later on studied UCLA. Judy Chicago was one of the most important contributors to the feminist art movement of the 1970’s. She was inspired to start her feminist work because she was rebelling against a male dominated at world. She wanted to present femininity and women sexuality in her artworks, representing their individual accomplishments. Art forms such as needlework, ceramic decoration, and glass art are central to Chicago's work, often included alongside traditional high art media, such as painting. She has authored different books including “Beyond the Flower: The Autobiography of a Feminist Artist” and “Through the Flower: My Struggle as a Woman Artist.”

Virginia Woolf's Plate Setting at The Dinner Party 

One of Judy Chicago’s most famous works includes The Dinner Party, 1974-1979. The Dinner Party is a triangular table with 39 place settings honoring powerful women in history, acknowledging them as “guests of honor.” It also has the names of 999 other powerful women on the base of the exhibition. I believe that this exhibit focuses on women sexuality because all the plates are designed with a vulvar theme. I want to mention the plate of Virginia Woolf. Virginia Woolf was an author during the 20th century. Virginia Woolf empowered other women, especially women authors that felt that they were suppressed by the male dominated literature world.



Jenny Saville- The Odalisque



Jenny Saville is a British artist and was born on May 1970. She studied at the Glasgow School of art in the late 1980’s. She also had the opportunity to study at the University of Cincinnati for six months. She went back and forth living between the US and the UK, and presenting artwork in each.Around 2003 she moved to Italy and in 2014 she moved to Oxford. She includes themes of motherhood, art history, and ancient mythology. She focuses a lot on the representation of the human body.

The Odalisque

One of her great works is called The Odalisque 2012-2014. I think this artwork is very impressive because it touches upon race and sexuality. I think this painting is very obviously about different race but is yet a stand on the power of sex.



Hannah Wilke- Sweet Sixteen



Hannah Wilke was born on 1940 in New York.  Wilke studied fine art at Temple University in Philadelphia. Wilke is considered the first feminist artist to use vaginal imagery in her work. She wanted to encompass women stereotypes in her work. She would take pictures of herself and critics would confuse that as being egotistical instead of creative. Wilke is considered as a postmodern artist were you reject traditional ideas and challenge the definition of art. She was diagnosed with cancer which became part of her artwork.

Sweet Sixteen

Wilke’s artwork Sweet Sixteen (1978) was an important part of the feminist movement during the late 70’s. There are sixteen parts in this one piece, which all look like different forms of vaginas. This piece was about embracing femininity.





Betty Tompkins- Sex Painting #4



Betty Tompkins was born in 1945 in Washington DC. Tompkins mainly focuses of photographs of close-up imagery of both heterosexual and homosexual intimate acts. She attended Syracuse University and had a teaching job at Central Washington State College. In one set of artworks she used words that generally described women to compose the paintings. She had a series called Fuck Paintings that she made paintings with very close images of genitalia.

I found Sex Painting #4 very interesting because it shows an intimate act that many people consider a fetish.

Sex Painting #4

5 Women Artists

In the beginning of the semester, as curious students not knowing what to expect from the course, we were required to create a mini post about critical artist expression. More specifically, we were to find and research a female artist, who produces controversial mediums of work and addresses cultural, social, or political issues. I was unsure of who to talk about and focus a whole post about, until I did my research (of course, that’s apart of the assignment) and stumbled across a vast majority of incredible female artists, making it hard to just pick one, which sparked my interest through the entire course. It made me want to learn more. It’s so hard to pick just one because they’ve all made a tremendous impact in the art world, breaking ground so that women can have a fair shot in a world dominated mainly by men. I decided to focus more on African American female artist and how they reclaim the identity of Black women in their arts, despite issues of race, sex, and power being seen as a barrier.

Renee Cox

Renee Cox, Chillin' with Liberty, 1998

Taking the assignment all the way back to January brings me to first person out of five other female artists I’d like to acknowledge, Renee Cox. Being a well-known African-American female artist, Renee Cox uses her talent to bring specific issues, that people turn a blind eye to, to the forefronts of our psyche, so that we can acknowledge them, learn more about it, and hopefully do something to remedy the problem. Much of her work addresses problems in regards to black women and their continuous run in with sexism and racism. To make a statement, Cox uses herself as the subject of her art work. Throughout the semester, we spoke heavily about the male gaze and the female gaze, as well as the clear distinctions between both the gazes. To recount, the male gaze oversexualizes women, objectifying them, looking at women and how they may be perceived. This then effects how women look and define themselves. The female gaze is the complete opposite because it allows women to take back their own sense of representation and even though the gaze still focuses on the female body and overall image, women are in complete control of what they want to be portrayed. Cox embodies the female gaze greatly, exceeding limits and taking her work to new heights, throwing away the idea of being conservative. Cox is always serving up “raunchy realness”, presenting social issues in a way that makes people uncomfortable, but still discussion worthy. With the tantalizing series of photos that Cox creates, she pushes the limits and uses her nude body to empower black women and normalize this idea of sexuality within black womanhood, a topic that’s also rarely discussed. In doing that, Cox also follows through the rest of her agenda, aiming to target the stereotypes that linger in the African American community, take them back , and switch up the meaning of all of them.

Mickalene Thomas

Mickalene Thomas, Three Graces: Les Trois Femmes Noires, 2011

Mickalene Thomas, similar to Renee Cox, uses the concept of female gaze, using Black women as the nexus of her artwork. Mickalene Thomas views her subjects-- black women-- as a reflection of herself and many other women of color struggling with ideal standard of what’s beautiful and who/what is deserving enough of being titled beautiful. Thomas values the confidence and how they carry themselves as women. The subjects in Thomas art are staged in constructed environments decorated with vintage patterned fabrics, furniture and objects. Thomas’ skillful employment of patterns, bold colors and lush textures  are used to emphasize and glorify her subjects. Most of the work produced by Thomas alludes other artist, for instance, “The Three Grace”created by Raphael. The title of this piece refers to the three fertility goddesses worshipped by the Greeks and Romans during that era. Raphael’s “The Three Graces” shows the three goddesses of Greek and Roman myth, Aglaea, Euphrosyne, and Thalia dancing together in a meadow. Raphael portrays his subjects in harmony with one another, as well as beauty and charm, but not many pick up on the fact that he is portraying a male gaze. Raphael is portraying women through how he believes or expects them to be, docile, pure, innocent creatures. Looking at Thomas’ "Three Graces: Les Trois Femmes Noires", it draws inspiration from Classical art, art created by the ancient Greeks and Romans.you can immediately see the influence of African American art history. The influence of 70’s black culture through the three grace’s appearance. Their hair, jewelry, and attire alludes back to how African Americans were portrayed in 70’s black action films and other types of media. The three graces depicted here explore African American notions of beauty, influenced by Harlem Renaissance artists. Thomas uses bright, vivid colors in the background of her mosaic just as many Harlem Renaissance painters did. By including these references to black art history in her "Three Graces", Thomas is trying to make some connection between black beauty and art history.

Betye Saar

Betye Saar, The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, 1972

Betye Saar also tries to uplift Black women in her art pieces. Saar does so, by not only acknowledging the oppressive behavior or the results of it, but by also making an effort to remove the racially charged stereotypes that society often time associate with them and combat. Sars is also known to  “[collect] derogatory images of African Americans… as a way of understanding how Whites have historically defined Blacks—as caricatures, as objects, and sometimes as less than human” ( RACE/ETHNICITY 3). For instance, in her most controversial piece entitled The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, she delves deep into the way Black women were portrayed during the 19th century, particularly through the mammy figure. The mammy figure was oftentimes seen as asexual, “portrayed an obese, coarse, maternal figure”. In regards to the family she was pictured serving, “[the mammy] had great love for her white "family," but often treated her own family with disdain” (Pilgrim 1). Saar uses these type of objects/image as the focus of her art work as a means to reclaim them from individuals who used it as a means of oppressing and belittling the African American community.

Kara Walker, African/American, 1998

Kara Walker’s work is similar to Betye Saar, in which some of the work that she produces also centers itself in the 19th century, where she “uses black-paper silhouette cut-outs to construct imagery that mingles ‘the most deeply disturbed fantasies of Southern whites with the hitherto unimaginable visions of a contemporary young African-American woman’” (Cullum, 1995 as cited in Artspace Editorial, 2017). Walker uses the cut-out images to address issues that revolved around, not only gender, but also race, similar to the other artist discussed above. She brings the concept of gender and race to portray the relationship it has with power and the dynamics surrounded by it.

Howardena Pindell

Howardena Pindell, Free, White, and 21, 1980

Howardena Pindell uses her own experiences as a focal point for some of her art work for example in her renown piece entitled, Free, White, and 21. Pindell in a way brings forth the concept of intersectionality and how it’s disregarded, especially when it’s time to acknowledge issues that people from other racial backgrounds undergo. Intersectionality refers to the way in which different systems of oppression overlap in relation to the experiences of people or groups., for instance Black women. The experience of Black women within career fields, educational institutions and other settings are often times overlooked and continuously left out of the discussion. Pindell in her video speaks on her run in with racism growing up all the way to adulthood. In Free, White, and 21, “The video alternates between filmed sequences of the African-American artist speaking directly into the camera as herself and in the guise of a blonde white woman who reprimands black Howardena for being paranoid and ungrateful” (Kemper Art Museum). The video also speaks volumes in that in empowering women or fighting for the rights of women, we only hear from the story and perspective of white women, it’s rare that it comes from a women of color, and this can be one of the messages Pindell wants the mass audience to grasp.

Works Cited
“Artwork Detail.” Artwork Detail | Kemper Art Museum, www.kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu/collection/explore/artwork/12845.

Artspace Editorial. “6 Black Radical Female Artists To Know Before You See ‘We Wanted A Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965-85.’” Artspace, 7 Apr. 2017, www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/book_report/6-black-radical-female-artists-to-know-before-you-see-we-wanted-a-revolution-black-radical-women-54692.

BIOGRAPHY | renee-cox. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.reneecox.org/about#!

RACE/ETHNICITY, www.bluffton.edu/homepages/facstaff/sullivanm/race/race4.html.

“The Mammy Caricature.” The Mammy Caricature - Anti-Black Imagery - Jim Crow Museum - Ferris State University, www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/mammies/.

Web Gallery of Art, Searchable Fine Arts Image Database, www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/r/raphael/2firenze/1/21graces.html.

Five Women Artists

Female artists are essential to the makeup of the art world, they bring in fresh perspectives while remaining challenging the male-centric world in which we live in. I will be examining female artists who change what it means to work in a variety of mediums and go against the very traditional perception art historians tend to maintain of the meaning of art. These women revolutionize the art world through by integrating their feminist politics into their pieces as well as by creating new techniques within their genres.

Maya Deren was a filmmaker who emerged during a time that the cinema and art worlds were dominated by men. Her approach to film revolutionized experimental film and questioned typical techniques that were used to produce large scale hollywood films. Her style, being avant garde and postmodernist, often delved into the psyche and deepest fears of women through dreamlike portrayals encompassing female leads through the bending of time. One of her most well known short films, Meshes of the Afternoon, deals with a woman who is trapped in a dream in which her only escape is death. However, in order to achieve her end result, the woman must smash a mirror which may be analyzed as her destruction of the male gaze. Her death would also ultimately allow her the freedom she was searching for whilst she was in an unhealthy relationship. The short film also includes multiple versions of the woman causing the viewer confusion. Deren's films are often left open ended, however, it is clear that she uses a feminist take to expand the male dominated world of cinema and also expand the complexity of female protagonists in films.

The final place setting at Judy Chicago's, The Dinner Party, was Georgia O'Keeffe's. Hers was also the most prominent out of all of them signifying her artistic liberation and overall success that she achieved as a female artist. It represents women finally being able to achieve agency over themselves and claim their spaces in a male dominated society. Georgia O'Keeffe's primary subjects in her paintings were close up pictures of flowers that were detailed yet simultaneously abstract. Her work could be identified as modernist, however, her work varies in such a way that it cannot be confined to a singular era. An assumption commonly made of her work is that it represents the female vulva, this was never approved by her.

Mika Rottenberg is a female artist who often uses sculpture, video installations, and performance art in her pieces. She explores the idea of ownership, empowerment, and the objectification of women's bodies through "renting" women to use for her pieces. Through this, she hires female actresses who she often finds online who are looking for employment through the use of their often incredibly muscular or unordinary physiques. In doing so she questions the ownership of these women's bodies. Her other focus is the hidden world of female labor within a global economy which she aims to bring to forward. Women are often expected to have small and nimble hands which is why there may be more women doing labor which requires that. She uses her female models who are a rejection of that stereotype to perform the same tasks evoking suspense and humor.

Yayoi Kusama is currently 90 years old, however, despite her age she continues to create exhibitions and has recently broken the record for the highest paid female artist at an auction. She was born into a very conservative family in Japan and has suffered with mental illness throughout her life. Upon moving to America, she began creating work within the Abstract Expressionist realm, unfortunately, many of her ideas and works were recreated by more prominent, white male artists. These events led to her two attempted suicides which she then channeled these traumas into her works. Challenging the expectations of gender and conformity, she performed many feminist artistic pieces, sometimes nude. Her work challenges expectations of art and what art is an an art historical context, in doing so, she also challenges what it means to be a female artist in a male dominated space.

Judy Chicago is a feminist artist who is best known for the creation of The Dinner Party which she uses to portray the history of feminism and the strides that women have been making over time within the western world. As time passes, each woman's dinner piece becomes more elaborate signifying the agency women begin to gain, as well as the eventual liberation of the woman. However, when it first debuted, it was poorly received being harshly critiqued and referred to as feminist propaganda. Since then, The Dinner Table has become an important part of art history and a great stride in feminism.

These women have all broken barriers and fought for their places in the art world, change comes from those who are willing to push boundaries and that is exactly what they all did. Through doing so, they also reinvented certain aspects of the genres they each pertain to whilst simultaneously forcing the consumers to question certain aspects of life, through viewing their art work.

Maya Deren, (Meshes in the Afternoon still) 1943

Georgia O'Keeffe, Autumn Trees-The Maple, 1924

Yayoi Kusama, Dotted Pumpkin Sculpture

Mika Rottenberg, Tropical Breeze

Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/yayoi-kusama-artist/index.html
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/interview/mika-rottenberg-capitalism-as-you-ve-never-seen-it-before
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings/georgia_o_keeffe

Five Magnificent Women

The Dinner Party exhibition was the most memorable experience of the class. For most who are not art aficionados, seeing an exhibit in the flesh helps to appreciate and understand the magnitude of an artist’s work which can be hard to enjoy through pictures. The curator of The Dinner Party, Judy Chicago is a feminist artist and art educator. She is well known for her art collaboration pieces about birth and creation images. These images take a look at women’s role in history and culture. Her most well known work, The Dinner Party is a permanent part of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. This magnificent artwork displays and celebrates the accomplishment of women throughout history. It took about 5 years to complete and cost a quarter of a million. It contains 39 place setting and each pays tribute to a historical or mythical female figure such as an artists, goddesses, activists and martyrs. Each place setting is designed to convey each woman’s style and time period. As with many art pieces, The Dinner Party had its share of critics with some saying it lacked depth and was just “Vaginas on plates.” It was however popular with the general public probably due to how captivating piece is.

Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was known for her self-portraits, pain and passion, and bold, vibrant colors. Due to her depiction of Mexican and indigenous culture and for the attention she pays to the female experience and form, Frida Kahlo is largely celebrated in Mexico. Her career as a full-time painter began after an accident she suffered from which left her in a full body cast. She painted to occupy her time since she had mobile limitations for three months after the accident and she had given up her aspiration to study medicine. She often painted self portraits because she felt alone and she was the subject she knew best. Her works often displayed a stark portrayal of pain due to her personal experiences like the effects of having polio as a child, her marriage, miscarriages and numerous operations. Frida painted 55 self-portraits out of her total of 143 paintings which symbolized physical and emotional agony, she claims that she never painted dreams rather she painted her own reality. She can easily be viewed as a Realist artist as she painted her experiences, although some viewed her as a Surrealist as some of her painting may be deemed bizarre by those who did not understand the message she was trying to convey. For instance, her painting The Broken Column shows Frida in pain in a vivid and horrifying way. She is covered in nails and her body is split into half with her spine looking like it is about to crumble. This painting conveys pain but also shows the Frida is able to look it in the eye and triumph over it.

In an amazing career spanning over 70 years, Loïs Mailou Jones fought and overpowered racial and gender bias to become a successful and influential painter, designer, and educator. Jones was raised in Boston by working-class parents who emphasized the importance of education and hard work. She designed textiles for a couple of New York firms after graduating from Boston’s School of the Museum of Fine Arts. In 1928, she moved to North Carolina to take a teaching position at Palmer Memorial Institute. There she founded the art department, coached basketball, taught folk dancing and played the piano for Sunday services. She also trained several notable African American artists such as Elizabeth Catlett and Sylvia Snowden while at Howard University from 1930-1977. Jones’ work was influenced by the time she spent in Paris and Haiti. She appreciated the fact that her race seemed irrelevant to recognition of her work. Her time in Paris helped her introduce tribal African art, which was popular in Parisian galleries at the time, into her canvases. Her marriage to Haitian graphic designer Louis Vergniaud Pierre-Noël further influenced her as she liked the bright colors and bold patterns of Haitian art on annual trips to her husband’s home. Paintings such as Ode to Kinshasa and Les Fétiches were inspired by her travel experiences.

Sonia Delaunay was a multi-disciplinary abstract artist and key figure in the Parisian avant-garde. She started the movement in Simultanism alongside her husband. The display of how colors interact in her work helped create a sense of depth and movement. Her career as an abstract artist started in 1911 as she had the idea to make a blanket for her newly born son, composed from bits of different fabrics like those used by Russian peasants. Her work in Simultanism showed how colors looked depending on the colors around them. For instance, grey would appear lighter on a dark background than it would on a light one. Sonia did this with form so as to create rhythm, motion and depth by overlapping patches of lively hue like her painting Prismes electriques.

As one of the most significant and intriguing artists of the twentieth century, Georgia O’Keeffe is known internationally for her bold innovative art. Her paintings of dramatic cityscapes, glowing landscapes, and images of bones against the stark desert sky are significant contributions to American Modernism. Born in 1887, she grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. She then studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York. Under the tutelage of William Merritt Chase, F. Luis Mora, and Kenyon Cox she learned traditional realist painting. After a couple of years she had changed her focus to revolutionism as she had studied the ideas of Arthur Wesley Dow. The works of Georgia O’Keeffe has established itself for almost a century in the United States and abroad. More than 500 examples of her works are in over 100 public collections in Asia, Europe and the Americas. These include A Storm created in 1922 which is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Blue #1, 1916, at the Brooklyn Museum and Red Canna created in 1915 being displayed at the Yale University Art Gallery. Significantly, the last place setting at The Dinner Party is that of Georgia O’Keeffe. The plate being the highest symbolizes her freedom and success as a feminist artist which helped influence upcoming feminist artists who viewed her work as pivotal in the movement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Chicago#The_Dinner_Party

http://www.judychicago.com/about/biography/

https://www.fridakahlo.org/the-broken-column.jsp

https://www.fridakahlo.org/

https://nmwa.org/explore/artist-profiles/lois-mailou-jones

https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/ey-exhibition-sonia-delaunay/delaunay-introduction

https://www.okeeffemuseum.org/about-georgia-okeeffe/

Five Women Artists


Throughout this class a recurring topic of discussion was focused on the way females are perceived in society and how the artwork made by women addresses the power struggle faced by women and their journeys to explore themselves through art to find their identities.


Lilly Martin Spencer:

Lilly Martin Spencer was a popular artist in the nineteenth century. She was brought up in a reformist household with educated parents. She was part of the group of female artists who had to use their education and professionalism to support themselves and their artwork. Her artwork depicts many aspects of the domesticity and household life for women. A piece of hers that is my favorite is We Both Must Fade, made in 1869. This piece shows a young woman in her prime, the peak age of beauty and grace, she is adorned in a beautiful dress. The message behind this is that this young girl will age as will her beautiful dress, eventually the color will become old and washed out and the dress will look out of date like how a woman is thought to age. Eventually, this young woman will start to age and become less “appealing”. Her artwork turns tables by taking the role of women in society and showing the importance of their work and labor. Although many of her paintings depict women in a domestic role, they show the women embracing this role and they are happy knowing that they enjoy what they are doing and are confident that their role in society is important.


Suzanne Valadon:

Suzanne Valadon was an artist. Her artwork mainly features female nudes and portraits and combats the typical identity of how the female body is perceived. Her work constructs female identity, shows that women are controlled by their own emotions, sexual instincts, and biology. For her work, she received backlash and instead of being seen as a strong feminine artist, she was perceived as a pseudo-male and associated with masculinity and inconsistency. Her two very well-known pieces The Blue Room done in 1923, and Grandmother and The Young Girl Stepping into The Bath done in 1908 are perfect examples of what her work stood for. They show a woman who can own her body on her own. The women in the painting are not posed sexually, they look almost awkward and do not give the viewer the opportunity to sexualize the subject. Also, the bodies of the women in the painting do not fit societies expectations of how a woman’s body should be. This shows that a woman can still be confident with herself and own her sexuality and her biology which is based off how she looks.


Frida Kahlo:

Frida Kahlo was a very famous Mexican artist from the twentieth century. She was born to a German father and a Mexican mother and often explores her racial and cultural identity in her artwork. Her paintings serve as a way for her to discover and become familiar with her own body and its strengths and vulnerabilities. Her artwork is largely surrealist and explores her creative potential as an artist. Her piece My Birth was created in 1932 after the death of her mother and after she suffered a miscarriage. This piece shows the pain and suffering that not only she, but other women are put through. Women are expected to be maternal figures of comfort and the pain and suffering surrounded by motherhood and everything that comes along with it is often overlooked. This piece shows maternalism in such an aggressive and violent way that it combats the sexualization and eroticism surrounding the female body when it comes to pregnancy and motherhood. Frida’s artwork addresses identity, gender and race roles, and speaks to her true feelings and emotions and it is important because the topics she addresses pertain to the female experience and the female form. Although her artwork is extremely famous today, Kahlo’s work was widely unknown and flew under the radar until about the 1970s when it was rediscovered by historians and became a powerful symbol in the feminist and LGBTQ movements.


Shirin Neshat:

Shirin Neshat is an Iranian videographer and photographer. Her early life consisted of being surrounded by western culture and western femininity. Her father often encouraged her to be her own individual and take her own risks. She was well-educated and brought up in an Islamic religious based household because of her maternal grandparents. Her work often provides a bridge between two differing topics. In her piece Turbulent made in 1998, a woman and a man are shown side by side on two different sides of a film. While the man sings a sweet and poetic song, the female shrieks and screams wordlessly and eventually the man stares at her shocked at what he is hearing. It addresses the role of women in Islamic society and shows how women are constantly pushing boundaries and rebelling against societal norms whereas men seem to stay confined and conserved to do what is expected of them. Neshat’s work is very feministic and proves that women will not be silenced throughout the power struggle for equality and are stronger when working together than when they are separated.


Yoko Ono:

Yoko Ono has a variety of types of artwork, she is a photographer, filmmaker, singer and songwriter, and a performance artist. She was raised in japan and lived there for most of her life. As she entered adulthood she struggled with mental illnesses such as depression and was briefly placed in a mental institution until she was eventually released. She was a talented conceptual artist and used performance art to speak on subjects that were important to her. Her work Cut Piece done in 1964 is a performance where she is dressed in a suit and she invites members of the audience up to cut pieces of her suit off. This addresses issues of female sexuality and gender through costume and dress pieces. The performance ends under the discretion of Ono which goes to say that ultimately she has control over herself and her femininity.

5 Women Artists

Women artists are moving mountains with their artwork. Women artists are displaying the injustices and calling out the things happening every day. Artists such as Barbara Kruger, Betty Tompkins, Guerilla Girls, Tracey Emin and Jenny Holzer are artists that have reputations for challenging gender norms and race discriminatory through words. All these women have been through oppression due to being women, and it has affected their personal, along with their careers. These women all use words in order to make a powerful statement about women’s rights, and progressive ideas towards society.  

Barbara Kruger is an American artist who focuses on sending the message through words. She was born in Newark, New Jersey and worked as graphic designer. She later went on to become an art director. She studied at Syracuse University and the Parsons School of Design in the 1960’s. She uses images with typed words which most of the time is a part of feminist culture. She sends messages out that are supposed to show stereotypes and the behaviors of consumerism. The website art.net states, “Kruger uses language to broadcast her ideas in a myriad of ways, including prints, T-shirts, posters, photographs, electronic signs, and billboards. “I'm fascinated with the difference between supposedly private and supposedly public and I try to engage the issue of what it means to live in a society that's seemingly shock-proof, yet still is compelled to exercise secrecy,” she explained of her work.”. Kruger wants to put out work that will say things no one is saying, but that everyone knows. Her art is very famous and is now held in collections at multiple museums such as The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Art in institute of Chicago, among others. Kruger’s work is famous for addressing social and consumer issues that are evident till this day.

Jenny Holzer was born in 1950 and is an American artist who uses neon words for her art. Holzer got her BFA at Ohio University and also achieved her MFA at Rhode Island School of design. While in school she put her art in flyers, anonymous work and installations. She’s well known for using LED screens and lights which lead to her Truisms series of work.

The website art.net states, “In 1977, Holzer began her first truly public series, Truisms, consisting of provocative one-line aphorisms printed in an italic bold font, confronting the viewer through the unsettling element of truth in each proclamation, such as ‘men are not monogamous by nature’ and ‘money creates taste.’”. Her work tells truth when it is not welcomed, and she is breaking through that. She addresses polemical issues through bright lights, and bold statements. The biography on art.net states, “Holzer is often compared to the American artist Barbara Kruger, who shares a similar affinity for prompting public debate through text. Because of the adaptable nature of Holzer’s art, her work has been adapted for commercial manufacturing, and can be seen on t-shirts, stickers, tote bags, paper weights, benches, and even sarcophagi. Holzer’s work has received much public attention and has been placed in public areas like Times Square in New York City, as well as projected on the facades of prominent buildings.”. Jenny Holzer can be similar to Barbara Kruger because they make similar type of art and try to convey different ideas.

Although Betty Tompkins is more of a visual artist, she does make art with words to trigger people. Tompkins was born in 1945, and lives in New York today. She creates art that is highly sexualized and provocative, but she does have art that uses words that are also sexualized. She believes women should use their sexuality to the extent that they want too. The article om the artreport.com, by Jenny Held named “Betty Tompkins Presents 1,000 Ways to Describe A Woman” shows us that Betty Tompkins had a show based on women. Held states,“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but what about a Woman? Last week, legendary feminist artist Betty Tompkins opened a show at FLAG Art Foundation entitled “WOMEN Words, Phrases, and Stories” which features 1,000 small scale paintings of words and phrases used to describe the female identity. The project began years ago when Tompkins circulated an email in which she asked for help “developing the vocabulary” about women. The response was surprising, with over 3,500 words and phrases submitted in seven different languages. The four most common words were Mother, Slut, Bitch, and Cunt.” (Held 1). Betty Tompkins wants to highlight that there is a disturbing manner around female gender.

Guerilla girls is a group of women who are activists. They wear masks and call out many injustices. They have had many members, and have participated in many street projects, posters, and displayed stickers across cities. The Guerilla Girls Website tells us, “We wear gorilla masks in public and use facts, humor and outrageous visuals to expose gender and ethnic bias as well as corruption in politics, art, film, and pop culture. We undermine the idea of a mainstream narrative by revealing the understory, the subtext, the overlooked, and the downright unfair. We believe in an intersectional feminism that fights discrimination and supports human rights for all people and all genders.”. They use art with words such as the “Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into The Met. Musuem?” piece to illustrate women’s oppression, along with the issue of the male gaze.

Tracey Emin was born in 1963 and is a member of the Young British Artists group. She works in film, neon embroidery, painting, installation, and sculpting. She uses her art to tell a story and she uses words to describe her feelings.

All these women artists have something in common. They use words to publicize problems or feelings they have as a woman. They use words and different pictures to show case injustices, and the way society really is.

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your body is a battleground), 1989

Jenny Holzer, Your Oldest Fears Are The Worst Ones, 1982

Betty Tompkins, Put a bag over her head, 2013

Guerilla Girls, Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into The Met. Museum? 1989

Tracey Emin, Terribly Wrong, 1997

http://www.artnet.com/artists/barbara-kruger/4

https://artreport.com/betty-tompkins-presents-1000-different-ways-to-describe-a-woman/

http://www.artnet.com/artists/jenny-holzer/biography

https://www.guerrillagirls.com/our-story

https://www.artsy.net/artist/tracey-emin

Works Cited

“Barbara Kruger.” Artnet, www.artnet.com/artists/barbara-kruger/4.

“Betty Tompkins Presents 1,000 Different Ways to Describe a Woman.” Art Report, 26 Jan. 2016, artreport.com/betty-tompkins-presents-1000-different-ways-to-describe-a-woman/.

“Jenny Holzer.” Jenny Holzer Biography – Jenny Holzer on Artnet, www.artnet.com/artists/jenny-holzer/biography.

“OUR STORY.” Guerrilla Girls, www.guerrillagirls.com/our-story.

“Tracey Emin.” 460 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy, www.artsy.net/artist/tracey-emin.