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
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