This week’s documentary on the feminist art movement was very enlightening on how women have tried and struggled to gain recognition within the museum institution. I have personally really struggled with the mentality that female art is exclusively images of flowers and female genitalia. I do agree that women need to take back the power of how their bodies get to be portrayed within art and the institution but the focus of the feminist art movement to blast the female body into the contemporary art museum was startling. Given that those images prevailed out of much of the other art by female artists that came up at that time, it is unfortunate that the male argument that female art is pornographic was unable to be contradicted with another strong view of female art.

Within my own views and pursuits of female activism, I was greatly impressed with the mission statement and work by the Guerrilla Girls. Given that the Guerrilla girls worked on directly calling out popular institutions on statistical data of gender and racial representation within collections and exhibits, that type of work is able to bring attention to the problems that have led to the boom of female art activism and need for such shocking imagery of genitalia. This form of activism helps to hone the narrative of the why behind the female art boom.

Even with all of the work that has been conducted, I was infuriated to realize that the all male decision for the “Dinner Party” piece to be taken out of the institution then sparked for a relapse of disproportionate art representation. There still remains to be so few female artists within museum collections and female artists remain largely omitted from history. There is work to be done within the museum and I am absolutely overwhelmed on where to begin.

 

Reading Sources:

“Issues.” ONCURATING, www.on-curating.org/issue-29-reader/feminist-subjects-versus-feminist-effects-the-curating-of-feminist-art-or-is-it-the-feminist-curating-of-art.html#.YKMtTy1h0mJ.

Riedel, Tom. “ART SINCE 1900: MODERNISM, ANTIMODERNISM, POSTMODERNISM. Hal Foster , Rosalind Krauss , Yve-Alain Bois , Benjamin Buchloh.” Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, vol. 24, no. 2, 2005, pp. 59–59

“women art revolution limited 2010”. YouTube, 9 July 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyKmVo5jDdQ&list=PLG_WGYSwOolIXx1ut3b2ITNYaSZzBnIR5.

Image Source:

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